First Blood (1982) - Rambo

First Blood: Rambo (1982)

8/10

Starring

Sylvester Stallone

Richard Crenna

Brian Dennehy

Directed by Ted Kotcheff

My favorite Stallone film—and, until he makes another greater movie, the best one there is—is First Blood. You haven’t seen a true action film until you’ve seen Rambo. When a man decides to take on an entire town and almost succeeds in bringing it down, all because some nosy sheriff won’t mind his own business… that’s reason enough to see this movie, ladies and gentlemen.

This movie is a post-Vietnam War psychological thriller, which happens to be the only critically acclaimed entry in the series. The others in the franchise are all adventure action movies where Rambo carries out his destruction derby in other countries.

One reason I like this movie is that the hero is actually the bad guy. John Rambo almost kills everybody in the sheriff’s office, runs into the forest, and turns the wild animals into prey.

This movie has one of the best screenplays out there. It makes great use of the trauma many Vietnam War veterans go through and the segregation they face when they return home. In First Blood, this man snaps and sees the entire town as his enemy. He feels like a captive and acts like a madman on the loose. Rambo is such a badass that I feel McClane (from the Die Hard franchise) took pointers from him.

The movie stars Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, who gets arrested just for looking different. While about to receive a shave at the station, Rambo snaps as memories of being tortured as a Vietnam POW flash through his mind. He breaks out of the station, runs into the woods, and is chased by the entire police force.

In the woods, the sheriff and his deputies shoot at him, drawing first blood, and Rambo retaliates by almost killing everyone who comes after him.

To me, the best part of this movie is the last seven minutes when Rambo delivers his speech about returning from Vietnam and his experiences there.

Based on a 1972 book of the same name by David Morrell, First Blood was directed by Ted Kotcheff. Stallone used his star power from the Rocky films to change some aspects of the character. According to Morrell’s book, Rambo was extremely violent and kind of off his rocker, killing nonstop and ultimately dying. The initial screenplay, before Stallone’s revisions, had Rambo intentionally kill at least 16 people, but Stallone felt the character was too cold.
So, he rewrote parts of the screenplay, making Rambo more sympathetic and replacing intentional killings with accidental ones.

The movie was a huge commercial success, making up to 10 times its production cost (the budget was $14 million). It propelled Stallone, who at the time only had Rocky as his sole hit movie. First Blood is less gory and violent than the other movies in the franchise, but boy, it’s the best one you’ll enjoy watching every time.