Blacklight is currently in development by Zombie Studios with no publisher attached yet to the project. Although they have been looking for a publisher, Zombie has been forced to fund the project themselves for the time being. The game is set to launch on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows platforms. There is no tentative release date yet on any platform or in any region. [1]
Zombie is planning to make Blacklight a multimedia franchise that will include the video game, a feature film, and a trilogy of comic books. The idea was concepted by Zombie executives which later pitched the idea to several film and comic book production companies. The film rights were immediately bought by Fox Atomic to create a film adaptation of the franchise. Fox Atomic's comic subsidiary, Fox Atomic Comics, will also be creating the Blacklight comics. The film, comic books, and game will not share the same storylines, but tell different stories in the Blacklight universe at different time periods.
Blacklight is primarily a squad-based first person shooter with elements similar to that of Tactical shooters. The player assumes control of a military squadron in the fictional city of Balak, Kajikistan. The main goal of the game is to apprehend the rogue Colonel Klein. To achieve this goal, the squad will have a number of objectives such as retrieving intel or capturing/killing certain people to come closer to Klein himself. There are a number of weapons the squad may use including standard sniper rifles, machine guns, and missile launchers. There is also a unique weapon called the "Ultrasonic Launcher", which is a non-lethal weapon that shoots sound waves that can bounce off walls and knock players over. The Launcher may also generate s sonic forcefield that can slow enemies.
The ability to switch between squadmates instantaneously has been a key in Blacklight. This technique, which is similar to that of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, is called "Tac-Jumping". Certain tools have been incorporated to encourage teamwork amongst the squad. One such tool, the "Turtle Helmet", allows players to see through walls to seek out enemies, which then can be used to inform other squadmates. To combat this, tools like camouflage and decoys that can only be seen through the Turtle Helmet's Infrered Spectrum have been given as defensive mechanisms. [1]
The game will also feature drop-in, drop-out Coop, which allows a second player to come into the game without disrupting the mission progress. This can be done either split-screen or via online gaming on Xbox Live or Playstation Network. There is also a multi-player mode being incorporated, but details have not been revealed as of yet.
Blacklight takes place approximately twenty-five years in the future in the fictional east European city of Balak, Kajikistan. The city is a former soviet state that has become rundown and dilapidated with many sections cordoned off as biohazardous zones. The urban environment includes inner-city and building interior settings, as well as some rural areas, all which have a number of missions the player can participate in.
Colonel Klein (unannounced voice actor): A rogue commander of the Blacklight team, Klein serves as the main antagonist for the game. Frustrated with the top-level brass in Langley, Virginia, Klein defects from the Americans and exploits the natives regimes rivalries to become a warlord in Balak.
The Blacklight Team (multiple voice actors): The players' squad and protagonists for the game, the squad is sent in to Balak to either capture or kill Colonel Klein. The team consists of several members, both key characters and unnamed soldiers. All are able to be controlled by the player or the Co-op players. The only named characters in the squad so far are Delta and DEVGRU.
The games' story follows the Blacklight squad of the American military. Their former commander, Colonel Klein, has defected from the squad and fled to Balak. Klien has used his intellect to play the locals against each other and become a warlord of the area. The squad is sent in on a covert-op to either capture or kill Klein to stop him from coming to power and creating an uprising in the region.
The game was officially announced by Zombie and Fox Atomic on March 16 2009 at a press conference. The pair announced not only the game, but the collaboration on the film and comic book series as well. The only details revealed were the first-person perspective and futuristic setting of the game. The designers described Blacklight as "Science Fact", as opposed to Science fiction. It was explained that this meant Zombie researched the cutting edge of modern day technology and applied them to the armor and weapons of the game to give it a real but futuristic atmosphere. Zombie, having worked with the Army on several training games, have had the ability to check the advances in R&D as far as new technologies. [1]
The following day Zombie founder Mark Long had a public interview revealing much more information about the game. A basic plot summary was issued as well as some weapon designs. Although no release date was set, he noted that the comic book will come first and the game will come "sooner than later".
A few screenshots of the game were released alongside the interview. Most of the screens, in a unique marketing approach, all depict the same scene from different angles and perspectives. The scene depicts a battle between two warring factions dressed in advanced combat armor in an urban environment with several skyscrapers. Some of the buildings are shown being crumbled and some are destroyed with large holes in them from previous battles.
The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions. With working conditions unregulated, the health, welfare and morale of working people suffered. The use of child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 to 16 hours for six days a week.[1][2]
Robert Owen had raised the demand for a ten-hour day in 1810, and instituted it in his socialist enterprise at New Lanark. By 1817 he had formulated the goal of the eight-hour day and coined the slogan Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest. Women and children in England were granted the ten-hour day in 1847. French workers won the 12-hour day after the February revolution of 1848. A shorter working day and improved working conditions were part of the general protests and agitation for Chartist reforms and the early organization of trade unions.
The International Workingmen's Association took up the demand for an eight-hour day at its convention in Geneva in August 1866, declaring The legal limitation of the working day is a preliminary condition without which all further attempts at improvements and emancipation of the working class must prove abortive, and The Congress proposes eight hours as the legal limit of the working day.
Although there were initial successes in achieving an eight-hour day in New Zealand and by the Australian labour movement for skilled workers in the 1840s and 1850s, most employed people had to wait to the early and mid twentieth century for the condition to be widely achieved through the industrialized world through legislative action.
The Australian gold rushes attracted many skilled tradesmen to Australia. Some of these trades people had been active in the chartism movement, and subsequently became prominent in agitation for better working conditions in the Australian colonies.
The Stonemasons' Society in Sydney issued an ultimatum to employers on 18 August 1855, that after six months masons would work only an eight-hour day. Construction of many buildings was occurring with the rapid increase in population caused by the gold rushes, so skilled labour was scarce. Stonemasons working on the Holy Trinity Church and the Mariners' Church (an evangelical mission to seafarers), decided not to wait and pre-emptively went on strike, thus winning the eight-hour day. They celebrated with a victory dinner on 1 October 1855. When the six-month ultimatum expired in February 1856, stonemasons generally in Sydney agitated for a reduction of hours. Although opposed by employers, a two-week strike on the construction of Tooth's Brewery on Parramatta Road proved effective, and stonemasons won an eight-hour day by early March 1856, but with a reduction in wages to match.
Agitation was also occurring in Melbourne where the craft unions were more militant. Stonemasons working on Melbourne University organized to down tools on 21 April 1856 and march to Parliament House with other members of the building trade. The movement in Melbourne was led by veteran chartists and mason James Stephens, T.W. Vine and James Galloway. The government agreed that workers employed on public works should enjoy an eight-hour day with no loss of pay and Stonemasons celebrated with a holiday and procession on Monday 12 May 1856, when about 700 people marched with 19 trades involved. By 1858 the eight-hour day was firmly established in the building industry and by 1860 the eight-hour day was fairly widely worked in Victoria. From 1879 the eight-hour day was a public holiday in Victoria. The initial success in Melbourne led to the decision to organize a movement, to actively spread the eight-hour idea, and secure the condition generally.
In 1903 veteran socialist Tom Mann spoke to a crowd of a thousand people at the unveiling of the Eight Hour Day monument, funded by public subscription, on the corner of Victoria and Russell Streets outside Melbourne Trades Hall.
It took further campaigning and struggles by trade unions to extend the reduction in hours to all workers in Australia. In 1916 the New South Wales Eight Hours Act was passed granting the eight-hour day to all workers in the state. The eight-hour day was not achieved nationally until the 1920s. The Commonwealth Arbitration Court gave approval of the 40-hour five-day working week nationally beginning on 1 January 1948. The achievement of the eight-hour day has been described by historian Rowan Cahill as one of the great successes of the Australian working class during the nineteenth century, demonstrating to Australian workers that it was possible to successfully organize, mobilize, agitate, and exercise significant control over working conditions and quality of life. The Australian trade union movement grew out of eight-hour campaigning and the movement that developed to promote the principle.
The intertwined numbers 888 soon adorned the pediment of many union buildings around Australia. The Eight Hour March, which began on April 21, 1856, continued each year until 1951 in Melbourne, when the conservative Victorian Trades Hall Council decided to forgo the tradition for the Moomba festival on the Labour Day weekend. In capital cities and towns across Australia Eight Hour day marches became a regular social event each year, with early marches often restricted to those workers who had won an eight-hour day.
At the turn of the 20th century the eight-hour day was introduced by Ernst Abbe at the Zeiss plants in Jena, Germany.
In Portugal a vast wave of strikes occurred in 1919, supported by the National Workers' Union, the biggest labour union organization at the time. The workers achieved important objectives, including the historic victory of an eight-hour day.
In the region of Alcoy, Spain, workers struck in 1873 for the eight-hour day following much agitation from the anarchists. In 1919 in Barcelona, after a 44-day general strike with over 100,000 participants had effectively crippled the Catalan economy, the Government in Barcelona settled the strike by granting all the striking workers demands that included an eight-hour day, union recognition, and the rehiring of fired workers. Spain was the first country to pass a national eight-hour day law. See Anarchism in Spain.
In Russia the eight-hour day was introduced in 1917, four days after the October Revolution, by a Decree of the Soviet government.
"It is impossible to establish universal uniformity of hours without inflicting very serious injury to workers." — Motion at the recent Trades' Congress.
The Factory Act of 1833 limited the work day for children in factories. Those aged 9-13 could work only eight hours, 14-18 12 hours. Children under 9 were required to attend school.
In 1884, Tom Mann joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and published a pamphlet calling for the working day to be limited to eight hours. Mann formed an organization, the Eight Hour League, which successfully pressured the Trades Union Congress to adopt the eight-hour day as a key goal.
In Iran in 1918, the work of reorganizing the trade unions began in earnest in Tehran during the closure of the Iranian constitutional parliament Majles. The printers' union, established in 1906 by Mohammad Parvaneh as the first trade union, in the Koucheki print shop on Nasserieh Avenue in Tehran, reorganized their union under leadership of Russian-educated Seyed Mohammad Dehgan, a newspaper editor and an avowed Communist. In 1918, the newly-organized union staged a 14-day strike and succeeded in reaching a collective agreement with employers to institute the eight-hours day, overtime pay, and medical care. The success of the printers' union encouraged other trades to organize. In 1919 the bakers and textile-shop clerks formed their own trade unions.
However the eight-hours day only became as code by a limited governor’s decree on 1923 by the governor of Kerman, Sistan and Baluchistan, which controlled the working conditions and working hours for workers of carpet workshops in the province. In 1946 the council of ministers issued the first labor law for Iran, which recognized the eight-hour day.
The Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 produced the Constitution of 1917, which contained Article 123 that gave workers the right to organize labor unions and to strike. It also provided protection for women and children, the eight-hour day, and a living wage. See Mexican labor law.
Promoted by Samuel Duncan Parnell as early as 1840, when carpenter Samuel Parnell refused to work more than eight hours a day when erecting a store for merchant George Hunter. He successfully negotiated this working condition and campaigned for its extension in the infant Wellington community. A meeting of Wellington carpenters in October 1840 pledged "to maintain the eight-hour working day, and that anyone offending should be ducked into the harbour". New Zealand is reputed to be the first country in the world to have adopted the eight-hour working day.
Parnell is reported to have said: "There are twenty-four hours per day given us; eight of these should be for work, eight for sleep, and the remaining eight for recreation and in which for men to do what little things they want for themselves." With tradesmen in short supply the employer was forced to accept Parnell's terms. Parnell later wrote, "the first strike for eight hours a day the world has ever seen, was settled on the spot".
Emigrants to the new settlement of Dunedin, Otago, while onboard ship decided on a reduction of working hours. When the resident agent of the New Zealand Company, Captain Cargill, attempted to enforce a ten-hour day in January 1849 in Dunedin, he was unable to overcome the resistance of trades people under the leadership of house painter and plumber, Samuel Shaw. Building trades in Auckland achieved the eight-hour day on 1 September 1857 after agitation led by Chartist painter, William Griffin. For many years the eight-hour day was confined to craft tradesmen and unionized workers. Labour Day, which commemorates the introduction of the eight-hour day, became a national public holiday in 1899.
In Puerto Rico in May 1899, while under US administration, General George W. Davis succeeded to Island demands and decreed freedom of assembly, speech, press, religion and an eight-hour day for government employees.
A strike for the eight-hour day was held in May 1919 in Peru. In Uruguay during the second term of president José Batlle y Ordóñez unemployment compensation (1914), the eight-hour day (1915), and universal suffrage were introduced. In Chile it was introduced in 1924, after the Saber noise event (Ruido de sables), by the September Junta.
In the United States, Philadelphia carpenters went on strike in 1791 for the ten-hour day. By the 1830s, this had become a general demand. In 1835, workers in Philadelphia organized a general strike, led by Irish coal heavers. Their banners read, From 6 to 6, ten hours work and two hours for meals. Labor movement publications called for an eight-hour day as early as 1836. Boston ship carpenters, although not unionized, achieved an eight-hour day in 1842.
In 1864, the eight-hour day quickly became a central demand of the Chicago labor movement. The Illinois legislature passed a law in early 1867 granting an eight-hour day but had so many loopholes that it was largely ineffective. A city-wide strike that began on May 1, 1867 shut down the city's economy for a week before collapsing. In 1868, Congress passed an eight-hour law for federal employees, which was also of limited effectiveness.
In August 1866 the National Labor Union at Baltimore passed a resolution that said, "The first and great necessity of the present to free labour of this country from capitalist slavery, is the passing of a law by which eight hours shall be the normal working day in all States of the American Union. We are resolved to put forth all our strength until this glorious result is achieved."
During the 1870s, eight hours became a central demand, especially among labor organizers, anarchists and socialists, with a network of Eight-Hour Leagues which held rallies and parades. A hundred thousand workers in New York City struck and won the eight-hour day in 1872, mostly for building trades workers. In Chicago, Albert Parsons became recording secretary of the Chicago Eight-Hour League in 1878, and was appointed a member of a national eight-hour committee in 1880.
At its convention in Chicago in 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions resolved that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labour from and after May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labour organizations throughout this jurisdiction that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution by the time named."
The leadership of the Knights of Labor, under Terence V. Powderly, rejected appeals to join the movement as a whole, but many local Knights assemblies joined the strike call including Chicago, Cincinnati and Milwaukee. On May 1, 1886, Albert Parsons, head of the Chicago Knights of Labor, with his wife Lucy Parsons and two children, led 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue, Chicago, in what is regarded as the first modern May Day Parade, in support of the eight-hour day. In the next few days they were joined nationwide by 350,000 workers who went on strike at 1,200 factories, including 70,000 in Chicago, 45,000 in New York, 32,000 in Cincinnati, and additional thousands in other cities. Some workers gained shorter hours (eight or nine) with no reduction in pay; others accepted pay cuts with the reduction in hours.
On May 3, 1886, August Spies, editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung (Workers Newspaper), spoke at a meeting of 6,000 workers, and afterwards many of them moved down the street to harass strikebreakers at the McCormick plant in Chicago. The police arrived, opened fire, and killed four people, wounding many more. At a subsequent rally on May 4 to protest this violence, a bomb exploded at the Haymarket Square. Hundreds of labour activists were rounded up and the prominent labour leaders arrested, tried, convicted, and executed giving the movement its first martyrs. On June 26, 1893 Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld set the remaining leader free, and granted full pardons to all those tried claiming they were innocent of the crime for which they had been tried and the hanged men had been the victims of "hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge".
The American Federation of Labor, meeting in St Louis in December 1888, set May 1, 1890 as the day that American workers should work no more than eight hours. The International Workingmen's Association (Second International), meeting in Paris in 1889, endorsed the date for international demonstrations, thus starting the international tradition of May Day.
The Building Trades Council (BTC) of San Francisco, under the leadership of P.H. McCarthy, won the eight-hour day in 1900 when the BTC unilaterally declared that its members would work only eight hours a day for $3 a day. When the mill resisted, the BTC began organizing mill workers; the employers responded by locking out 8,000 employees throughout the Bay Area. The BTC, in return, established a union planing mill from which construction employers could obtain supplies — or face boycotts and sympathy strikes if they did not. The mill owners went to arbitration, where the union won the eight-hour day, a closed shop for all skilled workers, and an arbitration panel to resolve future disputes. In return, the union agreed to refuse to work with material produced by non-union planing mills or those that paid less than the Bay Area employers.
By 1905 the eight-hour day was widely installed in the printing trades, but the vast majority of Americans worked 12-14 hour days.
On January 5, 1914, the Ford Motor Company took the radical step of doubling pay to $5 a day and cut shifts from nine hours to eight, moves that were not popular with rival companies, although seeing the increase in Ford's productivity, most soon followed suit.[citation needed]
The eight-hour day was realized for many working people in the U.S. in 1938, when the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S. Code Chapter 8) under the New Deal made it a legal day's work throughout the nation.[citation needed]
May Day, The Workers' Day, born in the struggle for the eight-hour day, Andy McInerney, in Liberation & Marxism, issue no. 27, Spring 1996
Categories: Labour relations | Labor history | Labour history of Australia | Working time | Labor rights
This article is about the 2008 film. For the first film of the Rambo series sometimes called "Rambo", see First Blood. For other uses, see Rambo.
Rambo (also known as Rambo IV or John Rambo) is a 2008 American Action/War film starring Sylvester Stallone returning and reprising his famous role as legendary Vietnam veteran John Rambo. Stallone also co-wrote and directed the film. It is the fourth installment of the Rambo franchise, twenty years since the last film Rambo III. This film is dedicated to the memory of Richard Crenna, who played Col. Sam Trautman in the first three films; he died in 2003. Unlike the previous sequels, this film attempts to keep the serious tone of the original film.
Rambo holds the record with the most kills out of the entire Rambo series, with 236 kills[2] – Stallone justified this in a press conference by saying the violence in the film was to draw attention to the ongoing problems in Burma. It should be also noted that this is the first Rambo film that Rambo uses a handgun as weapon while in the previous films Rambo used mostly machine guns and submachine guns. Including the intake of $41,368,619 in DVD sales, the film's total gross revenue is $154,611,774.[3]
The film opens with newsreels of the crisis in Burma. Burma is under the iron-fisted rule of Than Shwe and takes harsh stances against the nation's pro-democracy movement. Rebels are thrown into a mine-infested marsh and then gunned down by the Tatmadaw, while the cigarette-smoking Burmese military officer Major Pa Tee Tint gazes grimly at the scene.
Former U.S. soldier John Rambo still lives in Thailand and now resides in a village near the Burmese border. He makes a living capturing snakes and selling them in a nearby village. He also transports roamers in his boat. A missionary, Michael Burnett (Paul Schulze), asks Rambo to take him and his associates up the Salween River to Burma on a humanitarian mission to give aid to Karen tribespeople. Rambo refuses but is convinced by Sarah Miller (Julie Benz) to take them.
The boat is stopped by pirates who demand Sarah in exchange for passage, which Rambo knows will lead to her rape, torture and most likely death of all on the boat. After negotiations fail, Rambo kills them all. Although his actions save the missionaries, it greatly disturbs them. Upon arrival, Michael says that they will travel by road and will not need Rambo's help for the return trip. The mission goes well until the Tatmadaw, led by Major Tint, attack. They kill most of the villagers and two missionaries and kidnap the rest, including Michael and Sarah. When the missionaries fail to come back after ten days, their pastor (Ken Howard) comes to ask Rambo's help in guiding hired mercenaries to the village where the missionaries were last seen.
Rambo agrees to accompany the soldiers. After seeing the destroyed village, they plan to save the hostages at a P.O.W. camp. Rambo helps Sarah and the others to escape. The Tatmadaw unit finds the hostages missing and organizes a massive manhunt. Everyone except for Rambo, Sarah, and the mercenary "School Boy" is captured. Just as the group is to be executed, Rambo hijacks a jeep-mounted .50-caliber machine gun and engages the Burmese army. Karen rebels join the fight to help Rambo and the mercenaries win. Major Tint attempts to get away, but is personally disemboweled by Rambo.
Encouraged by Sarah's words, Rambo returns to the United States. A silent last scene shows him walking along a rural highway, past a horse farm and a rusted mailbox bearing the name "R. Rambo." Then he sees the mailbox with the name of his father on it. (When previously asked if he had any living family, Rambo said his father might still be alive.) He makes his way down the gravel driveway as the credits roll.
Filming started on February 23, 2007 and ended on May 4, 2007. The movie was shot at Chiang Mai, Thailand as well as in Mexico and the United States in Arizona.
While filming near Burma, Stallone and the rest of the crew narrowly avoided being shot by the Burmese military. Stallone described Burma as a "hellhole". He said "we had shots fired above our heads" and that he "witnessed survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land-mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off."[4]
The most recent installment of the Rambo franchise has undergone many name changes during pre-release, and has been known as the following:
Rambo IV - The title used in Brazil and Russia (Russian: Рэмбо 4), due to the fact that First Blood was originally released as simply Rambo (or as Rambo: First Blood in Russia (Russian: Рэмбо: Первая кровь)) in those countries and also this is how the film is completely known and referred to as by fans and the public.
John Rambo - This was the original working title for the film but was changed because Stallone thought that audiences might think that this is the final film in the Rambo series. In many other countries, the title John Rambo is kept because the first Rambo movie, First Blood, was released as Rambo in many foreign territories.
Rambo: Regreso al Infierno - (Rambo: Return to Hell in Spanish) - The name of the film in Mexico and Latin America, and In other Latin countries, the film was re-titled from Rambo: Regreso al Infierno to John Rambo: Vuelta al Infierno (John Rambo: Back to Hell in Spanish) and in some other Latin regions, the film's original title John Rambo still remains.
Rambo: El Regreso - (Rambo: The Return) in Chile, as First Blood was also known as Rambo in those territories.
On October 12, 2007, Lionsgate announced that the film title was being changed to Rambo: To Hell and Back. After some negative feedback from the online community, Stallone spoke with AICN's Harry Knowles[5] and said:
"Lionsgate jumped the gun on this. I just was thinking that the title John Rambo was derivative of Rocky Balboa and might give people the idea that this is the last Rambo film, and I don't necessarily feel that it will be. He's definitely a superb athlete, there's no reason he can't continue onto another adventure. Like John Wayne with The Searchers."
Brian Tyler composed the original score for the film. Stallone wanted Tyler to incorporate Jerry Goldsmith's original themes into the movie. He did not rely on Goldsmith's actual theme, though he used it enough to tie this film to the others, musically, and also based his own theme and orchestrations on the style of the original to maintain the musical series. The soundtrack includes 20 tracks.[6] Brian Tyler also composed the soundtrack to The Hunted in 2003, a film with striking similarities to the first Rambo film, First Blood.
Rambo opened in 2,751 North American theaters on January 25, 2008 and grossed $6,490,000 on its opening day,[8] and $18,200,000 over its opening weekend. It was the second highest grossing movie for the weekend in the U.S. and Canada behind Meet the Spartans.[9] The film has a box office gross of $42,754,105 in the United States and in Canada and a gross of $70,489,050 in other territories, giving it a worldwide total of $113,243,155.[10]
The film has grossed $41,368,619 in DVD sales, bringing its total film gross to $152,209,706.[11][12][13][14]
In an unprecedented move, Europe's biggest cinema chain (and the third biggest in the world), Odeon, controversially refused to show the film on any of its screens in the United Kingdom, blaming "commercial differences".[15] UCI followed suit in its Republic of Ireland cinemas, which were managed by Odeon.[16] The film was, however, shown in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland by other theater chains such as Empire Cinemas, Vue, Cineworld and Ward Anderson. The film was not shown in the French-speaking part of Switzerland due to legal and commercial problems with the distributor, even if it was available on screens of France and the Swiss German-speaking part.[17]
The film was rated R by the MPAA for strong graphic bloody violence, sexual assaults, grisly images and language.
Critical reaction towards the film has been mixed; it earned a 37% rating on movie review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.[18] In his review for the New York Times, A.O. Scott wrote, "Mr. Stallone is smart enough — or maybe dumb enough, though I tend to think not — to present the mythic dimensions of the character without apology or irony. His face looks like a misshapen chunk of granite, and his acting is only slightly more expressive, but the man gets the job done. Welcome back."[19] Michael H. Price of Fort Worth Business Press wrote, "Stallone invests the role with a realistic acceptance of the aging process, and with traces reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart in 1951’s The African Queen and Clint Eastwood in 1992’s Unforgiven — to say nothing of the influences that the original First Blood had absorbed from Marlon Brando in 1953’s The Wild One and Tom Laughlin in 1971’s Billy Jack."[20] Jonathan Garret (a former writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution) said in an interview: "Rambo is the most violent movie I have ever seen. The last 11 minutes of the film are so violent, it makes We Were Soldiers look like Sesame Street".
I'm happy to report that overall I’m pleased. The level of violence might not be for everyone, but it has a serious intent. This is the first time that the tone of my novel First Blood has been used in any of the movies. It's spot-on in terms of how I imagined the character — angry, burned-out, and filled with self-disgust because Rambo hates what he is and yet knows it's the only thing he does well. ... I think some elements could have been done better, [but] I think this film deserves a solid three stars.[21][22]
The Burmese military junta has ordered DVD vendors in Burma not to distribute the film due to the movie's content.[23] Rambo is available on bootlegs however, and it is a great hit amongst the Karen Freedom Fighters and Burmese exiles critical of the Burmese military dictatorship.[citation needed] According to Karen Freedom Fighters, the movie gave them a great boost of morale. Burmese Freedom Fighters have even adopted dialogue from the movie (most notably "Live for nothing, or die for something") as rallying points and battle cries. "That, to me," said Sylvester Stallone, "is one of the proudest moments I've ever had in film."[24] Also, overseas Burmese have praised the movie for its vivid portrayal of the Burmese military's oppression of the Karen people.[25]
The DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions were released in the U.S. on May 27, 2008. The DVD is in 1 and 2 disc editions. The Special edition has a 2.40 anamorphic widescreen presentation and a Dolby Digital 5.1 EX track. The single editions have a standard 5.1 Dolby Digital track. The Blu-ray Disc has Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and DTS HD 7.1 Tracks. The DVD and Blu-ray on disc one have the film, deleted scenes, 6 featurettes, and commentary by Sylvester Stallone. The Blu-ray also has 2 extra special features, that includes a trailer gallery.
The 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray Disc editions have a digital copy of the film. There is also a 6 disc DVD set of all four Rambo films, packaged in a limited edition tin case with over 20 bonus features. A Blu-ray set with Rambo 1-3 was also released.[26][27][28]
Despite its average sales at the box office, the DVD version of Rambo sold considerably well. As of now it stands 19th place of the top selling DVDs of 2008 with 1.7m units sold and an overall gross of $37m. Since the intake of $41,368,619 in DVD sales, the film's total film gross is raised to $154,611,774.[29]
When asked about the moral of the film in a Daily Yomiuri Online interview, Sylvester Stallone mentioned that he will be doing a Director's Cut of the film, which will go by the original title of John Rambo.[30] Nevertheless, the news became most well known after a May 2008 interview with Jay Leno when he announced the work of a director's cut, and that the proceeds would go to Burma. On top of this, an online petition appeared shortly after the announcement in order to "motivate" Stallone in completing this new cut. At the 2008 Comic-Con, it was vaguely announced that the director's cut (or as they labeled it, "extended cut") would be released in 2009, though no other specifics were given.[31] Additionally, the director's cut premiered at the 2008 Zurich Film Festival.[32]
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Rambo shot down in flames as cinema chain snubs latest film - Rambo shot down in flames as cinema chain snubs latest film - Times Online