First Blood (1982, R)

Fresh out of success with his financially and generally critically successful series, Rocky, Sylvester Stallone stars in the first movie in his Rambo series.  The characters of Rocky and Rambo, both portrayed by Stallone, are equally iconic.

            It’s based off of the 1972 novel of the same name by David Morrell.  The film adaptation, which has been expanded into a highly successful franchise, stays generally true to the novel but makes a big change at the end, which was sharply criticized.

            Stallone is John Rambo, a Vietnam vet who served in the Green Berets.  He’s tough, gung-ho, and carries his big, trademark knife, but is now reduced to being a loner and a drifter.  The film opens in Washington, and Rambo has just found out that all the members of his squad have died.  He enters the Washington State town of Hope.  He is immediately disliked by the town’s sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy), and subsequently arrested.  In prison, Rambo is brutalized and harassed.  Instinctively, he breaks out and hides out in the woods.  When a sloppy police team is sent in to take him down, Rambo defeats them all and scares the wits out of Teasle.  In comes the National Guard, led by Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), who was Rambo’s commander.  Rambo takes on an army of National Guardsmen, Teasle and even his old commander.

            First Blood isn’t exactly full of all the blood, violence and gore that are abundant in all of the sequels.  Even, so it mostly works as a post-Vietnam, psychological action thriller. 

            The Rambo movies aren’t as memorable or even enjoyable as but are just as iconic as the Rocky film series.  Of course, the characters, setting and atmosphere of the film is all completely different to.

            I didn’t really learn much out of First Blood, other than Stallone has confirmed himself as an action star and is a pretty darn good one to, and who knows how to use a machine gun.  There’s no morale value in the story or even the characters.

            The movie is actually directed by Ted Kotcheff, not Stallone, even though Stallone would gain control of directing later in the series.  I think that First Blood is easily the most sensible out of the series.  It doesn’t rely on blood and gore to get the job done, and it’s a good role for Stallone.

                           *** ½/5