Rambo III (1988)

Director:

Peter MacDonald

Writers (WGA):

David Morrell (characters)
Sylvester Stallone (written by) ...

Release Date:

25 May 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

God would have mercy John Rambo won't!

Plot:

Rambo's Vietnam commanding officer Colonel Trautman is held hostage in Afghanistan, and its up to Rambo to rescue him.

Plot Keywords:

Rambo | Colonel | Rescue | Afghanistan | Soviet

Awards:

2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Sylvester Stallone	...	Rambo
Richard Crenna	...	Trautman
Marc de Jonge	...	Zaysen
Kurtwood Smith	...	Griggs
Spiros Focás	...	Masoud (as Spiros Focas)
Sasson Gabai	...	Mousa
Doudi Shoua	...	Hamid
Randy Raney	...	Kourov
Marcus Gilbert	...	Tomask
Alon Abutbul	...	Nissem
Mahmoud Assadollahi	...	Rahim
Joseph Shiloach	...	Khalid
Harold Diamond	...	Stick Fighter
Matti Seri	...	Gun Dealer
Hany Said El Deen	...	Gun Dealer

Also Known As:

Rambo 3 (International: English title) (alternative spelling)
Rambo: First Blood Part III (Malaysia: English title)

Runtime:

102 min | Finland:87 min (1988) (heavily cut) (VHS version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Italy:T | Iceland:16 | West Germany:18 (video release) (cut) | Germany:Not Rated (SPIO/JK) (DVD release) | Finland:K-16 (1998) (uncut) (video) | UK:18 (uncut) (2001) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | South Korea:15 | Finland:K-16 (video rating) (1988) (heavily cut) | Finland:K-18 (theatrical rating) (1988) (uncut) | Malaysia:18PL | Brazil:14 | Netherlands:16 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | France:U | Norway:18 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (cut) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

Carolco Pictures

Trivia:

The knife in this film is the first in the series to not be designed by Arkansas knifesmith Jimmy Lile. The blade was designed by fantasy knife designer Gil Hibben and is two inches longer than the one in Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and three inches longer than the knife in First Blood (1982). The knife is also the first in the series to not be of a survival knife design.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Rambo is asked to join the Afghanistan soldiers in the game where they use a sheep, at certain times during the game, the sheep looks like either a dead sheep, or a fake sheep with stuffing in it, as can be clearly seen when Rambo picks it up off the ground.

Quotes:

[after barely escaping the explosion of a fuel bomb dropped by a helicopter]
Colonel Trautman: That was close John. How are you?
Rambo: Well done.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Supermarket (2009)

Soundtrack:

THE BRIDGE

Not terrible, but...

With the highest budget of the three movies, the movie certainly looks expensive, with an epic scope at times. But you never quite get the feeling that the movie settles into a comfortable groove. Though the action sequences have plenty of gunshots and explosions, the way they are filmed - and edited - doesn't have the right impact or flow, like the action sequences in the second installment.

In another comparison to the second installment, the story - while as sparse as this one - certainly kept moving. Here there are a number of segments that move very slowly and/or don't seem to have much purpose. The movie should have gotten down to business. The uneven flow of the movie also suffers near the end, as if the movie all of a sudden decides it needs to wrap things up in a few minutes, making the final battle almost come out of nowhere.

(In fairness to the director, it should be pointed out that he was a sudden replacement after original director Russell Mulcahy was fired, and had only ONE DAY to prepare to helm the rest of the movie.)

Like the previous installment, there is some dumb dialogue, but this time around it's not delivered in a slight tongue-in-cheek manner. If they had been willing to show this time around that they weren't taking things so seriously, it would have helped. You might say that the actor playing the Russian commander is not playing things seriously, but he goes SO over the top that he's embarrassing.

It's watchable, but disappointing - they had the chance to make a kick-ass action movie here.

By the way, the Afghans that Rambo helps in this movie are *NOT* the Taliban. People seem to forget that Afghanistan is made up of a number of different tribes. You can tell these particular Afghans are not the Taliban, because (among other things), the women are not completely covered, and the men play the traditional Afghan game with horses and a goat's skin (forbidden by the Taliban.)