First Blood (Rambo 1)

Soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith? It's reason enough to re-evaluate First Blood and its production quality. The film stands up well to the passage and test of time. The final exchange between Rambo and Trautman is raw, unnerving, and essential.

I like this movie

the best of the Rambo films in my opinion...

Received on time in good condition

Great flick

If you haven't seen it, you have cheated yourself.

4K restoration is just beautiful. I owned the DVD and the Blu-ray and if you are thinking about converting to 4K, I highly recommend it because there are discernible differences in the video quality (on LG OLED TV). Special Features from Blu-ray edition carry over; they are: Commentary from Sylvester Stallone, Commentary from David Morrell (the author of the book First Blood)First Blood is the perfect movie to epitomize the concept of “if you pick on the wrong guy, you get your ass kicked” and “the hunter becomes the hunted”.Sherriff Teasle is a small town sheriff who is a bully; he picks up Rambo for vagrancy just because he doesn’t like the way Rambo looks (unbeknownst to him, Rambo is a war hero, a Vietnam green beret with medal of honor). When Rambo finally gets enough of the harassment at the hands of the cops in the police station and breaks free, it turns into a personal war and vendetta for Sheriff Teasle who desperately tries to bring down Rambo but with no success. As Sheriff Teasle takes the fight up a notch in each step, Rambo manages to come back stronger and before you know it, Rambo takes on the entire police force, law enforcement and even the army in this tour de force action flick – a total classic!My only criticism is the subtitles. Some of the subtitles do not match the spoken words and in some instances they ruin the meaning of the scene. I am not sure if the subtitles in the DVD or the Blu-ray edition have the same problem or not. For instance, in the scene where Rambo says (while talking to Trautman in the tunnel), “They drew first blood, not me” which is an important line in the movie because it is first and the only time the title of the movie is spoken. The subtitle in that scene reads: “They shot first, not me”. One other example is when Rambo is riding in the car with Sheriff Teasle and asks if there is a law against him having something to eat in this town, Teasle responds: “Yeah, me”. In this scene, subtitles read: “Yeah, my law”. These are the examples I can think of now.

Contemporary mythology, as Joseph Campbell once said, is how mankind is remembered both culturally and anthropologically. It is what lasts...With that in mind, amongst the memorable archetypes of the last 50 years or so comes John Rambo. As easily misunderstood by critics as he is by everyone in his filmic universe, he is sometimes written off as a 'killing machine'. This misses the point. John Rambo is really every man who was called by his people to go to war for them. It's just played on a broad cinematic canvas.War is hell, as anyone who has ever experienced it can tell you. And the absolute impossibility of conveying those experiences with anyone outside the realm has created, particularly in our media savvy society, a number of disaffected and alienated young men. It is to this that Sylvester Stallone's nicely nuanced performance speaks.Beautifully shot in the Pacific Northwest, Stallone's Rambo is a drifterostensibly in search of a Vietnam buddy whom he finds has died from toxic Agent Orange poisoning. What he is really searching for is is soul- and his humanity. The reception he is given by the town Sheriff (played beautifully by Brian Denehy) is an allegory for how we, as a society, have used and then turned our back on these young men. Ridiculed, humiliated, and jailed, Rambo takes war against the new enemy- thosewho are tormenting him.The plot thickens nicely when Colonel Sam Trautman (the hugely underratedRichard Crenna) shows to 'take charge' of the situation. Seems he trainedRambo in the Special Forces and commanded him in Vietnam. What he reallyis is the estranged father figure that Rambo desperately wants approvalfrom. This works extremely well on a deeper psychological level than one might expect from a 'B' actioner.This is an important film. Important for it's cultural significance, for John Rambo is truly a great Ameican icon in the clasic sense. Important too, is it's impact on filmaking- his characterization has been copied endlessly by the likes of Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris, all of which lack the subtext that Stallone brought.I do suggest, however, that one skips the next two installments in the series (they're ok, but just really potboilers) and instead see his superb followup out in theaters now. Called simply 'Rambo', it serves well as a coda for the character.Forget the critics on this one, folks, and particularly the excellent Blu-Ray transfer will have you more involved than ever before. This movie satnds the test of time.Don Case