Rambo The First
- Review By:
- tpb
- Date:
- November 1, 2008
- Movie:
- Rambo: First Blood
- Director:
- Ted Kotcheff
- Released:
- 1982
- Good Guy:
- John Rambo
- Played By:
- Sylvester Stallone
- Bad Guy:
- Sheriff Will Teasle
- Played By:
- Brian Dennehy
- MPAA Rating:
- R
- Family Friendly Ages:
- Not for kids
There is just so much wrong with this movie. The acting is terrible; the writing is ridiculous; the plot is nonsense; and the oh-so-depressing, tear-filled, psycho-dramatic ending is unsatisfying and inane. But First Blood's main character, John Rambo, has worked its way too deeply into American pop and political culture to dismiss it completely - even when dismissing it completely is exactly what this movie deserves. Any fan of the action genre has, at the very least, heard of the 'Rambo' movies and Stallone's embodiment of the enraged, uber-capable loner. 'First Blood' spawned the franchise and established the term 'Rambo' as a cartoon-descriptor of the good that can come of being a Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dennehy's Will Teasle is sheriff of a small town somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. While driving through his quiet streets one morning, he spots the drifter Rambo and attempts to run him out of town. Rambo will have none of it though, is arrested, and subsequently brutalized by several deputies. When these cops-gone-wrong try to shave Rambo's head to teach him a lesson, a flashback to his POW days kicks our anti-hero into a bone-breaking rage and eventual escape. The cops are portrayed as donut-glazed and evil. And, as we see them fall one-by-one at the hands of Stallone's silent rebel, we know they had it coming. The trouble is, Rambo doesn't stop there. Instead, he abandons the side of righteousness to spend the evening mindlessly shooting up storefronts all over town. He inexplicably crashes into a couple of gas pumps and sets the station on fire then watches the resulting explosions as a line of cars lifts off the ground one-by-one in an unnecessary display of obviously-staged pyrotechnics. He blows up the sporting goods store with thoughtful deliberation to demonstrate how he takes pride in his work, but never explains why. We never see any civilians hurt in this manic mayhem. Actually, we never see any civilians at all during the downtown shoot-em-up scenes. Fortunately, the Police Department has a town-wide intercom system that Will Teasle uses to evacuate everyone. Obviously the town's residents were prepared for this very type of emergency, because one quick statement spoken through this intercom is all they need to pick up, pack up, and leave in an orderly, rapid, and silent fashion. Lucky for them too because Rambo is not the type of preposter to drop everything in an attempt to rescue the rolling baby carriage from the exploding Wal-mart. There is simply no room in his focused mania for any glimmers of conscience or humanity.
Rambo, we are told again and again through the film's insipid and distracting dialogue, is a killing machine who can't be stopped by mere mortals. Ok, ok, but couldn't he, at least, attempt a sideways smile once in a while? Some gutteral Terminator-type verbal snipe at the victim writhing on the ground? Some James-Bondian quip after dispatching a particularly devilish deputy? He spent time making a wooden daggered trap for a pursuer; cleverly lures his victim into it; and never even offers a comical nod to his own ingenuity? C'mon! His long and dull spelunking escape through the mine would have felt somewhat less arduous for the viewer if he'd made a crack about his unfamiliar surroundings and his need to fashion a torch from his own clothing. 'First Blood' may have some cultural pedigree, but it just doesn't measure up to the great action movies that have come before or since. Rambo is no everyman preposter. And that's just one reason 'First Blood' fails to bring anything of value to the action movie genre.
