Review #537: 'First Blood' (1982)

Giving the decades action hero his (or hers) raison d'etre, John Rambo became the ultimate right-wing icon, and, through the First Blood sequels, exacerbated the one-man-army excesses that became so pervasive in action cinema. But before the hyperbole of Republican jingoism, - where the scars of the Vietnam war were refreshed and revised when Reagan, quoting from Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), stated that; "This Time We're Gonna Win" - Rambo, or more specifically, the Vietnam veteran, was persecuted in American society.

Sylvester Stallone's "John J." drifts through the American landscape searching for the remnants of his Green Beret troop, but finds despair in their absence. The veteran often came back to from the war unable to adjust to civilian life, left with the trauma of warfare, they were subjected to dehumanising abuses by the hippie generation, the middle-class students of the anti-war protesters (as Rambo says "They call us baby killers"). Rambo represents the American working class, the bottom of society, who were abused by foreign policy, trained into machines of death, and forgotten about. Unable to hold a job in the negative climate, Rambo wanders, like the Western outlaw, attempting to find his retirement. Much like the conventions of the classic American Western, the lone outsider enters a small town (not the sun blistered West, but the cold, isolated North-East), finding the antagonistic Sheriff Teasle (Brian Dennehy), who's only concern is containing the status quo.

In Rambo and Teasle there are two souls damaged by late 1960's American politics. Rambo has been reduced to an angry outsider, whilst Teasle, who clearly continued as Sheriff during the war, would have seen the United States reduced to civil disobedience. Rambo enters town with long hair, he is unwashed, and displays the stars and strips on his jacket, a flag that had lost its meaning in the hearts of men like Teasle. So when this nomadic person, a post-war hippie, drifts into his territory, he is myopic in his attempts to get rid of him. In creating this vacuity of an idealised America, the sheriff protects from the transient generation. The two characters are the different generations, and the divide between these different ideologies. They have both been trained by US authorities, and each, like the country itself, only foresees victory and survival.

The structure of First Blood is very simplistic. After being arrested and taken to the local police station, Rambo makes a spectacular escape, making his way on a motorcycle to the rocky, and heavily wooded mountains. After which Rambo is pursued as the authorities, and the audience, begin to discover his exceptional survival techniques, and he wages his own personal war against American small-town hypocrisy, including the inept national guard, made up of local hicks, too young to have any knowledge of war. Unlike the similarly themed action films that proceeded First Blood, Rambo does not actually kill anyone intentionally (Galt (Jack Starrett) falls from a helicopter after a rock hits it, only because he unfastens his seat belt), which actually adds corners to an otherwise one-dimensional character.

Rambo's final outburst of violence is directed at the buildings of the small town. The symbols of progress, and the inscrutable institution, the machine of society, of which he is a small, expendable component, a government trained killing machine. Originally to be played by Kurt Russell, Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) is the military, the superior and trainer of this broken machine. As Rambo's only exterior relationship, he acts as his father figure. The two characters become human when sharing the screen. An often lampooned scene in First Blood is the emotional outpouring by Stallone, which is at times incomprehensible, as his character finally has a voice, but this scene is pivotal to his redemption.

Based on a 1972 novel by David Morrell, the film makers thoughtfully toned down the more extreme book. It is a competently made action film, the more ridiculous elements of the one-man-army aspects of the narrative have since been diminished by the more over-the-top action that followed. First Blood sits comfortably within the transition from '70's anti-heroes to the machine-bodies of the '80's. It looks back at Clint Eastwood and Travis Bickle, whilst moving towards a Schwarzenegger. It has muscle and explosive action, some thrilling stunts, and a squeamish scene of Rambo sewing his own gashed arm with a needle and thread. But with this comes an interesting (if slightly over the top) observation of the post-Vietnam American consciousness, the barren psychological landscape, and the harsh effects of war on the individual, what we would call Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.


Directed by: Ted Kotcheff
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Marc Ivamy