Rambo

It seems like in today’s world most celebrities have a political or social cause that they stand for. An example would be how currently celebrities are big in the “Go Green” movement, in hopes to help the environment. Most of the time celebrities stay away from issues that do not involve the United States, but Sylvester Stallone has decided to take a leap of faith and go against the norm. Sylvester Stallone uses the movie Rambo as a social statement about how the world cannot change and to educate people on the crisis in Burma.

In the beginning of the movie Rambo is approached by a man who asks him to take himself and his group of fellow missionaries to Burma so they can help the Karen tribe members, who are regularly raped, tortured and massacred by Major Tint's sadistic soldiers, with food and medicine. Initially Rambo flatly refuses but is later convinced by the determination and heart of the lone female in the group, Sarah Miller. In an interview on NBC’s Today Show with Matt Lauer, Stallone talks about why he states in the movie that “nobody can change the world…war is natural,” as the reason he does not want to help the missionaries. In the interview Stallone said, “It’s the same thing that happens with a lot of policemen or military people that thought they were going to change the world.” “They realize their entire life has been a waste, that war is natural, peace is an accident. They feel bitter, estranged,” he said.

Rambo realized this after fighting in the Vietnam War and has responded by moving away from everyone and everything. “He’s in isolation. He’s in a purgatory, almost a hermit,” Stallone said. “He’s atheistic, he’s cold, he’s completely out of touch both spiritually and physically.” However when he is approached again later by Sarah Miller, she awakens something inside Rambo. “A spark,” Stallone calls it, “this last vestige of optimism, ‘If I can get these people out alive, maybe I have done something with my life.’ ” At the end of the movie as Rambo looks over the death and carnage on the battlefield, the implication of this scene seems to be that he as a soldier can have no family and therefore no normal life. In a sense he has sacrificed his humanity to redeem it for others.

In the movie, a disillusioned Rambo has moved to the wilds of Thailand in Southeast Asia near the border of Burma. This location was carefully chosen by Stallone because of his wanting to educate people about the situation in Burma. “I thought, ‘Let me be a little responsible. Let’s do something that’s actually happening,’ ” he said. With the Burma situation being in the news recently about monks protesting, this movie could not have been released at a better time. “I just felt right now this is a great story,” he told Lauer. “No one knows about Burma. Burma is a horrendous situation