Stallone appeared on O’Reilly’s show last night, and Bill asked him what he thought of some liberal elites slamming the movie as too “pro-America” and too rah-rah cheering for the United States. Stallone quickly dismisses that, saying “The Expendables” is a movie about American heroes – that’s it. If someone wants to skew that to be off-putting, then so be it. But nay-sayers should be weeping at this point, as this upcoming weekend looks to have “The Expendables” remain at #1 at the Box Office.

Here’s a portion of the transcript, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter:

“I’m innocent. I didn’t do nuttin,” Stallone joked Thursday night on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Stallone was responding to an assertion in the Los Angeles Times that “Expendables” was exploiting patriotism in order to put American-made butts into movie theater seats.

All that pro-American schmaltz where right is right and wrong is wrong should be left to country music and Fox News, not Hollywood, suggests Steven Zeitchick in the Times article. He writes, “When times are confusing, we want movies to reflect that confusion, and even to make sense of it. But we probably don’t want to pretend that confusion doesn’t exist.”

The article prompted host Bill O’Reilly to ask Stallone: “There’s no, like, subtle promoting-America message to the people of Pakistan” in the movie?

Apparently not.

“It’s pretty straight forward,” Stallone said. “You’re bad, you gotta go.”

Stallone compared the Times complaint to similar ones he fielded after making “Rambo: First Blood Part II.” It was “blasphemous,” he said, to suggest the fictional John Rambo would want to refight the Vietnam War and actually win it this time.

Stallone, though, doesn’t apologize for creating characters that are proud Americans and offers the observation that: “America apologizes too much.”

You know, you just can’t keep a good American-Hero movie down, no matter how hard your sad little liberal bleeding-heart tries to dismiss it.

Stallone is DA MAN, as are the other “expendables.” I pine for that day when American Heroes are no longer something to apologize for. Amen, Sly!