Burma: Sylvester Stallone speaks out "hell beyond your wildest dreams"

Daily Mail Last updated at 13:21pm on 2nd October 2007

Sylvester Stallone said he witnessed "a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams" while filming on the Burma border.

The actor and his movie crew were shooting "John Rambo", the fourth movie in the action series, on the Salween River separating Burma and Thailand.

"I witnessed the aftermath - survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off.


Sylvester Stallone was shooting the latest Rambo movie on the border of Burma

"We saw many elephants with blown off legs. We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific," he said.

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


Shots were fired over the film crew's heads and there were threats, he said.

"We were told we could get seriously hurt if we went on," Stallone added.

He had first hand accounts, too, from the Burmese extras whose families were imprisoned.

Stallone returned eight days ago - before the crackdown last week against the largest pro-democracy protests in Burma in two decades.

He has faced criticism for his choice of location. "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.

Now Stallone is finding the editing process difficult, and finds himself asking the question "Are you making a documentary of a 'Rambo' movie?"


He wants to retain the violence in the film - and is prepared to face the challenge from the film board, the Motion Picture Association of America, over the rating.

"This is full scale genocide. I want the violence in there because it is reality. It would be a whitewashing not to show what's over there," he said.

"I think there is a story that needs to be told," Stallone said. The film will be released in January.

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