10 Things You Didn’t Know About Rambo III
On May 25, 1988 Rambo III was released to the world… a world that was much different than when filming began.
Rambo III has our hero John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) rescuing his mentor Col. Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna) from Soviet forces in Afghanistan… but by the time the movie was released the Soviets had pulled out of Afghanistan and the long standing “Cold War” between the United States and Russia had given way to Glasnost.
Real world events made Rambo III feel instantly dated and could be one reason why the third installment in the franchise is not as beloved as the first two films. But taking politics and reality out of it, Rambo III is an enjoyable film and one I decided to revisit and I did so with Director Peter MacDonald’s commentary track.
That commentary track on the Ultimate Edition DVD release of Rambo III is the source material for this post, 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Rambo III…
1. Director Peter MacDonald was originally hired as the 2nd Unit Director for Rambo III. But after Russell Mulcahy was relieved of his directorial duties about two weeks into production, Sylvester Stallone (who previously worked with MacDonald on Rambo: First Blood Part 2) and the producers convinced MacDonald to take the job as director. MacDonald had one day to prepare for his directorial Debut.
2. MacDonald found himself doing the handheld camera work for the stick fighting sequence after the cinematographer took ill. MacDonald was so close to the action he got a few shots to his ribs in the process. MacDonald also noted that Stallone did not use a stunt double for this scene.
3. The monastery used in the Bangkok sequences was an actual monastery under construction and the production donated money towards the construction in order to film there.
4. There were three editors working simultaneously on the film in order to meet the film’s deadline.
5. The Russian fort and the Afghan village were both sets built for the production.
6. Sylvester Stallone, being quite the horseman, did all of his own horseback riding in the film.
7. If it looked like Rambo was annoyed by Hamid, the young Afghan boy, Stallone wasn’t necessarily acting. Doudi Shoua, who played Hamid, did actually annoy Sly and it may or may not have been suggested the Hamid character be killed so Sly would not have to deal with Shoua anymore.
8. At one point, a stinger missile ended up getting a little too close for comfort actually catching Stallone’s hair on fire!
9. Due to production restrictions that came with filming in Israel, the big final desert battle with Rambo, Trautman and the Afghan soldiers against the Russians had to be shot in Yuma, Arizona.
10. Stallone had always envisioned that the tank Rambo drives at the end of the film for his final showdown with the helicopter flying Colonel Zaysen would be able to reach speeds of 50 MPH. Since actual tanks only go around 20 MPH, a tank was modified with a huge truck engine specifically for the film so that Stallone’s vision could become reality.
