Rambo: First Blood (1982 film)

Category: Action

Directed by: Ted Kotcheff

Reminds me of: The Fugitive

-----

The film that put helped cement Sylvester Stallone as a bona-fide movie star. Stallone was already known to audiences via the Rocky movie series - by the time Rambo came out in 1982, the Rocky franchise was three movies deep, thus proving his dramatic prowess - but could he bring the character from David Morrell's 1972 novel to life in an action extravaganza?

Believe it or not, Rambo: First Blood is actually a book-to-movie adaptation from the David Morell novel First Blood.

Plot:

The film opens with John Rambo (Stallone) walking up to a housing area by a lake, asking the locals for the location of an old army buddy from his time in Vietnam. Rambo is informed that his friend had died some time ago from health issues related to the army's use of Agent Orange.

Rambo then wanders along a road with his backpack and enters the small town of Hope, Washington where he is picked up by the sherrif of the town, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) who tells Rambo that his kind (homeless drifters) aren't welcome. Rambo is dropped off on the other side of town. Feeling slighted, Rambo walks back in to the town where he is promptly arrested and taken in for processing. During the processing (which is admittedly quite rough as it involves being forcibly hosed down and unwanted shaving), Rambo gets flashbacks of the torture he suffered in Vietnam and instinctively escapes by assaulting (but not killing) the other officers.

Stealing a motorbike, he flees into the nearby hills where the police muster all the effort they can to hunt him. The sherrif's deputy attempts to shoot Rambo with a rifle while hanging out the side of a low-flying helicopter, but Rambo avoids being shot by throwing a rock at the helicopter, causing the pilot to take evasive action which in turn causes the deputy to fall to his death. The rest of the police force stumble upon the deputy's body and presume that he was murdered by Rambo, thus causing them to escalate their efforts as the State Patrol and National Guard are called in.

Rambo attempts to surrender, but is fired upon by the local law enforcement, forcing Rambo to retreat. Using his bushcraft skills, Rambo sets traps that incapacitate (but not kill) the officers pursuing him, and the closest he gets to deliberately harming someone is holding his trusty knife threateningly to warn Teasle to not continue the hunt.

Teasle learns that Rambo is actually a Medal of Honour recipient and a former Special Ops commando, so Rambo's former CO, Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) is brought in to try help. Trautman talks to Rambo via radio and Rambo states that Teasle and his men "drew first blood" (i.e. they started the fight).

Rambo escapes to a mine which the assembled forces attempt to collapse using all sorts of heavy weaponry, but Rambo escapes thanks to his enhanced survival skills (those rat-filled caves look pretty fuckin' claustrophobic if you ask me). Teasle again refuses Trautman's advice to cancel the pursuit of Rambo – almost like Rambo insulted him personally.

After escaping the mine, Rambo commandeers a military truck and makes his way in to town, blows up a petrol station, cuts the power to the town and takes over the (now empty) police station where he takes a last stand.

Trautman makes his way into the police station to talk with Rambo and Rambo breaks down in tears, still suffering the scars of what happened in Vietnam. With that, Rambo surrenders and is taken in to custody.

-----

Despite the grainy cinematography (this is a 1982 film, remember!), this is actually quite a watchable film. Well written, doesn't rely on overly stupid set pieces, and is actually quite believable drama (though a touch ridiculous towards the end) - police officers in small towns throwing their weight around, and former soldiers (in particular Vietnam veterans) struggling to find their back way in the world after service. 

Further to that, Rambo's unwillingness to kill people was a pleasant touch - he is a tough guy, a trained killing machine but he's principled.

And the thing that really hit home was the emotional breakdown at the end - the release of all the pain and suffering he felt, and then his surrender.

One thing I'd note is that this movie was formative in the 1980's action movie wave - LOTS of movies afterwards featured ex-soldiers with personal flaws in some sort of trouble who then use their skills and knowledge of weaponry (and sometimes massive physiques) to get out of said trouble. But in a way, this movie is an antithesis to the 80's action formula, precisely because the hero doesn't try to kill anyone, doesn't come up with snappy lines, there isn't a daughter and/or an unrealistically beautiful wife waiting to be rescued, and the hero only does what he needs to to make his point.

Just a shame that the writers of the rest of the Rambo series forgot this principle and soon turned Rambo into the prototypical 80s action trope.

Alongside that, we got the Hollywood rivalry between Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Svhwarzenegger, with some Chuck Norris thrown in for good measure.

But yeah, this film feels VERY rudimentary – not basic, but it's not full of CGI and there aren't tanks being driven into helicopters.

STAR RATING: 4.25/5