In the 1988 American action movie Rambo III (originally titled Full Circle: First Blood Part III), Sylvester Stallone plays John Rambo, who travels to Afghanistan to free his longtime friend and mentor Colonel Sam Trautman from a Soviet prison camp.
If you exclude the parody Hot Shots! Part Deux, which isn’t a Rambo movie, was Richard Crenna’s final appearance in a Rambo movie. He would also show up in several episodes of the popular television program Judging Amy. Once more, not a Rambo movie.
Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) returns to Bangkok, Thailand, in the first scene of the movie to seek out Vietnam veteran John J. Rambo’s assistance once more. Rambo left Bangkok at the end of the second movie.
In a warehouse, Trautman witnesses Rambo engaging in stick fighting. He prevails in the match while experiencing a horrible flashback. Even though Trautman observes Rambo giving several Buddhist monks some of the money he earned, Rambo departs before he can speak to him.
The next day, Trautman follows Rambo to his home in a Buddhist monastery to make repairs. There, Trautman asks Rambo to accompany him on a mission to Afghanistan while visiting the temple that Rambo is assisting with the building.
The goal of the mission is to provide the Mujahideen, the Afghan independence fighters who are waging war against the Soviets in the Soviet-Afghan War, with weapons, particularly FIM 92-A Stinger missiles.
Rambo rejects it despite being shown images of civilians suffering as a result of Soviet military action, arguing that if he goes in, it won’t matter because it didn’t before and that he is disillusioned with the war.
Rambo will still have those opinions now, over 30 years later. Rambo asserts that he can live peacefully and feel a sense of belonging here. Rambo is told by Trautman that unless he accepts his true nature as a warrior and performs what comes naturally to him, he must come full circle and understand that he will always be pulling away at himself.
Trautman decides to enter on his own because Rambo remains unimpressed. Trautman’s men are ambushed by Soviet troops while traveling through the mountains at night while in Afghanistan.
Colonel Zaysen (Marc de Jonge) and his goon Kourov (Randy Raney) confine Trautman at a Soviet facility and use coercion to get information from Trautman. Robert Griggs, an embassy field officer, tells Rambo about the event.
Despite Griggs’ warning that the US government will deny any knowledge of Rambo’s actions if he is killed or captured, Rambo persuades Griggs to accompany him on an unauthorized operation.
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Rambo 3 Filming Locations
The majority of the film was filmed in Israel and Thailand. The sequence in the Buddhist monastery was filmed in Lamphun, Thailand’s Wat Phra Phutthabat Tak Pha. At the East Asiatic Company Thailand Building in Charoen Krung 40, Bangkok, a scenario involving the US Embassy was filmed.
In Bangkok, Thailand, near Wat Sangkrachai Worawihan Temple, the Stick Fight and Long Tail Boat scenes were filmed. Other scenes were filmed in Israel’s Eilat, Jaffa, and Tel Aviv.
The scenario was set in Peshawar, Pakistan, and had a decorated set for the Afghan bazaar. The movie was almost finished when it was forced to stop production in Israel and instead chose to shoot the last sequences at the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation in Yuma, Arizona in the United States. As a result, genuine Soviet and Afghan weapons were lost.
After two weeks of filming, Peter MacDonald took over as director instead of the original Russell Mulcahy due to creative differences. Additionally, three directors of photography were successful.
A reference to Ahmad Shah Masoud, a real-life leader of the Afghani resistance against the Russian occupation, Afghanistan’s minister of defense after the Russian occupation ended, and later once more a leader of the resistance, this time against the Taliban regime, can be found in the character Masoud (played by Spiros Focas).
Jerry Goldsmith wrote the lengthy score for the movie, albeit it wasn’t used in its entirety. On the soundtrack, it was lengthened back to its original state.
