First Blood

First Blood is a great, yet flawed film that reminds you not only that Sylvester Stallone was a fantastic action film star, but also that even in the heady days of the '80s, action films could be realistic and thoughtful. Stallone just has to glare and look suitably deranged for this role, and he does this well. But some quiet and serious scenes at the end demonstrate his acting quality, and it's a shame this young, impressive actor became better known for his stunts than his dramatic performance.

John Rambo (Stallone), recently returned from a torrid time in Vietnam, wanders the roads of mountain town America with no great aim in life, and is challenged by a haughty town sheriff (Dennehy) who soon realises he picked the wrong man to kick out of town. Soon after, Rambo’s one man war forces the local authorities to bring in his old commander (Crenna), who helps to stop the ex-Green Beret’s orgy of destruction.

The Stallone of Rocky is present here, and his performance here shows that as a younger man, he could have been so much more as an actor than he became (having already nabbed an Oscar for just writing “Rocky”). He doesn't say much, but when he does, he presents a broken and lost young soldier who finds himself totally alone and shunned by the very people he served in Vietnam. Richard Crenna is a bizarre choice of actor here (being completely unknown, and having never seen him in anything other than the “Rambo” series), and in knowing that Kirk Douglas was two days from playing the role, it's easy to see why the actor appears strangely unfocused. However, he does give the air of a genuinely sad and empathetic friend to Rambo; perhaps his only friend.

Brian Dennehy and David Caruso were the two co-stars I knew here, Dennehy’s sheriff a megalomaniac who makes some particularly ridiculous moves that prove costly to his team of cops (including Caruso). Dennehy does makes you realise that he's a man who wants no crap in his town though, and yet unfortunately picks the one piece of crap that would fight back to the death. Caruso made me laugh (unintentionally) with his weedy cop - who knew this man would become Horatio Crane of the Miami PD? Mind you, the acting's still dodgy even here. Just no shades and blank stares into the sunset followed by awful quips yet.

What’s really great about this film is how it's filmed: all in the countryside, seemingly inside every building in a real mountain town, and no special effects or massive, fake sets. Coupled with the serious story idea, and the conclusion, this is a thinking-man's action film from 1982, twenty years before Bourne. The film is ably handled in all respects, even appearing to be more modern than its age suggests. The attention to detail with many aspects (scenery, continuity and so on) is very astute, and for a director I had not known, nor ever heard of before, this film is an impressive one to boast. It's cheesy, and in places ridiculous, but sometimes actually quite good. Rambo's monologue at the end in particular is really good, and tells more about the horrors of war (and his actions) than you would think.

Jerry Goldsmith was one of the great film composers, and the Rambo theme here is one that you may or may not know already. It's great though, one of those understated ones that you hear and instantly get images from. The rest of the soundtrack perfectly marries with the visual aspects, and is a great example of where music and film meet. The mountain town of Hope, and the carnage Rambo brings upon it, are presented beautifully here for a film twenty-six years old. The way that the character melts into the wilderness is met perfectly by the landscape, giving the film's action scenes a real feel, as if Stallone had been set loose to do as he pleased! The action is great also, with real explosions and convincing blood and gore grounding the story.

In watching the recently made “John Rambo” or whatever it’s called, it’s easy to forget that this franchise started with a thought-out, serious and important movie such as “First Blood”. Damon’s “Bourne” films took the disenchanted ex-soldier idea to different places, but Stallone’s John Rambo paved the way almost thirty years hence, and this remains a classic action movie.

8/10