Review of First Blood

Oh John Rambo-- how much you have become to represent the testosterone full adrenaline action star who just shoots at anything that moves around you. John Rambo is too much a cartoon character like Flippy the green bear from Happy Tree Friends. Yes, I push it, Rambo. Before the over-kills, glorious violence that First Blood Part II and III gave us, there was First Blood. A movie with violence, but also very smart written with dark tone somber subtext message. First Blood was based on the book by David Morrell inspired by real-life post-Vietnam war era backlash against veterans. The movie by Ted Kotcheff seem like a modern day PG-13 version of the book. I'd love to see them remake First Blood in a contemporary setting and make it a little bit more hard core like the novel. Plus the ending to novel is shocking. Still, it's a good rated R film as it is. John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is a Vietnam vet whom comes upon the town of Hope, looking for some food after mourning the lost of his war-time friend. Seeing him as a drifter on the road, Hope's sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) confronts Rambo offers him a lift to the town limits, hinting strongly that drifters aren't welcome here. Note in the U.S., some local officials encourage vagrants to move away instead of arresting them so it's a common theme here. While the movie wants to put Teasle as the bad guy guided to that conclusion by the storyline, if you pay attention to what Teasle is doing, you can see he isn't. He knows his citizens by name. He is a man of law and order. He doesn't back down to Rambo even though he knows he is superior to him. His motives are to keep his town peaceful and he thinks he is a threat, which somewhat came true. So he was justified in a way. He doesn't arrest him, at first. He knows Rambo might be trouble so he even gives him a lift out of town where he would be out of his jurisdiction. Will Tealse was doing his job. When Rambo politely declines Sheriff Teasle's suggestion by showing back into town, Rambo finds himself under arrest. While in custody, he isn't really treated right by the cops. Teasle says if he had a problem, Rambo could come to him and he would of reprimanded the officers. The police officers may have gone over board after he was in custody like trying to shave him. The sheriff officers weren't even that bad. David Caruso's character was the "sympathetic" cop too, but he's still an idiot. Just waiting for him to put on glasses and the CSI Miami music kicks in. It sent Rambo off, due to reminding him of Vietnam torture flashbacks. He then escape, commits several felonies batteries, grand theft auto twice, kidnapping, animal cruelty, speeding wreck-less and endangerment innocent lives with an automatic weapon and arson. All that because Teasle wouldn't let him get a cheeseburger in his town, gees. Rambo heads off road, with the entire police department on his trail in the forest. When his skills prove to be too much for Sheriff Teasle's men, the military arrives - led by Rambo's former commander in Vietnam, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), whose loyalties are divided between the man he trained and those seeking to bring him down. Colonel Trautman is treated with all the best one-liners in the film, but Sylvester Stallone does have his collection of one-liners too. Plus a speech, that is sad, but incoherent due to Stallone's slurring voice. I think the real message of the movie is that we need to treat our veterans better. All Rambo wanted was to get a cup of coffee and mourn a friend who died from cancer. Instead he got arrested by cops wanting to be a bit crude. The movie tries hard to make sure that Rambo will be seen as a tormented, misunderstood, amazingly resourceful victim of the Vietnam War, rather than as a sadist or a villain. Still, I wouldn't call Rambo, a victim. He still went overboard. While the film, tries to say away from the theme of Cop Killer by having Rambo didn't kill anybody still I think he might has cause a death or two somewhere in the film. The film is undeniably violent and features its share of grisly moments, but First Blood is more thought-provoking than its high death toll body count sequels, at least acknowledged that viewers might have functioning brains. The script was smart enough to recognize that Rambo's appeal was not limited to his big muscles and ability to mow down legions of bad guys with a really big gun yet it was tailored made for Stallone's macho, action-oriented persona. Stallone even help write the script. The music is stunning and both 'It's a long road' by Dan Hill and the theme song by Jerry Goldsmith tells the story of being alone. The movie inspired such works as 'The Park is Mine' and the 'Hunted' both with Tommy Lee Jones. Without First Blood, we might not have gotten Solid Snake and the Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid. So to think, the whole Rambo saga and a lot of movies wouldn't happen if had he just gotten some food. Check it out, and draw the first blood.