After bringing back "Rocky Balboa," Sylvester Stallone promises to resurrect his other trademark character in "Rambo IV." Vietnam War veteran John Rambo’s experience was quite different than today’s troops, and that’s where Stallone sees drama.
"It’s more like the veteran mentality of the Vietnam War with its juxtaposition today," he explained. "The soldiers today I think are vastly different. A different breed. I think they’re a little bit more aware. The other guys are a bit more naïve, and they went head long into these crazy situations. Look at the death toll. 52,000 and by today’s standards that’s unbelievable. A quarter of a million suicides after that from people who were damaged by the war. It’s just in his attitude and his demeanor that you know he’s still quite distraught by what he’s been though, but yet he can’t escape it, damned if he does and he’s damned if he doesn’t."
Politically outspoken celebrity + upcoming movie release = next Governor of California?
Don’t worry, Stallone will stop with the sequels after "Rambo." There won’t be a "Tango and Cash 2." "That would be it, because Rambo is a character that I think was not fully expressed in the last one. It’s a character I think that is completely out of sync with the way things are. He’s so primitive and he’s so broken, his spirit, that he lives this monastic life out on the jungle. I think it’s an interesting character study. I haven’t seen anything like it lately."
Most people only remember "Rambo III" as another action movie, but Stallone recalls the volatile political climate that destroyed his last sequel. "Even though Afghanistan was the downfall, it was Russia’s Vietnam. What happened was it was about 10 days before the movie came out, Gorbachev comes over and basically kisses Nancy Reagan on the cheek and the Cold War, 50 years later, is over and now I’m the bad guy. It’s true. ‘Why are you a red baiter?’ I said, ‘Two weeks ago we were dropping bombs on these guys.’ So any time you do a film that deals with a political subject, you don’t know, even though I’m doing it again. It’s extremely volatile."
