Megalomaniacal war film with Sylvester Stallone, who fired the director because his opponents were too pretty (!)

It’s better not to mess with Rambo. In the case of Rambo III, not only his Soviet opponents learned this, but also the film’s first director. Sylvester Stallone
found his enemies in the film too beautiful. That’s no joke.

War film on Amazon Prime: Sylvester Stallone threw his director off the set

At the beginning of Rambo III, elite soldier John Rambo (Stallone) has given up the craft of war. As his mentor Trautman (Richard Crenna) him wants to recruit for a secret operation in the war in Afghanistan, he refuses. Only when Trautman is captured by Soviet soldiers on the Afghan border does Rambo take up arms again.

Check out the trailer for Rambo III here:

With its bombastic battle scenes, Rambo III is the first real war film in the series. Lead actor and producer Stallone secured a then-unbelievable budget of $63 million, which briefly made the action hit the most expensive film of all time (via Screenrant). The Hollywood star had a clear vision for his third appearance. One Vision that director Russell Mulcahy apparently didn’t share at all.

The break between the two came quickly and violently. It was triggered by a bizarre detail question, as Stallone later explained to Ain’t It Cool:

[Mulcahy] was tasked with finding two dozen brutal-looking Russian opponents at the filming location in Israel. The sight of them should make your blood run cold. But when I arrived, he had selected two dozen blonde, blue-eyed beauties, who resembled the losers of a surfing competition. I explained my disappointment to him, but he disagreed. So I asked him and his chiffon army to vacate the field.

Mulcahy was replaced by Peter MacDonald (The NeverEnding Story III), who later stated he failed because of the Rambo figure (via Film International). By all accounts, Stallone had gotten his way in every way. Compared to its predecessor, Rambo II – The Order, the film was a disappointment at the box office. While Part 2 grossed $150 million in the US, the sequel only grossed $53 million. (via The Numbers).

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