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Southeast Asia
Myanmar: "All the trails are mined"
2007-10-02
Sylvester Stallone says he and his "Rambo" sequel movie crew recently witnessed the human toll of unspeakable atrocities while filming along the Myanmar border.

We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific."
"I witnessed the aftermath - survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land-mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off," Stallone told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday. "We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific."

The 61-year-old actor-director returned to the U.S. eight days ago from shooting "John Rambo," the fourth movie in the action series, on the Salween River separating Thailand and Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Stallone said he was in Thailand for six months, most of it along or on the river.

"This is a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams," Stallone said. "All the trails are mined. The only way into Burma is up the river."
"This is a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams," Stallone said. "All the trails are mined. The only way into Burma is up the river."

This was before the crackdown last week against the largest pro-democracy protests in Myanmar in two decades. After the government increased fuel prices in August, public anger turned to mass protest against 45 years of military dictatorship. Last week, soldiers responded by opening fire with automatic weapons on unarmed demonstrators.

For decades, Myanmar's army has waged a brutal war against ethnic groups in which soldiers have razed villages, raped women and killed innocent civilians.

The "Rambo" script, written long before the present Myanmar uprising, features boatman John Rambo - the Vietnam War-era Green Beret who specializes in violent rescues and revenge - taking a group of mercenaries up the Salween River in search of missing Christian aid workers in Myanmar. The character "realizes man is just a few paces away from savagery when pushed."

I called Soldier of Fortune magazine and they said Burma was the foremost area of human abuse on the planet
"I called Soldier of Fortune magazine and they said Burma was the foremost area of human abuse on the planet," Stallone said.

Shots were fired over the film crew's head, he said. "We were told we could get seriously hurt if we went on. I was being accused, once again, of using the Third World as a 'Rambo' victim. The Burmese are beautiful people. It's the military I am portraying as cruel," he said.
Posted by:lotp

#5  The only way into Burma is up the river shit creek

All fixed.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-10-02 14:41  

#4  Rambo IV: Get Outta My Yard, You Goddam Kids!
Posted by: tu3031   2007-10-02 09:22  

#3  The "Rambo" script, written long before the present Myanmar uprising, features boatman John Rambo - the Vietnam War-era Green Beret who specializes in violent rescues and revenge - taking a group of mercenaries up the Salween River in search of missing Christian aid workers in Myanmar. The character "realizes man is just a few paces away from savagery when pushed."

Hopefully, during the film, when the Christians inevitably spout off about violence not solving anything, and they're moaning and bitching about the loss of life of the bad guys, while saying nothing while the good guys rescuing them are offed, Rambo will give some pointed, and painfully obvious, commentary that will show them for the fools they are. And when it comes, this Christian will be quite impolite in the theatre and give a very loud and hearty "AMEN!"

I am goddamn sick and tired of Western politicans and Christian "leaders" self-inflating their egos and sense of "righteousness" when they horsetrade good and innocent people to "save" and please the wicked. I do not mind expending treasure and sweat to save the lost: it is expending good people's LIVES to achieve ephemeral political objectives, gain an ephemeral moral "high ground" (which nobody respects if SOMEONE ELSE occupies it), or to "feel good" without "doing good", that is starting to piss me off. Like Jimmy Carter, who DEMANDS that the Wall that has protected Israelis from terrorists be taken down, and gives not a damn about lost Israeli Lives so HE can posture as a "peacemaker".

I've been in a bible study that involves Genesis. While reading about Abraham bargaining with God for Sodom and Gomorrah, I was struck by how CHEAP God regarded the wicked when they are set against the righteous. Abraham started off with 50, and "jewed" God "down" to 10: during the negotiation, the value of the wicked declined to "20 cents on the dollar". In what followed, the angelic judges couldn't do a thing until righteous Lot left, which meant that Abraham could have gone down to 1, representing a decline to "2 cents on the dollar." In a sense, the wicked are not worth a plugged nickel: they're worth LESS than a plugged nickel.

Yes, yes, I am quite aware that the wicked are a big source of good people, but their value accrues AFTER repentance: Gold is currently over $700 an ounce, but only an idiot, or a charlatan, would demand that we buy Gold ORE at $700 an ounce.
Posted by: Ptah   2007-10-02 07:25  

#2  "This is a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams,"

I see the first reviews of "Rambo 4" are in.
Posted by: Steve   2007-10-02 07:18  

#1  This begs for another movie on a Joseph Conrad story - we had 'Heart of Darkness' in 'Apocalypse Now'; maybe somebody can do 'Lord Jim' right.
Posted by: Glenmore   2007-10-02 07:16  

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