First Blood

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First Blood is the first film featuring the character of troubled Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. It starred Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, Brian Dennehy as Sheriff Will Teasle, and Richard Crenna as Col. Samuel Trautman.

Based on a 1972 David Morrell book of the same name, the film (which differs from the book in many areas) was directed by Ted Kotcheff, produced by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna, and released on Friday, October 22, 1982.

Taglines:

"This time he's fighting for his life."
"A one man war."

1 Plot
2 Quotations
3 Adaptation Issues
4 Production
5 The Rambo Series
6 DVD
7 See also
8 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film centers on a man named John Rambo, a former member of an elite Special Forces unit in Vietnam and Medal of Honor winner who cannot acclimate himself to civilian life. As a result, he wanders the country as drifter.

Rambo hopes to catch up with one of his comrades, who, unknown to Rambo, had died of cancer the previous summer due to exposure to the controversial defoliant Agent Orange that was used in Vietnam. The news hits Rambo very hard; the death of his friend means that he is the last of his unit alive. Shortly after he runs afoul of Will Teasle, the heavy-handed sheriff of a small Washington State mountain resort town called Hope. Teasle sees Rambo walking through town, assumes his is a vagrant and gives him a ride out of the area. Rambo, angry over how Teasle treated him and standing in the rain, turns and starts walking back to town. Teasle arrests him for vagrancy and resisting arrest. He is assaulted by members of the police force during his criminal processing. One man in particular, Galt, is especially brutal, hitting the prisoner with a billy club and ordering him to be sprayed with a fire hose (his "bath" before he appears in court). When they attempt to shave Rambo with a dry straight razor it triggers the training he received in the Special Forces and memories of torture at the hands of the Vietnamese military. He severely assaults the men and escapes from Sheriff Teasle into the mountains on a stolen motorcycle.

A helicopter is flown in at Teasle's request with one of his deputies, Galt, on board. As Rambo hangs precariously from a cliff, Galt shoots at him with a rifle. In desperation, Rambo jumps into the gorge and a tree breaks his fall. As Galt continues to shoot, Rambo hurls a rock, hitting the windshield of the helicopter, causing the pilot to momentarily lose control and throwing Galt into the gorge, killing him. Shortly after Galt's body is spotted by Teasle and his men at the top of the gorge, Rambo attempts to turn himself in but runs away when the posse opens fire.

Teasle finds out from one of his deputies that Rambo is a Green Beret. He is also a war hero and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The news does little to soften Teasle's obsession with capturing Rambo. Galt was his friend and Teasle intends that Rambo be held accountable for his death. The small band of deputies venture into the woods. In a tense sequence, Rambo stalks and wounds every man using guerrilla tactics such as camouflage and booby traps. After incapacitating the deputies, Rambo captures Teasle, holds his combat knife to his throat and tells him to defuse the situation by calling off his manhunt. Rambo promises the sheriff "a war you won't believe."

The National Guard is then called in by the sheriff. As the sheriff oversees the organization of another assault on Rambo, Rambo's former commanding officer, Col. Sam Trautman, arrives and begins to involve himself in the manhunt for Rambo. Trautman explains that Rambo has been trained in the deadliest of combat techniques and can possibly take on a force of several hundred soldiers single-handed. He has also been trained to survive under impossible means, making use of anything available or eating what most would consider inedible. Trautman gravely warns the sheriff that he cannot win in a war with Rambo. Trautman tells him to let Rambo escape. He believes that if the situation is defused, Rambo will be easy to arrest at a later time without violence.

A squad of Army reservists led by Lt. Clinton Morgan, tracks Rambo to the mine entrance he'd been camped out in and he orders a shoulder-fired missile launched at Rambo. Everyone believes that Rambo was killed in the resulting cave-in, however, Rambo survives and spends several hours crawling through a maze of tunnels in the mine. He finds an exit near the main road leading back to Hope. Even though he is free and can get cleanly away, he decides to go back to Hope to continue the fight. As a convoy passes by, Rambo hijacks the last truck which is carrying an M60 machine gun. Rambo blasts through a roadblock and drives into Hope. Setting a gas station aflame as a distraction, he shoots out the town's telephone junction boxes as well as the power lines. He also sets fire to the local sports store, causing all it's ammunition and gunpowder to explode.

Rambo finds the police station where Teasle is waiting for him on the roof. Rambo spots the sheriff and, after being fired upon by the sheriff, he shoots him, and the sheriff falls through the station's skylight. As he closes in to kill the man, Rambo is stopped by Trautman, who tells him that his mini-war is over. Rambo disputes the fact, relating how Vietnam wasn't his war, that he followed his orders without question and that he and his fellow vets weren't allowed to win. Consequently, Rambo breaks down sobbing as he explains what it's like to return home from a war and relating a story about a close friend of his who was killed by a bomb in a Saigon bar. Trautman convinces Rambo to turn himself in.

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Quotations

Teasle: Are you telling me that 200 of our men against your boy is a no-win situation for us?
Trautman: You send that many, don't forget one thing.
Teasle: What?!
Trautman: A good supply of body bags!

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Adaptation Issues

Various screenplays adapted from Morrell's book had been pitched to studios in the years since its release, but it was only when Stallone, who at the time had extremely limited success outside of the Rocky franchise (most of his non-Rocky films either barely broke even or were flops altogether), decided to become involved with the project and helped refine the script that filming it became a reality. Prior to Stallone taking the role, Steve McQueen was interested in the role right after The Hunter (his final film) wrapped production. Just before shooting began, however, Kirk Douglas quit the role of Col. Trautman over a script dispute (he wanted the film to end as the book did) and Richard Crenna was quickly hired as an emergency replacement. It ended up becoming the veteran character actor's most famous role. A suicide scene was filmed, but ultimately, Kotcheff and Stallone opted to have Rambo turn himself in at Trautman's urging.

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Production

First Blood, which had a modest shooting budget of $14 million, became a major hit, going on to earn an estimated $47 million in North America and $78 million overseas, solidifying Stallone's career and silencing critics who had said that Stallone was a one-trick pony. First Blood also spawned two sequels, with a third in pre-production as of 2005. It was shot entirely in the town of Hope, British Columbia, Canada.

Although often criticised for being extremely violent, First Blood is actually very tame compared to later films in the action genre. Only one person, Deputy Gault, the officer who falls out of the helicopter, actually clearly dies due to Rambo's actions of self-defense. Rambo's actions of self-defense, while they clear him of moral responsibility for Gault's death, would not have cleared him legally. The criticisms for violence against the film came from how the film was promoted rather than its actual content. The promenant role of the M60 machine gun in the promotion of the film is one thing many remember.

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The Rambo Series

John Rambo's iconic stature wasn't attained until the popular sequel, Rambo: First Blood Part II was released in 1985. Often viewed as much more of an action film than a drama, as the original had been, "Rambo II" was panned by most critics. But that didn't stop the film from being the second-highest grossing film of the year, trailing only Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future. Then-president Ronald Reagan set off a minor controversy when he admitted he admired Rambo. A third Rambo film, Rambo III appeared in 1988, with Stallone's titular character in Soviet-ruled Afghanistan.

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