First Blood

First Blood: (1982)
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy
Memorable Line(s): "There are no friendly civilians!"

This is the movie that spawned three sequels featuring the tortured Vietnam vet, John Rambo. Plus it made Sylvester Stallone a lot of money and gave him something to do because new ideas are so rare for him.

The Plot of First Blood
John Rambo (Stallone) is a former Vietnam veteran who goes to a small town in Washington but encounters a less than welcoming atmosphere by the local authorities led by the local sheriff (Dennehy). They go as far to incarcerate him and inflict some serious damage on him.

Being somewhat off-balanced, Rambo decides to escape and wreck some vengance on these local yokels. Only he takes it up a to higher level, taking on the sheriff and his small army of deputies. Because of his in-depth fighting skills, Rambo over-matches the posse in the woods and then in town.

Rambo’s old commander (Crenna) from Vietnam shows up, trying calm the over-heated situation down. He attempts talking sense to both Rambo and the local authorities, but the situation is too out of controlling as Rambo is beyond reason and the local authorities get more than they bargained for.

The Performances, Writing, and Direction of First Blood
This is pretty standard “one-man army” fare as Stallone takes an over the top and somewhat histrionic approach with the main character, Rambo. But he does know how to do an old fashioned butt-whipping and that’s what audience wanted.

Dennehy and Crenna provide solid performance despite having slightly over-written characters. The actors playing the local yokels are quite convincing in their supporting roles which can probably be credited to good casting.

This is a largely predictable movie as the characters and the situations are painted with big brushes. The sheriff is an over-bearing and sadistic guy. Rambo is terribly misunderstood and troubled with all the skills from his Green Beret training ready to put into action. I mean, put these two combinations together and what do you expect? A blood bath, right? Well, you got it.

The direction is competent for the day, but seems a little dated by today’s standards. The action sequences seem like they needed a little more polish.

Summary Judgment on First Blood
This movie came out in my formative years and while it hit a cord for some action-starved movie fans, I never really bought into it largely because the treatment of this story was so heavy-handed and over the top. Stallone has been able to mine this franchise and Rocky for years, but that doesn’t mean that these are good movies. I will say that this Rambo installment is probably better than all the sequels, though. If that’s not a sterling endorsement, then what else can I say?