There are some things that legendary actor Sylvester Stallone cannot abide when making some of the best action movies known to humanity. Knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses is an important place to start, and shooting in actual locations always beats any sort of in-studio trickery. While those are valid points, Stallone has also shared a blunt take on how action movie heroes should behave, and I honestly don’t agree with him about it.
Sylvester Stallone’s Blunt Take On Action Movie Heroes
An action titan in his own right, the Rambo actor has been promoting his new Netflix documentary Sly, which is set to debut as part of the 2023 movie release schedule. Showing the film off at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, Sylvester Stallone was on hand to share his feelings about the way of the tough guy.
In remarks made during the festival (via THR), here’s one of Sly’s cornerstones to being what he feels is a true, blue action hero:
Action heroes should shut their mouth. Action guys who perform heroic deeds don’t talk about it. They just do it. And it’s that simple.
If there’s a list of people that could authoritatively speak about the rules of an action hero, Sylvester Stallone is absolutely on that roster. The man helped reinvent action cinema through his competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I totally respect that. But with this healthy regard for the star of Demolition Man in mind, I’d like to talk about why I don’t agree with this hard and fast rule.
Why I Don’t Agree With Sylvester Stallone’s Thoughts
Admittedly, the term “action hero” is something that’s subjective, as there’s not exactly an academic criteria that determines who qualifies. In that same regard, there’s plenty of room for defining the behavior of an action hero. Some action dudes are definitely the strong and silent type, and Sylvester Stallone is surely one of them. That’s not exactly the strategy for every hero that takes on a building full of evil doers.
Heroes like James Bond, Alien’s Ellen Ripley and John McClane from the Die Hard movies are perhaps some of the finest examples of people who aren’t just trigger pullers. Throughout their various films, we’ve seen keen thinking explained through everything from matter-of-fact planning to crafty one-liners. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, an actor who Stallone once admitted to being the superior action star, would probably agree that sometimes you need to take a beat and listen to the warrior in charge regrouping before launching their next assault.
Some action heroes are better off as the strong and silent type, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for others that are a little more vocal about what they’re doing. If that were the case, would we have ever gotten John Rambo’s famous “they drew first blood” speech?
Perhaps there’s more of an explanation as to why Sylvester Stallone feels this way in Sly, the documentary that’s set to debut this November. If you’re as intrigued as I am to learn those answers, you might want to make sure your Netflix subscription is in order beforehand.