Rambo III

I didn't care much for First Blood because it portrayed police officers as cold-hearted and abusive human beings (there have been enough films in which the police were portrayed that way). Part II was OK, but there were a lot of movies being released in 1984-85 about American soldiers going back into Vietnam to rescue imprisoned POWs. Rambo III is totally different. It's a typical 80s action movie with lots of explosions, hilarious dialogue (mostly from Stallone), stereotyped Russian bad guys and a high body count.

Marc DeJonge makes for a good villain. I wonder whatever happened to him? Also, most of the Russian soldiers were played by American and Israeli soldiers who learned Russian to star in the movie.

How times have changed. Back in 1988, the Soviets were still in Afghanistan and the U.S. was helping the Mujahideen to drive them out. Then Osama ben Laden and Al Qaeda came along, and soon Afghanistan became an enemy of the U.S. because of the Taliban's refusal to hand ben Laden over. After September 11, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to catch ben Laden and drive out the Taliban. That was accomplished, but ben Laden and his cronies are still at large.

Although Afghanistan has a new government and is hoping to achieve democracy someday, that might take a long time to accomplish. But like the movie, Afghanistan now needs the United States's help more than ever, but this time...it's for rebuilding the country.