Rambo III (1988)

In Rambo III, the eponymous soldier hero exhibits a strained relationship with the country he serves, and forms a far warmer one with the Afghan mujahideen he becomes allied with.

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone, with headband) competing in a game of buzkashi with Afghan mujahideen fighters in 1988’s Rambo III (Carolco Pictures).

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This post is part of the ‘Rewound’ series of analyses of objects or episodes from cultural and political history.

Content warnings: Violence; Murder; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Crude depictions of Asian peoples; Animal killing.

Spoiler alert: This analysis of the film Rambo III and its themes reveals plot details for the purpose of enhancing that analysis.

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This is the second instalment of a two-part post on how the Soviet-Afghan War was represented in 1980s Western action films. Part I looked at the 1987 James Bond film, The Living Daylights, and can be found here:

Part II switches focus to an American film that came out a year later, Rambo III, starring Sylvester Stallone as its eponymous (anti)hero. It was very different to Living Daylights in many ways, but with the centrality of the war in Afghanistan to it, also throws up some notable parallels. The two films are thus worthy of consideration together, as a means of exploring how British and American responses to the Cold War in this period compared.

The Rambo film series

Rambo was created by Canadian-born author David Morrell. His debut novel, First Blood, introduced the character as a psychologically damaged Vietnam War veteran, arrested in Kentucky for vagrancy. Rambo (who in the book had no given name) made a violent escape from prison, and subsequently becomes the subject of an increasingly destructive and lethal manhunt, before himself finally being killed.

The film rights to the novel passed between several film studios in the decade after publication, and numerous screenplays were drafted based upon it. Distributors Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar finally bought the rights for their Carolco Pictures studio, and made First Blood (1982), cowritten by and starring Sylvester Stallone in the title role. In this version, Rambo – first name John – is captured rather than killed at the end.

Rambo (Stallone), left, is taunted by Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) in the 1982 film Rambo: First Blood (Carolco Pictures).

This was followed by Rambo First Blood: Part II (1985), in which Rambo returned to Vietnam to rescue American soldiers reported missing in action who had survived but were being kept as prisoners of war, and then by Rambo III. Stallone would belatedly reprise the role of Rambo in a fourth film, set in Myanmar and titled simply Rambo, in 2008, and most recently in 2019’s Rambo V: Final Blood, which pitted him against a Mexican drugs cartel.

As the film series progressed, the focus shifted from the traumatic effects of the Vietnam War on US society – which were the original novel’s principal concern – to a grim celebration of its underdog hero, depicted as at odds with the authority he serves. This reflected a broader tendency in Hollywood cinema in the 1980s, highlighted by Marc Diefenderfer, whereby the post-traumatic stress disorder-affected Vietnam veteran became the protagonist of revenge narratives that provide an opportunity for the revival of American militarism.¹

Rambo III

The third film in the Rambo trilogy commences with Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), Rambo’s former commanding officer and closest friend, searching for Rambo in Thailand, accompanied by American Embassy official Robert Griggs (Kurtwood Smith). They spot him participating in a stick-fighting match, and later trace him to a Buddhist monastery where he now resides and helps the monks with repairs.

Trautman asks Rambo to accompany him on a mission to Afghanistan to supply the local mujahideen with weaponry to help them resist the occupying Soviets, but Rambo refuses, insisting that he has had enough of war and finally feels settled. Trautman takes part in the mission anyway, but is captured. He is held prisoner at a Soviet base by the brutal Colonel Alexei Zaysen (Marc De Jonge), who has him tortured. Griggs returns to the monastery and informs Rambo of Trautman’s capture; he refuses to sanction a full rescue mission, but agrees to help Rambo get into Afghanistan to attempt to extricate Trautman on his own.

Arriving in Peshwar, Pakistan, Rambo meets up with arms dealer Mousa Ghani (Sasson Ghabbi), whom he convinces to take him across the border into Afghanistan. There they meet the local mujahideen, led by chieftain Masoud (Spiros Fokas), who are reluctant to help Rambo, given their own stretched personnel and resources. Ghani and the mujahideen are nonetheless impressed by Rambo’s determination and adaptation to the Afghan environment; he also sparks the fascination of orphaned child soldier Hamid (Doudi Shoua). Yet Zaysen has learned of Rambo’s mission, and launches a brutal aerial attack against the mujahideen encampment, causing multiple fatalities before Rambo eventually helps repel the assault.

Rambo resolves to rescue Trautman, accompanied only by Ghani, and – despite their having ordered him not to join them – Hamid. They launch a raid on Zaysen’s base, and Rambo makes contact with Trautman, but both Rambo and Hamid are wounded in the process, and they are forced to withdraw. Rambo sends Hamid back to the camp with Ghani, patches up his own wounds, and resumes his rescue mission. This time he successfully springs Trautman, and a number of Afghan prisoners; they escape in a helicopter, but it is damaged and they are forced to crash land it.

Rambo and Trautman help dispatch the escaped Afghans to safety, before luring and then killing one-by-one the Soviet commandos Zaysen has sent after them, including his right-hand-man, Sergeant Kourov (Randy Raney). Nonetheless, they soon find themselves face-to-face with Zaysen and the rest of his men. Determined to fight on, despite being heavily outnumbered, the odds are levelled by the arrival of Mousa, Hamid, and the local mujahideen fighters on horseback.

A pitched battle ensues in which Rambo and his allies rout the Soviets, culminating in Rambo capturing a tank and using it to destroy Zaysen’s helicopter, and the Soviet colonel in it. After the battle, Mousa and Hamid suggest to Rambo that he might stay and continue to help them fight the Soviets, but he forlornly tells them that he cannot. Trautman and Rambo depart in a jeep, and the film ends with a written dedication to the Afghan people.