Rambo 4 & Burma

'Live for nothing or die for something...it's your call'. Yet another corny phrase being made famous by a Hollywood action hero.

Yes I know, I actually went and saw Rambo 4 on it's release date. Why? No not because I'm a Rambo fan (or Stallone). in fact I don't recall ever watching a Rambo movie in my life. Maybe there's a good reason for that. The simple fact is, a friend contacted me a couple of hours before the movie started and said he was booking online, did I want to come? Of course I said yes to a night out with the boys if for no other reason. So i guess if I was going to take the foolishness angle here it would be this...I went and saw the darn movie ok, so call me a fool! I've never done a movie review before but something captured me about this movie that I thought I might reflect upon so here it goes.

So 20 years on from the classic 80's genre Stallone is still the bad ass Rambo, although like Rocky Balboa (yes I saw that too - that was a freebie what could I say?) Stallone plays his character a little differently. A little wiser and seemingly demure. Maybe the best word to describe him is a lot more mysterious. Yet you still get the action you came to see, eventually. It's interesting, every movie review I read about an hour before I went to see it said one of 2 things; Either people hated it and wondered where the hell the story line was, or people loved it because it was a classic blood and guts Rambo shoot 'em up. Well I thought both those reflections were quite shallow and neither of them came close to what I thought. So all jokes and sarcasm aside, what did I really think?

Nothing could have prepared me for the opening scene and it was during this time that I questioned whether I was going to make it through the movie, so before you go and see it I'm warning you now. It was a gut churning scene of actual footage from scenes of the aftermath of Burmese army assaults on jungle villages. It's the kind of war footage media film but never show. It became loud and clear to me why this movie was rated R 18+. I'm surprised it made it through classification. It's certainly a reality check on what the people of Burma still face today - decaying bodies in villages, torture of all kinds, cruel games soldiers play with people, it's horrific! Then there's the fighting scenes choreographed by the director. If you've seen this opening battle scene of Saving Private Ryan, well this tops it in terms of the graphics of war choreography. This movie leaves nothing to the imagination!

So is this movie just a violent blood bath? Well there is actually a story line and if you bothered to have an awareness of the world around you, you'll notice there is a story behind the story. In fact it's a 46 year old story of the plight of the people of Burma. The movies' story line is basically about a bunch of American Christian missionaries who arrive in Thailand and are searching for a way to bring emergency relief and supplies to a village in Burma. They are directed towards Jon Rambo living in a remote part of Northern Thailand down stream from the Burmese boarder. Rambo is living a peaceful monastic lifestyle on the rivers edge where he makes a living catching snakes for a village sideshow and salvaging old PT boats and tanks for scrap metal. When the missionaries find him they try and convince him to take them upstream within the Burmese boarder so they might bring supplies and aid to the suffering. There is immediately a tension build up between Rambo and leader of the missionaries, Michael, as they exchange philosophies on how 'change' really comes about. Although Rambo is a man of few words he makes his case clear. After Michael delivers his speech on how they will change the world for these suffering people (they want to go to) through love and non-violence and with the supplies they are bringing, Rambo simply responds with,
'did you bring any guns?'.
Michael replies, 'No'.
'Then you aint gonna change anything', comes Rambo's reply.
That reply pretty much sets the scene for the movie. I must admit, that line made me laugh, you could see it coming.

So the first 10-15 minutes of this encounter with Rambo and the missionaries is a series of conversations. A number of pleas from the missionaries to Rambo for him to take them up river in his boat, are met with Rambo's repeated replies (with dead pan serious face) 'Go home!'. Eventually the good looking blond missionary Sarah convinces Rambo to take them up river and he reluctantly complies.

Rambo drops off the missionaries and they part ways. The missionaries go about their business of healing, feeding and bible teaching and all seems well. Then out of nowhere mortar shells start hitting the village and body parts start flying. The Burmese army show up doing all kinds of horrific things leaving no human or animal alive. They take the missionaries prisoner and burn the village. The next scene has the pastor of the church the missionaries come from showing up in Rambo's hut pleading with him to take a bunch of mercenaries into Burma to extract the missionaries (so much for the Christians' non-violence conviction). The next 45 minutes is the unfolding of an horrific journey, lots of death, Rambo coming into his old self again. 2 out of 8 mercenaries survive and 2 out of 8 missionaries survive. (I gather you're not all hanging out to go and see the movie so I'm sure you won't mind me spoiling the ending - it's pretty predictable anyway)

I walked away from the movie most disturbed, not because of the violence of the movie itself but because it highlighted to me all over again the struggle of over 2 million internally displaced Burmese and the countless thousands of Burmese refugees who pack the detention camps on the Thai/Burma boarder. Many of the children growing up in these camps don't know life outside a refugee camp.

I googled the latest news and images on the Burma conflict thinking I might post some pictures or youtube video here to raise awareness but I can't bring myself to do so. I feel a sense of responsibility to confront and disturb you, but at the same time I don't want to offend anyone who may be unprepared when they visit this blog. All I can say is that Rambo 4 is tame compared to what I found easily able to access on the internet. So I warn you before you go searching, that there are sites that contain graphic images of dead bodies, and video footage of actual village raids by the Burmese army, actual killing (or what is referred as ethnic cleansing or genocide) and the protests in Myanmar. I dare not even post web links here but I will tell you that I googled 'Burma conflict news and images' if you're prepared to search for yourself.

So will it really take shock tactics such as what we see in Rambo 4 to make us stand up and listen and notice the plight of Burma. We're talking an almost 50 year civil war where it seems there has been little international intervention. The people who dare to protest in Myanmar hold signs written in English to try and capture the attention of the Western superpowers through whatever media is daring enough to film it. The signs read, 'We need UN intervention now'!

Friends of mine who are living with the poor in a slum in Bangkok as part of a UNOH chapter (missional order) are very aware of the plight of the thousands of Burmese refugees who cross the Thai/Burma boarder every month. Their heart for these people is huge but it seems that so little is being done to help them all. Check out the UNOH site for the free Burma campaign. The statement on their site begins;
" UNOH has received an urgent plea for help from our Burmese friends. We cannot say we have not seen their plight. The recent machine gun fire, tear gas and brutal imprisonments have been shown on all our media."
It includes with the words of imprisoned democracy leader Aung San Sui Kyi,
"Use your liberty to promote ours"

Jim Carey's call to free Burma and Aung San Sui Kyi


I can't think of any reason why we, as incredibly lucky and free people wouldn't go out of our way for this simple request. Put your foolish Jesus following to good use and jump on the free Burma campaign. Help the displaced and put pressure of world leaders who have the power to intervene.

Here's a youtube clip titled 'Free Burma'. It's about the most tame one I can share. It contains images of last years protest when thousands of monks marched peacefully in Maynmar to protest against the brutality of the Burmese army. Over 100 monks were arrested as the peaceful protest became violent when the army intervened. I've added a couple of videos in my sidebar.

So would I recommend Rambo 4 to you? Yes and No. If you don't like violent movies don't go and see it. However I would recommend it because we all need t be confronted and disturbed somehow about the realities that face the people of Burma today as you read this blog. Rambo 4 took more than $18 million at the box office in the opening weekend in USA. It's obviously popular enough. Will it take a character like Rambo to capture our attention? Or will we just be entertained, walk outside the cinema and move on? I hope you will be moved and disturbed.

Longing for Shalom in Burma
Mark