Are movies ever as good as we remember?
And can they ever be as wonderful as we might anticipate from seeing the “teaser” poster and still photos taken while filming on location? Sometimes the flick is as good as we hoped, sometimes better, but not always. So we learn to get used to disappointment.
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The majority of action movies are competing PG-13 “thrillers” that scarcely warrant feature length status. The average film in this genre with its scant plot and barren subtext devotes a single-minded push on the audience’s buttons to outrun imminent damnation by critics, who don’t really seem to matter much anymore. Generally offering a memorable villain to make the neck-hairs stand on end, and a forgettable hero who in short order cancels dozens of lives single-handedly, those flicks require ratcheting up the already LOUD soundtrack to compensate for failure in ginning up genuine tension.
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Then along came Sylvester Stallone…and THE EXPENDABLES.
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Amid the thin ranks of buy-and-sell hustle this yearat the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, gaudy posters endeavor to compete for attention with rank insobriety. Among the warren of booths where films are for sale (whether they’re finished or not) a “teaser” poster entreat the Palais: THE EXPENDABLES. Where discussions of art over commerce dominate the conversation, what emerges is a poster with animal ferocity precisely observed; a world engulfed in flames and ordered by violence.
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The groundswell of excitement over Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming production THE EXPENDABLES certainly fits the paradigm when it comes to anticipation. But will the hydra-headed, triumvirate filmmaker triumphantly trump the motion picture industry once more (following the unexpected success of ROCKY BALBOA in 2006 and a strong return in RAMBO in 2008) by removing any doubt about his ability to deliver commercially successful filmed entertainment? A third cinematic coup will undoubtedly charm his fans, unleash his considerable acumen, while giving the actor-writer-director his biggest box office success in the U.S., the strongest to come from overseas.
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From his adenoidal voice, amorphous lips and dropping eyelids, depending on the state of war, he is not given to easy laughter. Sylvester Stallone's screen persona infers a measure of self-evaluation but saved from being soften or cheapen by Rocky-styled sentimentality in the cast of John Rambo—a face unaccountably streaked with fresh fights and mottled from age, where something very sad lay hidden, suggesting the violence that inscribes his body with those old scars and new wounds that contrast the deadpan meditation of his authority and moral conscience. We don’t really see what’s tormenting this man, or discover the essence what empowers him; we see nothing beyond a brief, teachable erudition delivered in an almost self-amused way. What we do know is that deadened, airless quality in the absence of ambient sound just before some lethal moment....
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RAMBO, sumptuously photographed by Glen MacPherson, is a brilliantly directed action / adventure piece visually streamlined with wide-screen compositions and incredible dynamism. Although writer-director Stallone desires to shoot his gestating cinematic opus on the life and death of Edgar Allen Poe (long been in the oven for many years) the moneymen insisted upon another Rambo-styled genre convention. The demand for explosive scenes with the preponderance of testosterone and the promise of brawny commercial prospects assures Sylvester Stallone his next film.
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Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (born: July 6, 1946) and nicknamed "Sly" is an Academy Award nominated screenwriter (ROCKY, 1976) and for almost twenty years the biggest box office draws in the world. The paradigm for cinematic machismo in action films, he will always be remembered for his twin creations: Rocky Balboa, a pugilist who overcame the odds, and John Rambo, a former soldier who through violence found peace and a reckoning—two characters that found permanence in the American cultural lexicon.
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A statue of the “Rocky” character has been permanently placed near the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a cultural landmark; in addition, another statue of “Rocky” was erected in the Serbian village of Žitište. The film has also been inducted into the National Film Registry as well as props from the movie having been placed in the Smithsonian Museum as national treasures.
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Stallone’s most influential films based on these two icons did, in fact, alter American pop culture in the 1980s, as the actor-writer-director enjoyed a career on the Hollywood A-list for nearly three decades. Following a brief semi-retirement from working in front of the camera, Stallone made his glorious comeback with ROCKY BALBOA in 2006—the sixth and final installment of the franchise—both a critical and commercial hit; and his performance praised, winning the actor largely positive reviews.
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The fourth installment of RAMBO (a huge, complicated production filmed in 2007) came in 2008 with positive box office results, as the filmmaker resettled into his career.
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While much of his work as a director has been cartoony, unconvincing or unnecessary, his talent goes unquestioned. Having previously directed only seven films in 30 years, Stallone last sat in the director’s chair for the production of ROCKY IV (1985) before calling the shots on ROCKY BALBOA (2006)—neither time nor volume qualifying his skill—and a limited filmography, and yet one quite convincing.
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PARADISE ALLEY (1978)
ROCKY II (1979)
ROCKY III (1982)
STAYING ALIVE (1983)
ROCKY IV (1985)
ROCKY BALBOA (2006)
RAMBO (2008)
THE EXPENDABLES (2010)
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Not just some bizarre “vanity” project to come out of Hollywood, Sylvester Stallone has long turned his hand in writing a screenplay based on the torturous life and curious death of the 19th century American writer who pioneered both detective and horror fiction.
Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American poet, editor, and literary critic but best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre; one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story format, he is considered the inventor of the American detective while contributing to the then-emerging genre of science fiction; and, perhaps, less well known as the first American wordsmith to try earning a living through writing alone resulting in extreme financially difficulty in his life and career.
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The screenplay chronicles the legendary writer before authoring his famous works, through bouts of madness and deep depression, until his 1849 mysterious death.
Sylvester Stallone wrote the first draft of the screenplay decades ago, but it was in 2002 the project started coming together, the motion picture adaptation formally announced in 2005 on Variety.com as a film in development. And by 2007 actor Viggo Mortensen had been offered the role of Poe. (Viggo did ask for a few script changes.)
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Although filming in Europe had been planned to begin in the autumn of 2008, the phenomenal success of the director’s RAMBO has put The Poe Project on hold, deferring to the production start up for THE EXPENDABLES.
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While it would seem that Stallone has hung up Rocky’s boxing gloves, Rambo’s bandanna will not allow him to turn toward less action-oriented material—not for a while yet.
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Reiterating that high-flying thrill ride with a narrow mission focus, much-ballyhooed non-glamorous casting has certainly titillated spectacular interest in THE EXPENDABLES among teens without alienating the director’s picky fan-boy contingent and aging Baby Boomers.
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Having filmed in Brazil, now shooting in New Orleans, the production will wrap in Los Angeles by June 26th, expected to be released on April 23, 2010—but shooting the movie has taken remarkable hold on fans ahead of the mega-watt marketing campaign certain to come, even before 2010; and if the film doesn’t fade quickly under the press of competition, negative comments by critics of Stallone will largely be mooted. Thisstrong awareness should yield huge returns at the box office.
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A great deal of comment has been raised, and not entirely settled, about casting of movie. Although the role of "Mr. Church" (who send The Expendables on their mission) has yet to be announced while filming continues for another month, the known players are as follows:
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If you haven’t been following the Internet chatter about the casting, here’s an opportunity to play catch up.
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Don’t you think it’s important when putting together a team that each are of one mind and one goal, not an iconoclastic contrarian who purposely finds fault in everything until finally you realize that some people exist on certain planes and these planes shall never meet. I like Claude, and Claude likes himself, so that makes it unanimous. He has his agenda, which works for him, but a movie like THE EXPENDABLES is a very grueling ordeal. One must be a team player for the goals to be achieved. So sometimes things don’t work out, but I find it’s all for the best. If there’s a sequel to THE EXPENDABLES, I would reach out to the men you mentioned and several others that may be new on the scene, as long as they’re in love with the premise, not the salary.~Sylvester Stallone
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Jean-Claude Van Damme was personally offered the role of “Gunnar Jensen” by Sylvester Stallone. But he turned it down (claiming he didn’t like the part). This reportedly led to Dolph Lundgren being cast instead.
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Stallone wanted Sandra Bullock to play Agent Diane Lickson, but the actress’ schedule didn’t permit (though she said she would never do another film that glorifies violence).
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Danny Trejo is not in the movie, the actor saying that he was never asked. Slyvester Stallone met with the Latino and wanted to cast him, but said that he just couldn't place Trejo in the film where the director thought he could fit and do the picture service as well. The plot involves a group of mercenaries in South America, and Stallone couldn't find where Danny Trejo could fit? What about the role of "Emmanuel" who assists The Expendables upon their arrival in the country?
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The role of Hale Caesar originally conceived for Wesley Snipes (who turned it down due to his legal problems) was later rewritten for Forrest Whitaker. But due to a scheduling conflicts prior to filming, Whitaker was replaced by Curtis Jackson (a/k/a: 50 Cent)—when negative reaction by the fan-boy website Aint it cool News caused Jackson to be replaced by actor (and former NFL player) Terry Crews.
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Stallone re-casting Curtis Jackson with Terry Crews could be viewed as a misstep on the part of the director when, in fact, it's not unusual in the filmmaking process; quite common, really, and even on occasion something quite extraordinary. Take the movie SEPTEMBER (1987) written and directed by Woody Allen, who shot the film twice. It originally featured Sam Shepard (after Christopher Walken shot a few scenes and Allen determined the actor not right for the role). After editing, the director deemed he had made a huge mistake. So he rewrote, recast and reshot the film.
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Sly Stallone believes in consensus. He listens to everyone, absorbs everything and, when necessary, admits his error by taking corrective action in making the final decision.
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Ben Kingsley was offered the role of Monroe before Eric Roberts was cast. Denis Leary, John Lurie, and Kevin Pollack all turned down the role of "Agent Will Sands" which has been combined with that of another character. Robert Knepper and Alan Tudyk both turned down the role of “Richard”. Scott Adkins turned down the role of Dan Paine due to schedule conflict.
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Kurt Russell turned down the part of "Mr. Church". Speaking through his agent, the actor said that he was not interested in “ensemble acting at the moment.” The man who hires The Expendables has been difficult to cast.
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Initially offered to Arnold Schwarzenegger who declined in favor of a cameo, Stallone nabbed "a big action star" Bruce Willis. The actor signed to play “Church” and appear early on screen with Sly and Arnie.
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Online excitement has not been hampered by shouts of naysayer-critics who chide Sylvester Stallone for being “too old” for the role. The robust 62-year-old actor has been helped impressively by his remarkable physical fitness as the soldier of fortune and key component of a mean ensemble, leading his band of mercenaries into a seductive foreign affair.
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Here's the pitch:
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After years of corruption, the murder of U.S. hostages, and endless betrayals in foreign policy, South American dictator General Garza has devastated a vast region of his country when met by a secret American arrangement; with the help of “allied governments” a shadow squad of highly skilled military personnel that specialize in violent rescues and revenge missions infiltrates the General’s stronghold to overthrow the despot with “extreme prejudice.” But this fire team of expendable agents setting out on their secret mission to complete the assassination of Garza soon realize there will be no support coming from those “allies”. And so they must rely upon their own resources in fighting not only Garza’s army but also emissaries of the “governments” that set them up.
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Let’s face it, this is serious business. Frantic, dirty and sweaty "Expendables" in kick-ass desperate straits. And if it keeps on like this, it ain’t going to end anytime soon; and it definitely ain’t going to be pretty.
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The use of a tropical South American country has nothing to do with Venezuela. It was merely a visual choice because of the jungles and choosing a small fictional country made it believable that a small group of mercenaries could survive. There is by no means a political statement or imperialistic intentions in this film. It’s meant to entertain and nothing more.
~Sylvester Stallone
THE EXPENDABLES in a meaningful way not only bares these "monsters" but also resemblance a real-life crew of shadow military operatives known as “The Hard Chargers”—nondescript, highly trained Marines not sanction by the government, whose goal was to agitate members of the Panamanian Defense Forces prior to the 1989 United States invasion of Panama. The “allied governments” in Stallone's screenplay could well be the doppelganger for the Organization of American States that passed a resolution deploring the invasion of Panama and calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops. (The General Assembly of the United Nations also voted to condemn the invasion as a flagrant violation of international law.)
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Even though the overthrow of "an evil dictator of a South American country" has Stallone’s fictional story soaring on politically charged flights of fancy, it does open the door wide for conjecture. Every original screenplay ever written by Sylvester Stallone has undergone long periods of gestation before development into a production script. At least 20 years ago the writer-director publicly described two premises that would become central conceits for ROCKY BALBOA and RAMBO.
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A carefully setup approach from the outset, it's not a stretch to imagine Stallone's fictional General Garza in THE EXPENDABLES modeled after the real life General Manuel Antonio Noriega. Born on February 11, 1934, the former general and military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989 was never officially elected the president of Panama.
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In August 1983, Noriega enhanced his position as de facto ruler by promoting himself to full general. Being paid by the CIA, he extended new “rights” to the United States; and, despite the Panama Canal treaties, he allowed the U.S. to set up “listening posts” in Panama. He aided the American-backed guerrillas in Nicaragua by acting as a conduit for U.S. money and weapons. He rebuffed requests by Salvadoran rightist to restrict the movements of leaders of the leftist Salvadoran insurgents in Panama; and likewise rebuffed demands by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the United States Marine Corps that he provide military assistance to the Nicaraguan Contras. This last refusal probably became the basis for the U.S. campaign to oust him. By 1989 the Panama legislature had declared Noriega “chief executive officer” of the government, formalizing a state of affairs that had existed for six years, and he held the post for a brief period during that year until the U.S. invasion.
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Removed from power, he was captured, detained as a prisoner of war then flown to the United States, where Noriega was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992; convicted and sentenced, his prison term ended in September 2007, pending the outcome of extradition requests by both Panama and France. As of May 2009, he remains in prison.
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Historically, Noriega had received intelligence and counter-intelligence training at the School of the Americas at Fort Gulick in 1967, and a course in psychological operations (PsyOps) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He conducted a campaign against peasant-guerrillas in western Panama amid allegations that Noriega orchestrated the “disappearances” of political opponents. In 1988, according to Stansfield Turner, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in the early 1970s Noriega became a CIA “asset” while in reality he had been working for the agency from the late 1950s through the 1980s; he had been on the company
payroll for much of that time, though the relationship became contractual not until 1967; nevertheless, Noriega retained U.S. support until February 4, 1989, when the Drug Enforcement Administration indicted him on federal drug charges. (Noriega claimed that on March 18, 1988, he met with officials of the U.S. State Department, who offered him $2 million to go into exile in Spain.). Around this time a news report alleged that Noriega attempted to buy thousands of Browning Hi-Power pistols from a U.S. businessman and arms dealer.
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By now the U.S. government regarded Noriega as a double agent, in the belief that he had given information not only to the U.S. and its allies, Taiwan and Israel, but also to communist Cuba...and sold weapons to the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua by the late 1970s.
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The Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism in 1988 (Narcotics and International Operations) concluded that the saga of Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega represented one of the most serious foreign policy failures for the United States. Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s Noriega was able to manipulate U.S. policy toward his country, while skillfully accumulating near-absolute power in Panama. It is clear that each U.S. government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing, even as he was emerging as a key player on behalf of the Medellín Cartel (which included the notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar). Manuel Noriega, allowed to establish the first “narcokleptocracy” in the Western Hemisphere, ran a government that operated on rampant greed and corruption.
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David Zayas assumes the fictional role of General Garza, the draconian dictator ruling the fictional South American country of Corza in THE EXPENDABLES.
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Showing considerable heat with worldwide appeal, the story's political motives has considerable gravitas, not to mention the talent—above and below the title, in front and behind the marquee—and a guarantee of extremely high production values. Among the crew of excellent personnel, Jeffrey L. Kimball, cinematographer began his professional career in 1971, and famously credited for shooting TOP GUN (1986) BEVERLY HILLS COP II (1987) REVENGE (1990) and TRUE ROMANCE (1993) for director Tony Scott; and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II (2000) for director John Woo. Brian Tyler, the brilliant musician who composed an outstanding suite (based on themes by the late Jerry Goldsmith) for RAMBO, will score original music for the new film.
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But what can we really expect from this movie? A true ensemble picture, standing head and shoulders above the rest with lusty performances by actors in juicy roles, men with jutting jaws and furrowed brows, delicious dialogue, and a convulsive climax that will have audiences cheering into the end credits…it’s anyone’s guess. That said, movie buffs who have followed the director's career might suppose THE EXPENDABLES will be more stylistically grim yet relentless with a sense of true horror that won’t end soon—but only if the film ain’t PG-13—and take on a darker tone than RAMBO, Stallone's masterpiece...at least until POE.
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We really are pawns in the chess game of life so that anger perhaps even wrath fueled the fire for the first RAMBO and it took me many years to come to terms with reality and find acceptance. I don’t throw that word around lightly because that’s the key to survival or peace of mind. When you can finally accept the cards reality has dealt you and realize in this great universe you are not all powerful but merely a passenger on a train you have no control of, I began to lighten up and see the beauty of life not the tragedy.
~Sylvester Stallone
