First Blood (1982)

Director:

Ted Kotcheff

Writers:

David Morrell (novel)
Michael Kozoll (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 October 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

One war against one man.

Plot:

A mentally unstable Vietnam war vet, when abused with a small town's police force, begins a one man war with it.

Plot Keywords:

Rambo | Sheriff | Colonel | Escape | Small Town

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Sylvester Stallone	...	John J. Rambo
Richard Crenna	...	Col. Samuel Trautman
Brian Dennehy	...	Hope Sheriff Will Teasle
Bill McKinney	...	State Police Capt. Dave Kern
Jack Starrett	...	Deputy Sgt. Arthur Galt
Michael Talbott	...	Deputy Balford
Chris Mulkey	...	Deputy Ward
John McLiam	...	Orval the Dog Man
Alf Humphreys	...	Deputy Lester
David Caruso	...	Deputy Mitch
David L. Crowley	...	Deputy Shingleton (as David Crowley)
Don MacKay	...	Preston (as Don Mackay)
Charles A. Tamburro	...	Pilot (as Chuck Tamburro)
David Petersen	...	Trooper
Craig Huston	...	Radio operator (as Craig Wright Huston)

Also Known As:

Rambo (USA) (TV title)
Rambo: First Blood

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Finland:K-16 (video release) (1998) | Finland:K-18 (original rating) (1983) | Malaysia:18SG | Brazil:14 | Canada:14A (re-rating) | USA:R (certificate #26816) | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:18 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | Chile:18 | France:-12 | New Zealand:M (DVD rating) | New Zealand:R16 (VHS rating) | Norway:18 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Golden Ears Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Anabasis N.V.

Trivia:

Director Bruce Beresford was offered the script to direct but refused as he felt, at the time, that he wasn't suited to directing an action film.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Shadow of the cameraman can be seen on the other side of the roof when Teasle first climbs up onto it for the final showdown.

Quotes:

Deputy Sergeant Arthur Gault: What's the matter Mitch? Don't you like water sports?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mobsters and Mormons (2005)

Soundtrack:

IT'S A LONG ROAD

A taut exercise in suspense that bears little relation to its silly sequels...

Surprise, a "Rambo" movie that tries to say something profound about the plight of its main character and his mental state. For the most part it succeeds. Not for this movie the ridiculously oiled pectorals of part II, where Rambo is transformed into a grunting, soul-less killing machine. He actually begins the movie as a fairly nice chap, someone we can sympathise with, and it's his unnecessarily rough treatment at the hands of small-town sheriff Dennehey and his crew that is likely to shift audience sympathies firmly in the direction of the 'misunderstood' Vietnam vet.

Here, Rambo is also a character who is reluctant to kill unless he absolutely has to. A far cry from the eventual homicidal maniac he was to become, who is seemingly responsible for more death than World Wars 1 & 2 combined. So, to those expecting bucketloads of gore and senseless killing, you'd probably be better off watching the news. "First Blood" is actually more akin to those 'survival in the wilderness' programs you might see on the Discovery Channel; with Rambo having to rely more on guile and cunning than brawn and an M-16 to get him out of tricky situations.

That's not to imply that this is boring. Far from it. Director Kotcheff shows a keen awareness of pace, it's never by any means certain that Rambo will survive (if you discount the other films, of course!) and the supporting characters are all wonderfully unsympathetic. Even Trautmann, Rambo's supposed mentor, has a touch of the villain about him for being complicit in the ultimate dehumanisation of Rambo during the war. By far the best character here is played by Dennehey; always watchable, but Stallone too is good; nicely restrained, more "Cop Land" than "Cobra"

Not an action film as such, it sits better as suspense. In that sense, it does exactly what it says on the tin; rendering John Rambo a far more interesting character here than his incarnation in the other two films. That is basically just wet-dream material for inadequate, spotty faced adolescent boys everywhere. This Rambo is recognisably human. Having said that, neither should you view expecting a solemn Vietnam protest movie in the vein of "Platoon" or "The Deer Hunter". It's different in tone and style to the both of those movies, but in my view at least, is better than either of them.