First, before you read this you need to know this is one of my favorite movies ever. So, this review is strongly partial to the film but I still have problems with it.
First Blood is an Action/Adventure movie with a heavy emphasis on that adventure. It’s about Vietnam veteran and Green Beret, John Rambo. The movie opens with him searching to find one of his friends and former teammate from a special forces unit. When he is given the news that his friend passed, John sulks and starts walking. He stumbles upon the small town and “boring” town of Hope, Washington, where police chief Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) is suspicious of his presence in his town. Teasle decides to escort Rambo out of the town and whilst doing so, treats him with utter disrespect and hostility. That’s what Rambo refers to much later as “First Blood.” Teasle decides to remove him because he’s a “drifter” and that his kind doesn’t belong in the town. When he’s dropped off from the chief’s car, Rambo starts walking back towards the town (the opposite direction that he was dropped off in). Teasle then decides to arrest Rambo for vagrancy and brings him into the station. When Rambo is being cleansed by the police officers, it starts to remind him of his time being a war prisoner in Vietnam and things escalate until Rambo fights off all of them and takes off. What ensues next is the chase and then much later the war between Rambo and the police. This war showcased what made this movie popular–badassery and grittiness.
The Pros
The scenery. And yes it’s because I’m from Washington, but the scenery is just what makes this movie so much more likable for me. The beautiful mountains in the background of Hope (yes I know it was really Hope Canada) and the forest taking up a lot of the backdrop of this movie was awesome. Scenes like the cliff to tree jump and the car chase really seal the deal for me in regard to the northwest scenery. I said to my mom, if this movie was set in California, I would not like it to the degree I do right now. I also love how they had to make Hope in Washington instead of keeping it where the town actually is, Canada, because it revolves around Rambo’s importance as an American veteran.
Next is the war and fighting. Let me remind you we’re watching Sylvester Stallone, one of the all time greats of Action movies. I mean come on, this one was bound to be great once you got him fighting for his life out in the forest where he builds knives out of wood and escapes through an old, collapsed mine shaft underground. This one is on the gorier side so if you don’t love blood, I’ll give you a fair warning on that. However, if you love gritty battle and one man versus two type of stuff, then this is for you. This film really gives a good set of battles too, which build up in intensity. You start with the jail cell, then move on to the car chase and helicopter fight, and then you have the National Guard and finale with Teasle and Rambo right where the chaos started. You can’t take your eyes off the screen from scene to scene and that’s exactly what you want in an Action and Adventure film.
There’s some little things I like about this movie that I’ll share because why not. I enjoyed cop Mitch (David Caruso) and the cops’ reactions when they heard Rambo was a Green Beret and just started to realize how f****ed they were. Mitch was also a good comedy relief, making the police department look like they lacked professionalism, which they definitely did.
The Cons
While this movie acknowledges at a base level Rambo’s PTSD and attributes it to the reason all hell breaks loose, the movie still misses the mark on the plot as a whole, in my opinion. This movie does cover it up with all the awesome effort to Action scenes and the coolness factor, however if you ignore that and follow the plot… things start to feel one dimensional. What I mean by that is the story is about a man traumatized by war who pisses off a stupid cop and ends up fighting and killing cops out in the greenery of Washington State. Don’t call me unfair for putting it in layman terms because that’s what it truly is about when you simplify it. Yes, there’s a storyline behind Teasle and Rambo and their revenge against one another, but I don’t get why Teasle was so anti Rambo from the moment he stepped foot in Hope. I only realized how weird this plot was until I tried to explain the plot to somebody recently and then also on my second watch.
First Blood will always be an all time great Action and Adventure movie with classic scenes and beautiful setting. The Score is a 93.