First Blood

It was a bad time for everyone, Rambo. It's all in the past now. First Blood is directed by Ted Kotcheff and adapted by Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim and Sylvester Stallone, from the novel written by David Morrell. It stars Stallone, Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney and Jack Starrett. Cinematography is by Andrew Laszlo and the music scored by Jerry Goldsmith. Locations for the shoot were in British Columbia. John Rambo (Stallone), ex Vietnam war veteran, wanders into small town Oregon and is met with hostility by Sheriff Will Teasle (Dennehy). Arrested for a trumped up charge of vagrancy, Rambo is subjected to rough house treatment by Teasle and his staff. Fuelled by the haunted images of his time in Vietnam, Rambo breaks out of custody and makes for the hills, with Teasle and the force in hot pursuit. But this is terrain made for Rambo, an expert soldier trained to survive and kill, it's a war, Rambo versus the rest. The character of John Rambo would slip into pop culture and forever be associated with cartoon excess. By his own admission, Stallone himself felt they dropped the ball after the original film, and he's right. However, First Blood is often wrongly lumped in as part of that excessive package, because it's a film well worthy of revisits to see just how well it holds up as a taut and tense thriller. A film led by the bold theme of showing just how badly some of America's soldiers were received upon returning from Vietnam. First Blood delves deeper into the psyche of one such soldier whilst casting a caustic eye over small town Americana. The makers rarely let up on the troubling thematics at work, developing Rambo with clinical strokes as the plot unfolds, the trick in the tail being that the audience are firmly on his side as he goes about bringing his Vietnam to the picturesque place the locals call home. By 1982, it seems, America was on the side of the soldier. Stallone is a perfect fit for the role, his physicality unquestionable, he brings the brood and pain to Rambo like few actors of his ilk ever could. The sarcastic may point to his lack of dialogue hardly constituting a great acting performance, that's rot, because this is a fine character portrayal by Stallone. Dennehy is on fine form as the brutish bully Sheriff who just couldn't leave Rambo alone, while in the support ranks McKinney and Starrett leave good impressions. The interesting casting comes with Crenna as Rambo's "maker", Col. Samuel Trautman. The role was Kirk Douglas' hook line and sinker, but he wanted a different script and insisted that the film end the same way as the novel. In the end the makers just couldn't give in to his requests and he walked at the last minute. In stepped Crenna to put a bit of father figure pathos into Trautman, and subsequently earning himself a three picture deal and a place in pop culture in the process. It's also a film that's photographed with great skill by Lazlo. He captures the British Columbia mountains and forests with beautiful scope, but in keeping with the tone of the film his colour palette is suitably grey and green. Goldsmith provides an effective score, particularly when the narrative is focusing on Rambo's alienation, while the stunt work is very impressive. Even if we drift away from the theme of the piece, it still works extremely well as an action movie drama, be it motorcycle/helicopter pursuits, or jungle warfare, First Blood pumps the blood frequently. All neatly constructed by the director of Weekend at Bernie's! On release it grabbed the attention and became a monster box office hit Worldwide, today it still stands as a damn great movie, and you know what? Stallone and co were right and Kirk Douglas was wrong. 9/10

**_Action/adventure masterpiece about a one-man-army_** Vietnam vet John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) drifts into a Rocky Mountain town looking for a war buddy, only to learn that he died due to exposure to Agent Orange the prior summer. The town's sheriff (Brian Dennehy) tries to steer Rambo out of town and winds up arresting him. Big mistake because Rambo is an ex-Green beret, a virtual one-man-army, who takes on both the police and the National Guard using jungle warfare tactics. "First Blood" (1982) is an action/adventure of the first order. It's easy to lose sight of this in light of the two comic book sequels that made a caricature of John Rambo: "Rambo: First Blood Part II" (1985) and "Rambo III" (1988). Thankfully, the series made up for it with the outstanding "Rambo" in 2008, which is grim, gritty and deep. The Great Northwest locations are picturesque, albeit drizzly and dreary, while Dennehy is perfect as the arrogant, pushy sheriff. He essentially plays the same role in the Western "Silverado" (1985) albeit his character in that film is even worse. Stallone is in his physically prime here, although he's not quite as bulked-up as in the two sequels. His waist is only about 27-28 inches and his chest isn't all that big, although his arms and shoulders are certainly impressive. Anyway, one good byproduct of seeing "First Blood" is that it'll inspire guys to get back in shape or get in better shape. Stallone is outstanding in the role of Rambo. He doesn't have many lines; most of his acting is non-verbal. At the end Rambo finally lets out all his pent-up rage by screaming out: "Over there (in Vietnam) I was in charge of million dollar equipment, over here I can't even hold a job PARKING CAAAARRRRRRSSSSS!!!" I'm not normally into DVD commentaries and rarely blow the time to listen to them, but the one featured on the Special Edition DVD by writer David Morrell is very worthwhile. Morrell talks the entire 90-minute length of the film and offers a wealth of information, like the differences between the film and his novel, how the movie set many precedents in the action/adventure genre, the incredible way he came up with the name Rambo, the 3-Act story structure of motion pictures, etc. Make no mistake, David Morrell is a genius. It doesn't matter how many times you've seen "First Blood." The film has such a captivating anointing you'll be spellbound from start to finish every time. If you’re a sucker for lost-in-the-woods/survival pictures "First Blood" is a must. The film runs 1 hour, 33 minutes, and was shot in beautiful Hope and Golden Ears Provincial Park, British Columbia. GRADE: A

Sylvester Stallone Is "John Rambo", a Vietnam War veteran who is shocked to learn that the only other survivor from his crack team of Green Berets has died of a pretty pernicious cancer. He wanders aimlessly looking for a cheeseburger when he is escorted out of town by the sheriff "Will Teasle" (Brian Dennehy), who takes him for a vagrant. When he tries to come back into town, he is arrested and that sets off a chain of events that ends up pitting him against not just a rather brutal collection of local law enforcement, but ultimately the pretty useless national guard and his old CO "Trautman" (Richard Crenna). There is certainly a serious message here. This man has served his country at no small risk to himself, he even has a Congressional Medal of Honour, but has been pretty much abandoned by his government. We learn fairly early on that he has clearly been traumatised by his wartime experiences and the hostile behaviour of the local cops serves to rekindle his serious ninja skills in self-defence that quickly - though reluctantly - became self-offence. The action scenes set amongst the cold, wet and dense forest are tautly directed and quite compelling to watch, but I am afraid the acting is pretty poor. Crenna is about as wooden as one of the stakes "Rambo" uses to impale his pursuers, and the "Teasle" character just doesn't add up. We start the film with him behaving in a friendly and neighbourly way as might befit a local policeman, but after the most minimal exposure to his visitor, he turns into a violently obsessed man. Why? There is no backstory to this - and as the manhunt proceeds, and concludes, the story itself makes less and less sense. It's quite short and the first half is good, but afterwards it just slips into the ridiculous with an ending full of impressive pyrotechnics but little more substantial than a warning that we ought to expect a sequel.