- "Some shit about Poppy's flock going missing. I said to him, look, mate; that's what you get when you go trespassing into fucking Burma! That's what you get when you go sniffing around other people's garbage!"
- ―Lewis on Burma.
John Rambo's boat docks in Burma.
Burma (now known officially as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) is a country in Southeast Asia that neighbors Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, China and Laos.
Description[]
About one third of Burma's total perimeter of 5,876 km (3,651 miles), forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km (1,200 miles) along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The country's 2014 census revealed a much lower population than expected, with 51 million people recorded. Burma is 676,578 square kilometers (261,227 sq mi) in size. Its capital city is Naypyidaw and its largest city and former capital city is Yangon (Rangoon). The British conquered Burma after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the country became a British colony. Burma became an independent nation in 1948, initially as a democratic nation and then, following a coup d'état in 1962, a military dictatorship. For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife and Burma's myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. During this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country. Burma is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. The Karen, a Burmese minority ethnic group that makes up 7% of Burma's total population, primarily lives on rural lands that are rich in oil and natural gas. Because of this, the military government targeted them for extermination so as to exploit the valuable resources on their lands.
The Crisis in Burma is the main focus of Rambo, which documented the atrocity-ridden 60-year long Burmese civil war against the oppressive military dictatorship and the genocide of the Karen tribespeople. The oppressive Burmese government did not want the film to be made, so they actually shot at the film crew during filming over the river in Thailand. The film later became a source of great inspiration to the Karen rebels and, despite being banned by the Burmese government, bootleg copies were very popular and a quote from the film: "Live for nothing or die for something" became the de-facto slogan for the real-life Karen rebels. Possession of a copy of the film was punishable by ten years in prison. Sale of the film was punishable by life in prison. Since the film's release in 2008, the situation in Burma has improved, though the country still has a ways to go. In 2011, Than Shwe's military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. While former military leaders still wield enormous power in the country, the Burmese military have taken steps toward relinquishing control of the government. This, along with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners, has improved the country's human rights record and foreign relations, and has led to the easing of trade and other economic sanctions. There is, however, continuing criticism of the government's treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority and its poor response to the religious clashes. In the landmark 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a majority in both houses. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion. The income gap in Burma is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government. As of 2014, according to the Human Development Index (HDI), Burma had a low level of human development, ranking 148 out of 188 countries.
Rambo IV[]
The movie opens with newsreels about the crisis in Burma. They talk about how Burma has the most landmines in the world, how their civil war has been going on for over sixty years, and how the Karen tribespeople, poor farmers on natural resource-rich land, have been singled out for extermination. The genocide has gotten so bad that the Junta army is forcing children as young as age twelve into the army. En-Joo says that the army is funding the war effort by selling meth and heroin illegally. The Tatmadaw Army is currently being led by Major Pa Tee Tint on a campaign of fear, going from village to village, kidnapping young boys for use as soldiers and warning people not to ask the Karen rebels for help. Days after John Rambo drops the Christian missionaries from the Christ Church of Colorado off at the Burmese border, he is told that they were kidnapped by the Burmese army. Rambo launches a rescue mission with the help of some mercenaries and goes into Burma, struggling to rescue them in the midst of a chaotic civil war. The mercenaries, particularly Lewis, express distaste in the mission. Lewis says that it's common sense not to go into Burma, as it is a dangerous war zone. Schoolboy is more supportive, and the rest of the group doesn't appear to have opinions on it. Coming into Burma, Rambo dispatches soldiers gambling on which civilian would die first with his Compound bow and comes along for the rescue mission. They raid the prison camp where the missionaries are being held at, killing several Tatmadaw soldiers in the process. The next morning, Tint orders a manhunt to find the escaped prisoners, and Rambo sets up a Claymore mine trap underneath an unexploded bomb from World War II in the forest, which the Burmese army walks right into. The explosion rocks through the Burmese jungle. Later on, Rambo chops the head off the gunner of a Jeep-mounted Browning M2 Aircraft machine gun and uses it to kill the Tatmadaw soldiers who are preparing to execute the missionaries and mercenaries. The ensuing firefight distracts the soldiers and allows the mercenaries to get discarded weapons. For the next five minutes, almost a hundred Burmese soldiers are killed in various increasingly gruesome ways, mostly by Rambo's .50 caliber machine gun. Numerous explosions go off in the jungle, caused by both grenades and rocket launchers, and eventually, the last soldier is left standing: Tint, who is disemboweled by Rambo while he attempts to flee the scene.
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