Rambo 5: Rambo vs. Sex Traffickers

categories: Human Trafficking Awareness, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Technology and the Media

Published September 01, 2009 @ 07:14AM PT

Rambo -- America's most loved, most parodied, and most clichéd action hero -- is prepping for his fifth big screen adventure. And this time, he's kicking some serious sex trafficker ass. Will the film ultimately hurt or help the anti-trafficking cause?

Sylvester Stallone returns as the title role in Rambo 5, this time to find and save a young girl kidnapped on the U.S.-Mexican border. In the process, he fights his way through hoards of sex traffickers and drug lords, one assumes by employing the usual tactful etiquette and diplomacy the Rambo series has come to embody. Production for the new Rambo, not yet given a working title, will begin in the Spring of 2010. Rumors predict it will be set and filmed in the character's hometown in Arizona. Common sense predicts people will get shot and big things will blow up.

The number of films that revolve around human trafficking is increasing as the issue gets more and more media attention. In the beginning, trafficking films were mostly small-budget, indy productions like Trade and Holly, both of which I've recommended. However, big studios are finally starting to realize that human trafficking, or more specifically sex trafficking, involves most of the elements that make a good action movie -- gobs of violence, really evil villains, hot young women in peril, macho law-enforcement-type heroes, and of course, sex. But just because the studios understand the elements of trafficking doesn't not mean they understand trafficking. Taken (the film where Liam Neeson is an ex-CIA agent whose rich, white, well-connected daughter is kidnapped in Paris) is the perfect example of how a major film company can completely fail to see how human trafficking really works. Real life spoiler alert: Traffickers prey on vulnerable people, not the educated and resourced daughters of American intell professionals. So will Rambo 5 be true to the issue? Or will it take the Taken route and focus explosion height than on actual substance?

I'd love to be wrong, but my money is on the machine gun fire being the most accurate and educating part of Rambo 5. Still, at the end of the film the score is sure to be Rambo: 1, Sex Traffickers, 0. And I'll probably shell out the $9.50 just to see them loose.

Photo credit: Nukeit1

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Comments (4)

The Hollywood attention is a mixed blessing. Its all about sex trafficking of attractive young girls, which is a problem that needs to be stopped, but is only a fraction of the trafficking problem. For me this goes back to the whole labelling thing. It might be better if we came up with some better labels for modern slavery that didn't just evoke girls being kidnapped forcibly and sold to creepy villains. And I dont think I would go see "Rambo 5" if they were handing out free $20 bills.

Posted by Slim Chance on 09/02/2009 @ 06:36AM PT
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i agree but dont knock these movies too much Taken is the reason i am aware of this issue. God used that movie in all of its falicies to bring me to this issue so i can help :)

Posted by Erin Ritter on 09/02/2009 @ 10:44AM PT
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I have to defend "Taken" as well since I think many people would not be as aware of this problem without its success as a film. I agree with Amanda that in reality trafficking victims are not daughters of rich, white, CIA agents. However, that's what makes the movie so suspenseful, and SATISFYING--the victim's father can actually track her down and kill those responsible. I suspect this Rambo movie attempts to accomplish the same thing...giving the audience a sense that justice has been done--Rambo style. I'll give it a chance.

Posted by Susan S. on 09/05/2009 @ 08:55PM PT
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I agree that its always gratifying to see evil folks get taken down permanenly but in addition to hollywood's misconception about the typical victim profile in terms of status...I would also point out their misconception that all female sex slaves are "hot babes"...

That kind of misconception can also make it harder to fight human trafficking because too many folks will assume that if you dont measure up to societys standard of beauty then your safe from being enslaved...

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/08/2009 @ 03:51PM PT
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Author

Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.