Before the movie came out I spoke to an American who regularly travels to that area on humanitarian missions. I had told him of my plans to go there (Mae Sot area), and he replied that I should do so before the Rambo movie was released, as it would be sure to generate quite a bit of attention from Walter Mitty types and the press, which in turn would attract the attention of the Thai authorities.

Lastly, my thoughts on the criticisms leveled at Sylvester Stallone: anything that he might do to shine a light on the genocide perpetrated by the Burmese government has to be a good thing.
From people I’ve spoken with, Stallone actually moderated some of the violence – unlike the Burmese generals.

Feature: Burma fears Rambo

(BangkokPost.com – Feb 3, 2008)

Burmese officials have banned even pirated copies of the new Rambo movie, and Hollywood’s Sylvester Stallone says he’d love to go to Rangoon and confront the junta face to face.

“These incredibly brave people have found, kind of a voice, in a very odd way, in American cinema… They’ve actually used some of the film’s quotes as rallying points,” said Stallone, 61, in a telephone interview with the Reuters news agency.

“That, to me, is the one of the proudest moments I’ve ever had in film,” he told Reuters.

Police in Burma have given market sellers strict orders not to sell pirated copies of the flick.

Just two weeks into its commercial release (panned by most US critics, highly rated by audiences in the US), the movie is available in black-market editions under the counter in markets in Rangoon and towns along the Thai border.

In the movie, ageing war veteran John Rambo, played by Stallone, ventures into Burma to rescue a group of Christian aid workers who were kidnapped by a ruthless local infantry unit.

“Rambo acted very cruelly, but his cruelty is nothing compared to that of the military junta,” a Burmese student in Thailand was quoted by Reuters.

In Rangoon, local people said Burmese have gone crazy over lines from the film such as

* When you’re pushed, killing’s as easy as breathing.

* Burma’s a warzone.

* Rambo: Are you bringing in any weapons?

Aid worker: Of course not.

Rambo: You’re not changin’ anything.

The tagline of the blood and guts movie is: “Live for nothing, die for something.”

Stallone’s movie specifically focuses on the Karen near the Thai border. The Karen and other groups have suffered half a million cases of forced relocation and thousands more have been imprisoned, tortured or killed by the military dictators.

Stallone told Reuters that he hopes the film can provoke a confrontation.

“I’m only hoping that the Burmese military, because they take such incredible offence to this, would call it lies and scurrilous propaganda. Why don’t you invite me over?” he said.

“Let me take a tour of your country without someone pointing a gun at my head and we’ll show you where all the bodies are buried… Or let’s go debate in Washington in front of a congressional hearing,” the movie star said to Reuters.

“But I doubt that’s going to happen.”

Stallone said he was happy with what he described as “the bloodiest, R-rated film (for) a generation” and hoped to make another.

“It will depend on the success of this one, but right now I think I’m gearing one up. It will be quite different,” he said.