Sylvester Stallone: U.S. 'apologizes too much'

12:51 PM PDT 10/14/2010 by Paul Bond, AP

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Actor says 'Expendables' does not have political agenda

What would John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart think of this?

Sylvester Stallone has been defending his movie "The Expendables" from the dastardly charge that the movie is... too American.

"I'm innocent. I didn't do nuttin," Stallone joked Thursday night on "The O'Reilly Factor." (Click here for video.)

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."

Just don't infer from that popular right-wing sentiment that Stallone is interested in politics.

"You don't strike me as an overtly political guy," O'Reilly says.

"No. No," says Stallone.