Peter MacDonald

In Rambo III (1988), John Rambo goes into battle for a friend, a motive that ought to need little embellishment. MacDonald treats him with such reverence that he becomes difficult to care about. We were worn out by the succession of battles because the film kept asking us to applaud destruction without giving us enough reason to fear for anyone. It is a poor war adventure despite the force of its action.

His earlier work helps explain why the action itself has authority. As a camera operator for cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, he worked on Cabaret (1972) and Superman (1978), then moved into second-unit direction. On The Empire Strikes Back (1980), he directed and photographed second-unit material. His method is to match the principal unit's photography and direction, often photographing the material himself. Such work asks him to make complex action fit a film whose style has already been set, and that seems a sounder use of his skills.

Rambo III was his feature directing debut, taken over at short notice after the original director departed. That deserves some allowance, though it cannot make the result more involving. John Stanier's imposing cinematography and Bill Kenney's production design give him the scale the battles need, and he puts it to forceful use. Richard Crenna supplies welcome interest, but the weak dialogue leaves him too much to repair. We would have traded some of the destruction for dialogue that gave Crenna more to work with.

He continued directing features, including The NeverEnding Story III (1994) and Legionnaire (1998), while continuing second-unit work on films such as Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Judging that work requires some restraint: matching another director's style is the job, so a finished sequence need not announce who made it. We would hesitate to dismiss that craft because his first feature disappointed us. If Rambo III is the attraction, a taste for destructive spectacle will need to come with considerable patience.