Rambo returns with a flourish

Has it really been 20 years? Last time we saw John Rambo, In 1988, he was involved in some cold war endgame stuff in Afganistan, and his action-movie franchise, begun in 1982 with First Blood, seemed to be sputtering toword self-parody.Since then Rambo has faded into semi-obscrity, though his name is sometimes still used, perhaps a bit unfairly, as a synonym for revanchist, go-it-alone militarism.
When I saw the posters announcing his imminent return, I wondered whom he would be fighting this time. In Rambo: First Blood Part-2, he went back to Vietnam to collect pay back both from the Communists and from the pusillaniomous desk jockeys. Given this resume, it seemed reasonable to assume that now he might be heading back to Central Asia to huntdown Osman bin Laden.
But it turns out to I misjudged Rambo,and may be also Sylvester Stallone, Who directed and Wrote the newest Rambo,and who plays the title character.When we first encounter him, this weary warrior has retreated from geopolitics,passing the time at a remote river station in the Thai jungle, where he hunts poisonoussnakes and dabbles in blacksmithing.Old Rambo seems kind of depressed, to tell the truth, until his wrath is stirred by the viciousness of the Burmese Army.
Burma? But why not Burma? As a precredit montage of actual news clips reminds us, the military government of that nation has been engaged not only in wide-spread authoritarian abuses but also in a brutal, long-running campaign against the Karen ethnic minority. And it is with the Karen that Rambo, once roused from his weary cynicism, throws in his lot. No longer the bloody avatar of wounded American Pride, he seems more inclined toward humanitarian intervention- a one man N.G.O. With a mathete. Will he show up in Darfur next?
Not that he is motivated by abstract moral Concern. With Rambo,the Politicalis always personal. He temporarily joins the Karen cause because some westernaid workers carrying only Bibles, Medical supplies and an air of Sanctimony, hire him to ferry them upriver into Burma. He is Skeptical about their mission, and their Leader(Paul Schulze) Seems like kind of a jerk, but something about Sarah(Julie Benz), the only woman in the group, touches Rambo’s Soul. This is not a matter of Sexual desire, But rather the kind of Spiritual awakening that can be expressed only misty abstractions.
Ms Benz is on hand to Scream, gasp ,Fall in the Mud and huddle in a dump bamboo cage, waiting to be molested by the Burmese bad guys or rescued by Rambo.
And these bad Guys make the Vietcong in the Second Rambo movie look like Paintball-Slinging weekend warriors. Rambo is for most of its fairly brief running time, a blood bath punctuated by occasional bouts if clumsy dialogue.
But the movie does have its own kind of blockheaded poetry. Mr Stallone is Smart enough to present the Mythic dimensions of the Charcter without apology or Irony.