Stallone Witnesses Atrocities At Myanmar

Sylvester Stallone says he and his “Rambo” sequel movie crew witnessed the human toll of unspeakable atrocities while filming along the Myanmar border.

“I witnessed the aftermath — survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off. We saw many elephants with blown off legs. We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific,” Stallone told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday.

Stallone returned eight days ago from shooting “John Rambo,” the fourth movie in the action series, on the Salween River separating Thailand and Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma.

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

And this was all before the crackdown leading to the largest protests in Myanmar in two decades. After the government increased fuel prices in August, public anger turned to mass protest against 45 years of military dictatorship. Last week, soldiers responded by opening fire on unarmed demonstrators.

“This is full-scale genocide. I want an ‘R’ and I want the violence in there because it is reality. It would be a whitewashing not to show what’s [going on] over there,” stated Stallone.

The “Rambo” script, written long before the current Myanmar uprising, features boatman John Rambo — the Vietnam War-era Green Beret who specializes in violent rescues and revenge — taking a group of mercenaries up the Salween River in search of missing Christian aid workers. The character “realizes man is just a few paces away from savagery when pushed.”

Read the full story at CBS News.com.