Movie Review: What Rambo Means In his modern installment of the Rambo series, Sylvester Stallone puts a new spin on a familiar story. John Rambo is caught in a struggle between an easily identifiable enemy and himself. The Burmese army proves easy to defeat while the battle against its own morality seems much more formidable. His previous experiences have led him to believe that war will always cause problems and that there is no point in trying to eradicate it. By observing the efforts of the American missionaries, Rambo eventually realizes that one must never give in and always continue the fight. Regardless, Sylvester Stallone's film clearly attempts to show the futility of war early on, while later the merits of the fight to end the war are shown along with its brutality. Due to his excessive war experience, John Rambo settled in the end. film as an outcast who wants nothing to do with what he perceives as an ineffective attempt to end suffering. When the American missionaries tried to persuade Rambo to take them to Burma, he stubbornly refused and tried to get as far away from his new problems as possible. Sarah then tried to make Rambo believe in their cause, to which he responded by saying, "You don't change anything." » (Rambo). No matter how hard he was pushed, he wouldn't fight for something he believed was useless. However, he eventually relented and agreed to take the missionaries to Burma. Soon they were faced with the danger that Rambo knew he would face: the killing of several Burmese soldiers to which Sarah responded by saying, "I know you think what you did was right, but taking a life is not never good” (Rambo). Even missionaries believed that... middle of paper ......mbo depicts war as sometimes brutal and aimless, while other times he applauds war because one must never surrender . Rambo's early reluctance to take the missionaries built his belief that he was done fighting for others. The subsequent victory against the Burmese army illustrated the advantages of living "for nothing" or dying "for something" (Rambo). Finally, the massacre of the inhabitants of the very village that the missionaries were trying to save shows the negative effects that war can have in the long term. Although Rambo is fighting a very specific type of war in a very specific setting, what is true for this film is true for all wars; death is a price one can pay for fighting for what one can believe in. Works Cited Rambo. Real. Sylvester Stallone. Perf. Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden and Graham McTavish. Lionsgate, 2008. Movie.