Rambo III

Sylvester Stallone later said his original premise of the film "was more in keeping with the theme of Tears of the Sun, but set in Afghanistan."[6]

Bullitt and Red Heat scribe Harry Kleiner was hired to write a draft, but his script was rejected by Stallone.[7]

Several weeks into filming, many of the film's crew were fired including the director of photography and director Russell Mulcahy. Stallone:

The canvas of this movie is so large you have to constantly think 10 scenes ahead. You can't wing it. They didn't go into the Battle of Waterloo not knowing what their strategy would be. Well, this movie is kind of like a cinematic warfare. We have a huge cast and crew (more than 250 people) and tough locations to deal with. Everyone and everything has to coordinate.[8]

Some critics noted that the timing of the movie, with its unabashedly anti-Soviet tone, ran afoul of the opening of Communism to the West under Mikhail Gorbachev, which had already changed the image of the Soviet Union to a substantial degree by the time the movie was finished.[9]

He went to Israel two weeks before me with the task of casting two dozen vicious looking Russian troops. These men were suppose [sic] to make your blood run cold. When I arrived on the set, what I saw was two dozen blond, blue-eyed pretty boys that resembled rejects from a surfing contest. Needless to say Rambo is not afraid of a little competition but being attacked by third rate male models could be an enemy that could overwhelm him. I explained my disappointment to Russell and he totally disagreed, so I asked him and his chiffon army to move on.[6]

Mulcahy was replaced by Peter MacDonald, a veteran second unit director. It was MacDonald's first film as director but he was very experienced and had directed the second unit action sequences in Rambo: First Blood Part II. MacDonald later said, "I tried very hard to change the Rambo character a bit and make him a vulnerable and humorous person, I failed totally."[10] "I knew instinctively what was a good and bad shot," he added. "Stallone knew his character because it was his third outing as Rambo. I wasn't shooting Shakespeare and at times it was hard to take it seriously."[10] MacDonald shot the stick fighting sequence in Bangkok himself using a handheld camera.[10]

The character Masoud, played by Greek actor Spiros Focás, was named after Mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud who fought the USSR and later the Taliban.[11]

The film was shot in Israel, Thailand, and Arizona. MacDonald:

There were so many restrictions in Israel, where you could and couldn't shoot. The producers and Stallone decided they would go back to Arizona where they had looked long before I was on the film. There was a group there called the re-enactors. We had around two hundred and fifty of these guys who re-enact the [American] civil war. They were called on to do fight sequences, which they loved.[10]

In the United Kingdom, the original theatrical trailer released worldwide by Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. was rejected, but three versions appear on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray and original theatrical release. The BBFC rated the theatrical release 18 and later video releases rated 15. They also cut between two seconds and 65 seconds of the original film's runtime.[2] Some later video releases almost tripled the cuts.[12]

Rambo III was released on DVD on November 23, 2004, and a Blu-Ray release followed on May 23, 2008. Rambo III was released on 4K UHD Blu-Ray on November 13, 2018.

Rambo III opened in the United States on May 25, 1988 at 2,562 theatres in its opening weekend (the four-day Memorial Day weekend), ranking #2 behind Crocodile Dundee II.[13][14] Overall, the film grossed $53,715,611 domestically and then took $135,300,000 overseas, giving Rambo III a box office total of $189,015,611.[5] The film underperformed at the box-office.[15]

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[16]

The film scored a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 36 reviews and with an average rating of 4.60/10. The site's critical consensus states that "Rambo III finds its justice-dispensing hero far from the thoughtful drama that marked the franchise's beginning -- and just as far from quality action thriller entertainment."[17] Metacritic gives the film a rating of 36 out of 100 based on 15 critic reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[18]

Prominent critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were split on Rambo III, with Siskel awarding the film "thumbs up", and Ebert declaring "thumbs down" for those expecting more out of Rambo III. Ebert did give "thumbs up" to fans, saying the film was entertaining and that it "delivers the goods".

The New York Times took a dim view of the film.[19]

In West Germany, the Deutsche Film- und Medienbewertung (FBW), a government film rating office whose ratings influence financial support to filmmakers, earned criticism after it awarded a "worthwhile" rating (in German: wertvoll) to Rambo III.[20]

The 1990 The Guinness Book of World Records deemed Rambo III the most violent film ever made, with 221 acts of violence, at least 70 explosions, and over 108 characters killed on-screen. The body count of the fourth film in the series, Rambo, surpassed that record, with 236 kills. The Mi-24 Hind-D helicopters seen in the film are modified Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma transport helicopters with fabricated bolt-on wings similar to the real Hind-Ds which were mainly used in the former Eastern Bloc. The other helicopter depicted is a slightly reshaped Aerospatiale Gazelle.

Some have claimed that the dedication at the end of the film has been altered at various points in response to the September 11 attacks. Specifically it is claimed that the dedication was (at one point) "to the brave Mujahideen fighters" and then later changed to "to the gallant people of Afghanistan".[21][22] Reviews of the film upon its release and later publications show that the film was always dedicated "to the gallant people of Afghanistan".[19][23][24]

A sequel titled Rambo, was released in 2008.

David Morrell, author of First Blood, the novel the first Rambo film is based on, wrote a novelization called Rambo III.

A comic book adaptation of the film was published by Blackthorne Publishing.[26][27] Blackthorne also published a 3D version of its Rambo III comic.

Various companies released video games based on the film, including Ocean Software and Taito. In 1990, Sega released its own game based on the film for the Master System and Genesis/Mega Drive. Sega later adapted some of the battle scenes in the film for the 2008 arcade game Rambo. In 2014 was released Rambo: The Video Game, based on the first three Rambo films.

• In the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, the character of Chop Top jokes that the recording of one chainsaw murder sounds like "the Rambo III soundtrack", although at that time, there had only been two Rambo films.
• In the film Twins, Arnold Schwarzenegger's character is seen looking at the poster of Rambo III featuring Stallone, where he compares his biceps to Stallone's, but waves it off with a smile while shaking his head and walks away.
• In the film Gremlins 2: The New Batch, parody of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III
• In the film Hot Shots! Part Deux, the protagonist Topper Harley (Charlie Sheen) is a parody of John Rambo and the plot of the film is the same as Rambo III, which involves Harley rescuing his mentor, Col. Denton Walters (Richard Crenna, parodying his character from the Rambo franchise).