Rambo III

After being pardoned for saving the POWs in Vietnam, former U.S. Army Green Beret John Rambo has settled in a Thai Buddhist monastery, helping with construction work and competing in krabi–krabong matches in Bangkok, donating his winnings. His old friend and ally Colonel Sam Trautman visits and explains that he is putting together a mercenary team for a CIA-sponsored mission to supply the Mujahideen and other tribes as they fight the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. Despite being shown photos of civilians suffering at the hands of the Soviets, Rambo refuses to join, as he is tired of fighting. Trautman proceeds but is ambushed at the border by Soviet forces, who kill his team and capture him. Trautman is sent to a large mountain base to be interrogated by Soviet Colonel Alexei Zaysen and his henchman Sergeant Kourov. Embassy official Robert Griggs informs Rambo of Trautman's capture but objects to approve a rescue mission for fear of drawing the U.S. into the war. Aware that Trautman will die otherwise, Rambo receives permission to undertake a solo rescue on the condition that he will be disavowed in the event of capture or execution. Rambo flies to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he convinces arms dealer Mousa Ghani to bring him to Khost, the town closest to the Soviet base where Trautman is held captive. The Mujahideen in the village, led by chieftain Masoud, hesitate to help Rambo free Trautman. Meanwhile, a Soviet informant in Ghani's employ alerts the Soviets, who send two attack helicopters to destroy the village. Although Rambo destroys one of them with a DShK heavy machine gun, the rebels decline to cooperate with him any further. Aided only by Mousa and a young boy named Hamid, Rambo attacks the base and inflicts significant damage before being forced to retreat. Rambo and Hamid are wounded during the battle, and Rambo sends him and Mousa away before resuming his infiltration. Evading base security, Rambo reaches and frees Trautman before he can be tortured with a flamethrower. He and Trautman rescue several other prisoners and hijack a helicopter to escape the base, but it is damaged during takeoff and crashes, forcing the escapees to flee on foot. An attack helicopter pursues Rambo and Trautman to a nearby cave, where Rambo destroys it with an explosive arrow. A furious Zaysen sends Spetsnaz commandos under Kourov to kill them, but they are routed and killed. An injured Kourov fights Rambo in hand-to-hand combat, but is overpowered and killed as well. Rambo and Trautman make their way to the Pakistani border but are intercepted by Zaysen and his mechanized infantry. Suddenly, Masoud's Mujahideen forces, including Mousa and Hamid, arrive to rescue them in a massive cavalry charge. In the midst of the battle, Rambo hijacks a tank and fights Zaysen's Mi-24 Hind-D, culminating in a head-on charge as both unleash their vehicles' weaponry on each other; Rambo survives by destroying the Hind-D with his tank's main gun before it can ram him, after killing Zaysen with the tank's machine gun. After the battle, Rambo and Trautman bid farewell to the Mujahideen and leave Afghanistan. ==Cast==

Development and writing Sylvester Stallone later said his original premise of the film "was more in keeping with the theme of Tears of the Sun, but set in Afghanistan." Pre-production Sylvester Stallone was a fan of Highlander and asked Russell Mulcahy to direct Rambo III. Mulcahy confessed that he messed up the assignment and was politely fired by Stallone. In a 2008 online Q&A, Stallone stated that a disagreement over casting led to him firing original director Russell Mulcahy as the director: He went to Israel two weeks before me with the task of casting two dozen vicious looking Russian troops. These men were to make your blood run cold. When I arrived on the set, what I saw was two dozen blond, blue-eyed pretty boys that resembled rejects from a surfing contest. Needless to say Rambo is not afraid of a little competition but being attacked by third rate male models could be an enemy that could overwhelm him. I explained my disappointment to Russell and he totally disagreed, so I asked him and his chiffon army to move on. Mulcahy was replaced by Peter MacDonald, a veteran second unit director. It was MacDonald's first film as director but he was very experienced and had directed the second unit action sequences in Rambo: First Blood Part II. MacDonald later said, "I tried very hard to change the Rambo character a bit and make him a vulnerable and humorous person, I failed totally." "I knew instinctively what was a good and bad shot," he added. "Stallone knew his character because it was his third outing as Rambo. I wasn't shooting Shakespeare and at times it was hard to take it seriously." Costumes were procured by buying articles of clothing from Afghan refugees. Filming The film was shot in Israel, Thailand and Arizona. According to MacDonald: There were so many restrictions in Israel, where you could and couldn't shoot. The producers and Stallone decided they would go back to Arizona where they had looked long before I was on the film. There was a group there called the re-enactors. We had around two hundred and fifty of these guys who re-enact the American Civil War. They were called on to do fight sequences, which they loved. Several weeks into filming, many of the film's crew were fired including the director of photography Ric Waite. Stallone said: The canvas of this movie is so large you have to constantly think 10 scenes ahead. You can't wing it. They didn't go into the Battle of Waterloo not knowing what their strategy would be. Well, this movie is kind of like a cinematic warfare. We have a huge cast and crew (more than 250 people) and tough locations to deal with. Everyone and everything has to coordinate. Equipment The Mil Mi-24 helicopters seen in the film are modified Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma transport helicopters with fabricated bolt-on wings similar to the real Hind-Ds which were mainly used in the former Eastern Bloc. The other helicopter depicted is a slightly reshaped Aérospatiale Gazelle. Dedication The film ends with the on-screen caption, "This film is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan." At some point after the September 11 attacks, an urban legend began that the dedication had actually read "... to the brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan" when the film was released in theaters, but then changed to "the gallant people of Afghanistan" after the 2001 attacks, since the Mujahideen were now associated to some extent with the Taliban. This urban legend has been repeated by some scholars. However, this is untrue, and some reviews of the film upon its release even mentioned the "gallant people of Afghanistan" dedication. ==Music==

An extensive film score was written by Jerry Goldsmith, who scored the previous films in the franchise, conducting the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra; however, much of it was not used. Instead, much of the music Goldsmith penned for the previous installment was recycled. The original album, released by Scotti Bros., contained only a portion of the new music as well as three songs, only one of which was used in the film (Bill Medley's version of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", played over the end credits). A more complete 75-minute version of the score was later released by Intrada. ==Release==

Marketing The trailer to the film had a negative response with reports of US audiences booing it. Cut version Potentially owing to the proximity of its release to the Hungerford massacre, one minute and five seconds of footage was removed from the film before it could be granted an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Classification; the amount of deletions was then nearly tripled for its initial video release. Almost all of this footage was restored to the film upon video submission in 2000, aside from a compulsory cut for animal cruelty. Home media Rambo III was released on DVD on November 23, 2004, and a Blu-Ray release followed on May 23, 2008. Rambo III was released on 4K UHD Blu-Ray on November 13, 2018. The film's home video releases have been handled by Lionsgate, under license from French company StudioCanal. StudioCanal's parent company Canal+ had outbid 20th Century Fox for the rights to Carolco Pictures' library after it went bankrupt in 1995. The TV rights and digital distribution rights for Carolco's library belong with Paramount Pictures through its acquisition of Spelling Entertainment, who itself was given these specific rights from Carolco in 1992. The film was subsequently added to Paramount's streaming services Paramount+ and Pluto TV. ==Reception==

Box office Rambo III opened in the United States on May 25, 1988, at 2,562 theaters in its opening weekend (the four-day Memorial Day weekend), ranking #2 behind Crocodile Dundee II. Overall, the film grossed $53.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $135.3 million overseas, giving Rambo III a box office total of $189 million. The film was considered to have under-performed in comparison to the previous film in the series, which grossed nearly three times as much domestically. Some critics noted that the timing of the movie, with its unabashedly anti-Soviet tone, ran afoul of the opening of communism to the West under Mikhail Gorbachev, which had already changed the image of the Soviet Union to a substantial degree by the time the film was finished. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 39% based on 38 reviews, and with an average rating of 4.70/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Rambo III finds its justice-dispensing hero far from the thoughtful drama that marked the franchise's beginning -- and just as far from quality action thriller entertainment." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 36 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. On At the Movies, prominent critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert agreed that Rambo III delivers all the mechanical elements that audiences expect from a big budget action movie but lacks the heart seen in similar films such as the James Bond series and even its immediate predecessor, Rambo: First Blood Part II. Siskel gave it a "thumbs up", while Ebert said he was undecided; however, at the end of the show Ebert's vote was logged as a "thumbs down". Janet Maslin, reviewing the film in The New York Times, described Rambo III as a modernization of the western film and said that "modern special-effects technology, a huge budget and Mr. Stallone's own derring-do have conspired to let the film pack a wallop that no traditional western or war film could match." She criticized the political themes as one-dimensional, but applauded the film's sense of fun and willingness to engage in self-deprecating humor, though she noted that there are also many unintentionally humorous lines. Accolades ==Sequel==

A sequel titled Rambo, was released in 2008. ==Other media==

Novelization David Morrell, author of First Blood and the novelization of Rambo: First Blood Part II, wrote the film's novelization, also titled Rambo III. Comic books A comic book adaptation of the film was published by Blackthorne Publishing. Blackthorne also published a 3D version of its Rambo III comic. Video games Various companies released video games based on the film, including Ocean Software and Taito. In 1990, Sega released its own game based on the film for the Master System and Genesis/Mega Drive. Sega later adapted some of the battle scenes in the film for the 2008 arcade game Rambo. In 2014, the film was incorporated into Rambo: The Video Game, based on the first three Rambo films. ==In popular culture==

• In the film Twins, Arnold Schwarzenegger's character Julius Benedict looks at a poster of Rambo III featuring Stallone. He compares his biceps to Stallone's, but waves it off with a smile while shaking his head and walks away. • The film Hot Shots! Part Deux is an American parody film of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III, with the colonel role reprised by Richard Crenna. ==Notes==