First Blood (1982)

When you think of the words "John Rambo" you are likely immediately overcome by images of a long-haired, headband-wearing, probably wounded in some way, muscular man holding a massive machine gun in one hand and an endless chain of high-calibre bullets in the other (basically the poster for this film). He is gurning and yelling while mowing down bad guys at a staggering rate. He also has that knife, which by today's street youth standard isn't much to write home about, but back in 1982 looked more like a sword with a compass in the end of it. In fact, you could even go so far as to say that the word "Rambo" itself became something of a byword in the old cultural lexicon for mayhem and murder en masse.

However, before there were grenade-launching crossbows and all manner of carnage, there was this film - which is a surprisingly understated survival thriller about a man suffering the ills of life post-combat. And although Rambo, when activated by mistreatment from the local law enforcement, does cause a fair amount of carnage there is an almost shockingly low body count and a great more deal of intelligence on display that you might be forgiven for not remembering.

The plot follows a man named John Rambo to a quiet mountain town in the middle of nowhere. Here he has landed looking for an old friend, who he finds out has since perished from the lingering effects of agent orange exposure - not a pleasant way to go, I'm sure. However, in wandering the streets of this place with not much in the way of purpose, our protagonist finds his way to the path of Sheriff William Teasle (played superbly by 80s stalwart Brian Dennehy), who doesn't take kindly to the apparent vagrant before his eyes and orders that he leave town immediately. As a result of this misunderstanding, Rambo is taken in, mistreated, and suffers an acute flashback of his treatment as a POW in the Vietnam War. As such, he proceeds to kick much arse and flee to the mountains - the police in hot pursuit.

What ensues is an ever-expanding cat and mouse game between local law enforcement and a man we soon come to find out is an ex-special forces solider and recipient of the medal of honor - making him one double-hard bastard. The longer Rambo evades the local police, the bigger the scale of the search party - with the national guard and local army units being brought in, including Rambo's former Colonel Sam Trautman (played by the ever-reliable Richard Crenna). The odds against him seem preposterous but he somehow manages to not only evade capture, but continually outwit and outmuscle a seemingly infinite amount of firepower. In other hands, this might count as a black mark against the film's quality - for the ability to suspend disbelief too far usually ruins most action flicks - but here it works well because Stallone is so believable in this role and does such an excellent job personifying someone in this predicament, that all of it seems plausible. All of his moves (save maybe a few cliff-diving escapades) make logical sense and never stray too far out of the realm of possibility, which makes for a far more interesting adventure.

Yes, his muscles are bulging, but it's the eyes that really do the work here. Somehow Stallone perfectly captures this look - wherein he seems to encompass a predatorial animal who is being cornered and has no choice but to revert to instinct. This is just another example of how underrated an actor he has always been and it works really well in gaining sympathy for a killing machine who just wanted to be left alone. Without this performance at the centre of it all, you wouldn't have much of a film. However, the script itself is worthy of mention in this regard . Contrivance is sort of the core of this story - essentially one man against about 500, out-manned and out-gunned and continually up against insurmountable odds - but, again, it is refreshing to see an intelligence shining through constantly in the writing. Rambo doesn't just shoot people, or blow up things, for the sake of "they're all bad and I'm good", he blows up a petrol station knowing it will cause no body count and will suck up maximum local resource, thus taking some of their attention away from finding him. He doesn't just shoot up the town, he shoots out the electrical breakers so that he can move in the shadows. Yes, technically he does have an enormous machine gun on his arm for the last 20 minutes of the film, but it never veers into gratuity. In fact, he only kills one person in the entire story - and that was by throwing a rock at his helicopter, so you could argue it was the rock's fault and not Rambo's, which I think would hold up in a court of law. If only the 'action films' of today would take note that one human running through a forest is vastly more interesting than 900 creatures designed in a computer program rolling around fighting one another, the movie going world would be a better place.

There is even a surprisingly moving, if a little heavy-handed, scene that closes the film about the pain a person of this calibre might suffer upon returning home to not a hero's welcome but disdain and disregard. It's quite a sobering thought and again Stallone's acting is terrific. Yet, that scene aside, the ending of the film is the one thing that does feel like a compromise. There is essentially no conclusion to what has been 90 minutes of story arc building and he's just sort of escorted off to the tune of a horribly ham-fisted 80s power ballad. None of this works, there is no real resolution to the story, and it almost shatters all of the good work that has gone before it.

If Don Siegel's 'Dirty Harry' (1971) birthed the action film, then 'First Blood' arguably spawned the 80's action film, of which the template is still being used today. Big guns. Big muscles. Big effects. It also sparked a rivalry which would last for the next 15 years wherein Stallone would go head to head with Schwarzenegger to see who the biggest baddest man on planet hollywood (pun intended) would be. This unfortunately led to the rest of this franchise being more about how big it could go, rather than the story of the man himself, but this film as a stand alone is a worthy addition to any filmgoers catalogue and still has much to offer, even though it's more of an engaging thriller than anything else - as evidenced by that miniscule body count - less than Willy Wonka, by my estimation - proving that even killing machines, whose names are synonymous with butchery, have rules of engagement.

★★★☆☆

JB.