Review of First Blood (1982) by Matthew W — 28 Dec 2009

Greetings friends. Number 100 is upon us. I'd like to thank AMC for playing this flick tonight. I'd also like to formally apologize to Black-bow in case he's reading this for sounding like a dick in a previous post. Here's today's review of the action movie classic "First Blood".

John Rambo is a Ex-Green Beret Vietnam veteran on his way to see an old war buddy out in the country in Oregon. When he finds out his friend is dead, he heads into a small town where he is noticed by the local sheriff Will Teasle who drives him out of town, telling him that "drifters aren't welcome." When John insists on getting a bite to eat in town, he is unjustly arrested for vagrancy. When he is brought down to the station and refuses to cooperate, he begins having flashbacks of torture in Vietnam, and forcibly escapes. He runs into the woods, and must escape the clutches of the local sheriff, who is obsessed with bringing him in.

The plot was decent; a simple case of escalation and cruelty coupled with violent war flashbacks driving a man into the forest. This is Stallone after all. The chase scenes in the film were quite fun, and the violence was spectacular. One man taking down an entire police force by himself. But there is one plot hole that pulled me out a bit: I seriously doubt a quiet, peaceful, boring little town in the Oregon wilderness would be armed with M-16 rifles. But it's a small hole. The emotional scenes were somewhat disarmed by Stallone's poor speech, but they still served their purpose. The acting was superb, and the whole 'live off the land and set traps' thing was quite enjoyable and plausible. Although, this movie seems more like a sequel than an original. It tries to be more, but at it's heart it's still just a shoot 'em up action movie star vehicle. And that's a good thing. Unfortunately it was drawn out a bit long, I never truly connected with the man, felt his pain so to speak, and I couldn't feel a great connection between John and the Colonel. The action is brief, and not so brutally effective. So I must award "First Blood" 8 violence flashbacks out of 10. And for anyone who actually reads these things I'm going to start a new tradition: my favorite line of the movie.

"In town you're the law. Out here it's me." -John Rambo.