Former Green Beret John Rambo is pursued into the mountains surrounding a small town by a tyrannical sheriff and his deputies, forcing him to survive using his combat skills.
The first “Rambo” movie, simply titled “First Blood,” is the best of the series. Even with “Rambo V” currently in production, while it may end up being enjoyable and fun, I doubt it will come anywhere near the sheer excitement and danger “First Blood” delivered to theatergoers back in 1982. Director Ted Kotcheff, who would go on to direct “Uncommon Valor,” “Switching Channels,” and “Weekend at Bernie’s,” sadly never went on to bigger projects that the success of “First Blood” should have offered him but he will always have the distinction of helming the first and best Rambo film!
“First Blood” takes place in the early ’80s, a few years after the end of the Vietnam War. John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is a former Green Beret who fought in Vietnam and who now wanders aimlessly around the U.S., picking up odd jobs as he goes. When he enters the small town of Hope, Washington, for a bite to eat, the town’s sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy), immediately picks him up in his car and offers him a ride to the other side of town. When Rambo asks if there is a restaurant he can eat at, Teasle tells them there’s a diner further up the road in a different town. He tells Rambo that he doesn’t care for his “kind,” a scruffy-looking vagrant who smells of trouble. After dropping him off on the town’s outskirts, he drives away but looking in his rearview mirror, he sees Rambo make his way back into town. He immediately arrests him on charges of vagrancy and resisting arrest and has him booked into the county jail. Once inside, however, some of the deputies take it upon themselves to beat him up, for fun, and wash him down with a hose. They try to shave him but it inadvertently triggers flashbacks of his torture in Vietnam and he snaps. He fights his way out of jail, commandeers a motorcycle, and escapes into the mountains. Teasle and his men give pursuit but Rambo thwarts their efforts, utilizing his military skills by setting booby traps which incapacitate Teasle’s men. The military is then called in, including Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), Rambo’s mentor and former commanding officer who informs Teasle just how dangerous Rambo really is. Teasle decides to ignore Trautman and demands the military find him and kill him if necessary.
After Rambo is apparently trapped inside a cave, some trigger-happy soldiers blow the cave up using a bazooka and because there is so much debris, they inform Teasle that it will be some time before they can get to his body. Satisfied that Rambo is dead, Teasle and the military call off the manhunt and he makes his way back into town. Unbeknownst to him, and everybody else, Rambo did not perish in the blast, it only pushed him further underground and eventually he manages to escape. He steals an army truck loaded with M60 machine guns and ammunition and makes his way into Teasle’s town. Blowing up a gas station on the outskirts of town, he makes his presence known to Teasle who manages to tell the townsfolk to go home and stay indoors. Rambo then proceeds to demolish the town, severely injuring Teasle in the process but not killing him. In the end, surrounded by military force, Trautman pleads with Rambo to give up, and he does. Rambo is handcuffed and both he and Trautman walk off into the night.
I watched “First Blood” while listening to the audio commentary by author David Morrell, who wrote the novel ‘First Blood’ that the movie was based on and it was fascinating listening to him talk about the differences between his book and the movie. He actually based the character of John Rambo on Audie Murphy, one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II. While it is never mentioned throughout the movie, it is very evident that Rambo is suffering from PTSD from his time in Vietnam. In the book, Rambo completely snaps and while he is in the county jail, he kills all the police officers around him before escaping into the wilderness. He even kills a young boy who he catches in the woods and while these scenes appear in the film, the producers wisely decided to turn Rambo into a more sympathetic character who never actually kills anyone, and because of that, because we see him being treated so badly after his service to his country, we actually root for him and want him to win.
At the end of the book, Rambo is killed by Trautman and while they actually filmed that sequence, test audiences back in 1982 hated it so the filmmakers changed it to the version we have now, with Rambo turning himself in to the authorities. For the longest time, trying to locate the footage of the original ending was almost impossible to find but it is included on the Blu-ray herein. At the time, I’m sure David Morrell had no idea that his creation would eventually go on to become one of cinema’s most iconic characters, with President Ronald Reagan even mentioning Rambo in a statement back in 1985 about how to handle a future hostage crisis, and while there have been three sequels, with a fourth in production at the time of this writing, they will never be able to match the tension and sheer visual excitement that “First Blood” delivered, accompanied by one of Jerry Goldsmith’s most memorable and influential scores. If you haven’t watched a Rambo movie yet, start at the beginning with the very best.
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John Rambo is released from prison by the government for a top-secret covert mission to the last place on Earth he’d want to return – the jungles of Vietnam.
After the huge success of “First Blood” in 1982, it was only a matter of time before Rambo was back on the big screen. And for many, 1985 couldn’t come fast enough. Titled “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” the movie starts with Rambo in prison serving his sentence from the events of the first film. He is visited by his old friend and former commander Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna). Rambo is told that he will be released early if he agrees to partake in a top-secret mission. He is told that the US Government believes that there are still missing POWs alive in Vietnam and they need proof before they can mount a rescue mission. He is told that if he agrees to the terms, he will be pardoned for his crimes and will have to quietly sneak into Vietnam and should he find any POWs, he is to take photos of them and return to base. Rambo agrees and the stage is set.
He is introduced to Marshall Murdock (Charles Napier), the man overseeing the operation and he reiterates the importance of not getting involved should he happen to find any POWs, but to take plenty of photos. Rambo is then stealthily flown over Vietnam and parachutes into the country where he meets his contact, an intelligence agent named Co-Bao (Julia Nickson) who helps him navigate the dense jungle. After taking a boat upriver, Rambo spots a US POW strapped to a post and manages to free him. He then returns to the extraction point with the prisoner and Co-Bao but the chopper is ordered to leave by Murdock, who claims that Rambo disobeyed orders and put everyone at risk. Rambo helps Co-Bao escape before he and the prisoner are taken hostage. There, Rambo is tortured and he meets Colonel Podovsky (Steven Berkoff), a Russian lieutenant who Rambo discovers is helping to train the Vietnamese. Unbeknownst to them all, Co-Bao sneaks into the camp disguised as a prostitute and helps Rambo escape.
Between them, they both battle Russian and Vietnamese forces and manage to take control of one of the Russian helicopters where Rambo proceeds to destroy the camp and rescue the remaining POWs. Once they make it back to base, however, he picks up a machine gun and makes his way to Murdock’s tent, determined to deal with the man who almost got him and the POWs killed.
The 1980’s began a trend of action movies that starred muscular heroes such as Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and many others and while the films themselves were totally unbelievable, audiences lapped them up, catapulting these brawny and hardened males into the stratosphere. “Rambo: First Blood Part II” was far removed from its predecessor, taking nuance and subtlety and throwing them out the window, replacing them will full-blown, ridiculously excessive action. As an action movie, it works, but just barely. And Rambo rescuing POWs at the end mirrored America’s stance that the war was still not over, with hundreds of POWs still imprisoned in Vietnam. James Cameron wrote an early draft of the screenplay but his version included a techy sidekick that accompanies Rambo on his mission, one that Stallone refused to put in the film. He felt that Rambo should be solo, at least until he reaches Vietnam and meets Co-Bao, which also introduced a possible love angle. Director George P. Cosmatos, who would direct Stallone in his next outing, “Cobra,” delivers a thrilling and, at times, breathtaking action adventure that never lets up. Good on its own standing, it sadly pales next to its predecessor and it’s quite obvious that no other Rambo movie will ever live up to the original. And let’s hope that Hollywood never gets the bright idea to remake it either.
Available on 4K Ultra HD™ Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray™ and Digital) Nov. 13th
Rambo mounts a one-man mission to rescue his friend Colonel Trautman from the clutches of the formidable invading Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
The tagline for “Rambo III” reads: “The first was for himself. The second for his country. This time it’s to save his friend.” I actually remember back in 1988 upon its release that I thought it was a good tagline, it pretty much summed up the whole film. It’s just a pity it didn’t live up to expectations. While it was a box-office hit, its numbers, compared to its previous installment, were much lower. And by this time, people were tiring of all the muscle-bound action romps that had taken up much of the ’80s. People were ready for more light-hearted fare such as “Crocodile Dundee” and Indiana Jones, movies that had plenty of action but with more relatable heroes. Like “Rambo: First Blood Part II” before it, “Rambo III” is a much better film on its own, but when you tie all three movies together, it is even more far-fetched and unbelievable than its predecessor. Action films are only credible to a point. Here, the movie crosses over that point and stomps it into the ground, all for the sake of action.
“Rambo III” introduces us to Rambo, who now lives in a monastery in Thailand, helping the monks in exchange for food and board. When his old friend, Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), meets him there, he shows him disturbing photos of people from Afghanistan villages who are being tortured and killed by the Soviet Military during the Soviet-Afghan War. He tells John that the US is putting together a mercenary team with the sole intent of supplying weapons to anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan and that he will lead them but Rambo refuses, stating that he is sick and tired of fighting and wants to live in peace. He wishes Trautman well and goes back to work. Sometime later, Robert Griggs (Kurtwood Smith), a US Embassy official, approaches Rambo and informs him that most of Trautman’s team were killed in an ambush but he was taken hostage to the Russian base. Naturally, Rambo asks what is being done about it and Griggs responds that it was an unofficial operation and that Trautman is on his own. Rambo tells Griggs that he will go by himself and he sets off for Peshawar, Pakistan, where he will meet his desert guide.
Once in the desert, he befriends Mousa Ghani (Sasson Gabai), an arms dealer who leads him to the village closest to the Russian base where his friend is being held. Mousa introduces Rambo to the Mujahideen, the village leaders and initially hesitant to help him free Trautman, they eventually agree to help, as long as Rambo helps them fight back. He agrees and both he and Mousa make their way to the base. With carefully planted bombs, they manage to destroy most of the base and Rambo helps Trautman escape but Colonel Alexei Zaysen (Marc de Jonge), the Russian leader, gives chase and the finale pits he and Rambo against each other, Zaysen in a chopper and Rambo in a tank. Guess who wins?
While there are some terrific action set pieces in “Rambo III,” the film is so over-the-top that while instantly taken with the action, you find yourself just as quickly coming out of it at the sheer absurdity of it all. Stallone and Crenna are in fine form, reprising their roles from the first two movies and we are so used to them in these parts, it’s hard to imagine anybody else in the roles. For the first movie, Kirk Douglas was set to play the role of Trautman but when he turned up on set, he demanded a whole bunch of script changes and Stallone and the director and producers, had to decline, at which point Douglas walked away from the film. It’s a pity really because I think he would have brought a more commanding presence to the part of Trautman. Not to take away from Richard Crenna but his performance as Trautman in “First Blood,” was somewhat stilted and his line delivery, at times, bordered on self-parody. With each film in the franchise, however, his performance became more refined and relaxed. Twenty years after “Rambo III,” Stallone would return to the role of John Rambo in the fourth outing in the series, aptly titled, “Rambo,” and it’s a shame it’s not included in this line-up as I thought it was the second-best film in the franchise, after “First Blood.” While Rambo, once again, takes on an army of bad guys, it was more realistic and the violence was brutal, including decapitations, disembowelments, and dismemberments. If you can get past all those though, you’ll thoroughly enjoy the film. The “Rambo Trilogy” is worth every penny, and the behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews with the cast and crew make it even more worthwhile.
Available on 4K Ultra HD™ Combo Pack (plus Blu-ray™ and Digital) Nov. 13th
