John Rambo, one of the most controversial movie heroes of the 80s, is back! After giving his iconic character Rocky a dignified send-off last year, Sylvester Stallone is now looking to retire John Rambo with a bang. The result, however, is a somewhat ambivalent pleasure.
In the fourth installment of the Rambo series, John Rambo lives in seclusion in northern Thailand, where he makes a modest living as a snake hunter and skipper. When he is hired by a group of missionaries to take them to crisis-ridden Burma, Rambo initially declines, knowing that a few medicines and pious Bible verses are unlikely to help much in an area that has been dominated by torture, murder and rape for 60 years. But intense persuasion by the young idealistic Sarah (Julie Benz) persuades the loner to take the group to Burma - but not without blowing a group of violent pirates to kingdom come.
Two weeks later, Rambo learns that the missionaries in Burma have been abducted by the military. A mercenary squad is to free the abductees, assuming they are still alive. Although Rambo had sworn to stay out of any kind of military conflict, he joins the troop. But the rescue operation does not go as smoothly and bloodlessly as planned.
No question: Rambo is back! Harder, meaner and more brutal than ever Stallone makes here the rather dubious fame of John Rambo all honor. In doing so, he has not only managed the comeback of the most famous lone fighter of the last decades, but also a renaissance of the dirty, uncompromising mercenary action film of the 80s. Stallone certainly deserves credit for that. The question that arises when watching the massacre, which has been slightly cut in Germany, however, is whether a little less brutality wouldn't have done the film good. The answer is a resounding yes!
Not that the writer of these lines is an advocate of morality and chastisement on cinema screens. The cuts made by the FSK to a film that only adults would be allowed to see anyway, hits me bitterly in the stomach as well. Especially when it can be observed that some cinemas hang the rather unsavoury posters for "SAW IV" right next to announcements for children's films and the ladies and gentlemen of the Voluntary Self-Regulation Body are not bothered by such behaviour (which also has to do with film and therefore falls within their remit). But this is unfortunately one of those discussions that, like so many in this country, always go nowhere. And yet: even if I'm against censorship of movies in principle (because cuts are censorship after all, even if the FSK doesn't like to hear that term), brutality in movies should generally either have a certain meaning, or be portrayed in such an exaggerated way (e.g. spiced with black humor).
This is not the case here. Stallone wanted to show the genocide in Burma in its full atrocity. He makes that clear right from the start by showing some very disturbing documentary footage. And yet, when Rambo and his men shoot the enemy to pieces or the bestial military murder children and rape women, the whole thing comes across as a bit graphic at times. Stallone simply overshot the mark in some places here. If he hadn't made it clear through the documentary footage at the beginning that his story is connected to reality in a certain sense, the overdosed violence might have had some entertainment value. As it is, however, it leaves a bitter aftertaste that doesn't really help the overall picture.
That's not to say, however, that "John Rambo" is a bad movie. The staging is quite accomplished, the action is first-rate, and there's no denying a certain amount of tension in the film either. And Stallone does a damn good job as the taciturn action hero even twenty years after his last appearance as Rambo. Better, in fact, than many a young action star. Stallone is still old school, and that's evident throughout the film. And exactly that is an absolute plus for the viewers who grew up with 80s action.
"John Rambo" once again confirms the debatable image of Rambo, which unfortunately doesn't do justice to the first-class first part. The film is technically flawless, exciting and action-packed, but also in places extremely borderline. And therefore also applies: only for real Rambo fans well worth seeing!
Originaltitle: Rambo
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Length: approx. 90 min. (slightly abridged version)
FSK: No youth release
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
