Review of First Blood (1982) by Brandon S — 08 Jul 2014

Let's get one thing out of the way right off the bat: First Blood is one of my favorite movies, period. It consistently cracks my top five list, and it's likely it always will. I find First Blood to have the perfect mixture of action, drama, raw emotion, fine acting, excellent direction, and music. This is a movie that rivals the novel it is based on in terms of quality, entertainment, and pace. There are certainly some major differences between the two, and while both convey the same basic story, the film and the novel differ enough that they come separate, individual entities that are both strong entries into the world of fiction.

First Blood is the story of Vietnam veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone, Rocky Balboa). He's a drifter, a loner, and is looking for one of his friends from Vietnam, Delmar Berry, in the mountains of Washington state. He finds his house, only to find that he died a slow and painful death from cancer, which he contracted via "agent orange," a chemical herbicide employed by the U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam conflict. The last living man from his unit, Rambo moves on and enters the town of Hope where he first encounters Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy, Ratatouille). He drives Rambo to the edge of town and tells him the people of Hope don't want drifters like Rambo passing through town. Rambo only wanted to eat, but Teasle won't have it. Rambo is let out of the car at the edge of town and proceeds to walk back in. Teasle arrests Rambo. At the station, it comes to light that John Rambo is a Vietnam Veteran, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and a former prisoner of war. Flashing back to his day as a P.O.W., Rambo fights his way out of the station and escapes into the mountains outside of town, where a massive manhunt begins. Teasle and his men cannot bring Rambo in, so the national guard and Colonel Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna, The Flamingo Kid), are called out to do so. Trautman was Rambo's commanding officer in Vietnam, and it is believed (though not by Teasle), that he may be the only way to bring in Rambo without further bloodshed. As Trautman says, if they try to get Rambo Teasle's way, they will need one thing: "a good supply of body bags." Sure enough, the stubborn, determined, and foolhardy Teasle ignores Trautman's advice and by film's end, Rambo has rampaged through the streets of Hope, destroying ungodly amounts of property and facing off with Teasle one last time.

I wish my summary could do more justice to just how spectacular of a movie First Blood is. Director Ted Kotcheff (North Dallas Forty) has crafted a visually spectacular film that is replete with action and gut-wrenching emotion, both of which he handles flawlessly. Sylvester Stallone turns in one of the great performances, ever, in the final moments of the film. The nonstop action and violence of not only the past ninety minutes of the movie but of Rambo's entire adult life reduces the decorated Special Forces killing machine into a childlike shell of himself, crying onto the shoulder of Trautman as he recalls the horrors of not only Vietnam but the horrors of his unappreciated and difficult time in the post-war United States. I'll be forever upset that Sly didn't earn himself an Oscar nod if only for his performance in the film's final moments. It's powerful, raw, depressing, and realistic. Dennehy and Crenna also turn in extraordinary performances as Teasle and Trautman (named so because he is the "angler" who will lure Rambo back into reality). I can't see Brian Dennehy in any other role and not immediately think to myself, "Sheriff Teasle." I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Jerry Goldsmith's (Basic Instinct) memorable, heroic score. Nearly as iconic as Rambo himself, Goldsmith's score complements the action and drama perfectly, never overshadowing the film but enhancing it with every note. It's a Long Road, based on Jerry Goldsmith's theme and performed by Dan Hill, plays over the end credits and is also excellent.

Based on a novel originally published in 1972 while the United States was still engaged in the Vietnam conflict, author David Morrell wrote this story as his answer to the question, "what would happen if the Vietnam conflict can home to America?" The novel, which takes place in Kentucky rather than Washington, paints Rambo in a completely different light. Where he is a hero in the film, he's a villain in the novel. He kills at will, slaughtering the policemen and national guardsmen at every turn. In fact, the body count in the novel is over 250. In the movie, only one character is killed onscreen and indirectly by Rambo, and only several other unknown characters die throughout. As a result, Rambo is a much more sympathetic character in the movie than he is in the novel. The basis for Morrell's novel is a man who is trained killer, sent to do what he does abroad, and is brought home without anyone ever "deactivating" him. The character, according to Morrell, is heavily influenced by World War II hero Audie Murphy, who himself had difficulty re-adjusting to life back home. Another change from page to screen is that, in the novel, Sheriff Teasle is himself a decorated war hero, but from Korea. We see only a glimpse of his medals, including a Purple Heart, in the film. In the novel, Morrell plays each character off one another. Teasle hunts Rambo in a more traditional, straightforward manner, similar to the way he fought in Korea, while Rambo wages a guerrilla war against Teasle, using his knowledge, instinct, and skill set learned to Vietnam.

First Blood moved from studio to studio and underwent numerous script re-writes, including a version where Rambo says nothing at all until the end of the film when he unleashes his criticism of the betrayal he faced when he returned home. The role of Rambo was offered to Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, and Kirk Douglas was originally cast as Colonel Trautman. Stallone eventually took the part and feared this film would be a "career killer" for him, seeing as how his role is that of a former military man killing Americans. Quite the opposite, in fact, First Blood spawned three sequels (with a fourth coming soon) and made a star of Stallone, perhaps contributing more to his fame than even the character of Rocky Balboa. Finally optioned by Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna for Orion pictures, the film opened in October 1982 to generally positive reviews.