So sad news this week for Action fans, as we found out that the new Rambo won’t be screened for critics, meaning that it is probably absolutely terrible. While many may be lamenting the loss of this year’s Golden Globes, this is much more pertinent in my mind at the moment. I mean seriously, how bad could the movie be that Lionsgate would totally abandon it like this? This would surely hurt the movie’s box office to some degree wouldn’t it?
Well, this is all really disappointing for me personally, as I was actually really looking forward to some old school heroics from Sly Stallone and his other alter ego. Anyone that reads this column regularly (I know you’re out there) knows how much nostalgia I have for the heroes of the 80’s. Growing up on a steady diet of Action flicks like Commando and Die Hard, you get a taste for muscle bound good guys that prefer an M60 to talking about their feelings.
This is why I always seem to root for a Stallone comeback when it goes down every few years. I watched Get Carter, which I thought was bad, but not as bad as it could have been, and of course I was there screaming and cheering with Rocky Balboa during the Christmas of 2006. It’s a shame that this comeback may be shorter than anticipated if Rambo is as bad as Lionsgate apparently thinks it is. Then again, looking back it’s just seemed as if Stallone has had bad luck since the Reagan-era ended.
The star’s fall from grace seemed to come much sooner than his Planet Hollywood contemporaries. Action star Bruce Willis simply became amazingly terrific actor Bruce Willis. Schwarzenegger’s later Action entries may not have made Terminator 2 money, but many were still very acceptable popcorn fair, and if he hadn’t went into politics, I’m sure Arnie would still be tearing up the screen.
Other than Rocky Balboa and the animated film Antz, Stallone hasn’t had a hit since the early 90’s. Though I can appreciate Stallone’s attempt at turning his career around with Copland, most didn’t care for Stallone trying to break outside of his comfort zone. Everything else has pretty much been either a complete disaster or a straight to video movie that no one has ever seen. Why did this happen? Stallone used to be one of those great success stories; the nobody that lived his dream to write and star in a Best Picture winner, and then become an American icon.
Still, even though I’ve suffered through the pains of non-critically approved films before (I still have nightmares about Ultraviolet), there’s no way I’ll miss another adventure of John J. Rambo. Though he’s been a cartoon, both in a heroic and a literal sense, on the big screen and small Rambo has just always been a character that I’ve followed. Thankfully, even if the new film is absolutely horrid, I can always go back to the first time Rambo appeared on DVD, and take in his shell-shocked, ass-kicking insanity over and over.
First Blood Starring Sylvester Stallone, Brian Dennehy, and Richard Crenna. Directed by Ted Kotcheff
With all the excess that would come from both the Rambo and Rocky franchises; I think it’s easy to forget just how good the initial films in both series really are. This goes especially for First Blood, as it doesn’t have the advantage of winning Best Picture like Rocky does, and the series attached to it is one of the signature franchises representing macho Action cinema of its era. Thing is, in watching the first film in this series again, you see just how reserved the film is compared to not only the Action films of the 80’s, but any run of the mill blockbuster of today.
First Blood is a gritty, fist pumping, hard nosed film that stands up today because of the simplicity of its story and the charisma of its star. I really like watching Stallone during this period of his career. This is before he really became a superhero, and there’s still some identifiable humanity in his work. Take for instance, the first scene in the film in which Rambo is simply looking for a friend of his, another vet from his unit in Vietnam. There’s nervousness in his voice, as we see the former POW asking about his friend’s whereabouts by awkwardly showing a photo of his unit from the war. I also buy the sorrow in his face when he learns of his comrade’s recent passing.
This is really a terrific way to introduce you to John Rambo, as it manages to get you on his side early. Avoiding the sort of odd touchy/feely introduction you have to Schwarzenegger’s John Matrix in Commando, instead we get this very sympathetic approach that makes you empathize with Rambo’s loneliness. His friends are all dead, and he’s left to simply wander in search of peace. Much like Willis’ John McClane (why are these guys all named John?) it’s easier to connect with Rambo, because initially he doesn’t just seem like a superhero.
This is why it ticks you off when Brian Dennehy’s Sheriff Will Teasle doesn’t just leave Rambo alone when he wanders into Teasle’s little town. This film does make me wonder if all small-town Sheriffs rule their towns with iron fists the way Teasle does his. You see it over and over in Action films, where there’s a “good ole’ boy” mentality to a town sheriff that allows him to have carte blanche over his dominion. This really makes small town America seem like a really scary place. This is kind of the same thing Dennehy would do again in a Western setting in Silverado three years later, though I do think his work here is more subtle than that film, and most sheriffs of this ilk.
At any rate, for merely walking into this town and being a Vietnam veteran, Rambo gets arrested for vagrancy. I do admit at this point that it’s a little difficult to identify with this movie a bit, because the world we live in right now is so “pro-troops”. With the current war, the climate is so positive toward veterans that it seems really odd to watch a film where the armed services are so despised. At one point, Teasle points to the flag on Rambo’s jacket and says something about him asking for trouble by wearing a flag like that, which immediately makes me think “really? I mean, that’s not just hating veterans, that’s hating America, but all of his deputies and townsfolk are apparently in line with this thinking.
Thing is, if you can get past this theme which kind of dates the film, you’re in for an amazingly gritty Action experience. Director Ted Kotcheff does a terrific job of streamlining the violence, even flashing in moments of Rambo’s memories in a POW camp while being roughed up by the Sheriff’s deputies to ratchet up tension. Then the movie just goes into overdrive as Rambo simply loses it and takes out his fury on the local police force.
What’s terrific about the second half of the movie is watching Stallone turn into the killer he would basically be for the rest of this series, but again this is done with subtlety and never goes to too much excess. The movie’s best sequence involves the Sheriff’s Department following Rambo into the woods, with the veteran turning the location into his own Vietnam, single-handedly taking out each of these men, but not killing them. It’s awesome to watch Rambo jumping from trees and setting traps, and if you haven’t seen the movie before, there’s nothing I can say here that can really duplicate the experience. Rambo’s just this specter that takes these men apart piece by piece.
Stallone’s exactly where he needs to be as this man against seemingly the entire world. We want to root for this man and we sympathize with his plight. I wish he didn’t go for broke with his speech at the end of the film (“Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment, back here I can’t even hold a job PARKING CARS!”), but for the most part he does a terrific job of carrying the film. In fact, Stallone’s best work in this film is wordless, as it’s when he has to deal with the elements as well as his pursuers is when we feel the most for him. A lot of this role is just body language and other little nuances that it seems that Stallone abandoned later in his career.
In fact, Stallone apparently hated the original cut of the film, because it spent too much time with Rambo and some flashbacks, so most of the film’s dialogue rests with two other characters, Sheriff Teasle and Richard Crenna’s Col. Samuel Trautman, Rambo’s commander from the war. Teasle is probably the role of Brian Dennehy’s career. He’s the film’s villain for sure, but he’s never shown to be downright evil, just very wrong. He’s also really stubborn, which is really his worst sin. Instead of just letting this one go, which he should have and knows he should have, he keeps pushing, keeps sending more men after Rambo, who subsequently squashes any resistance to the rule of his territory.
Crenna gets one of the best roles of the film, basically getting the cream of the crop as far as dialogue in the movie is concerned. Trautman’s job in the film is basically to tell you how bad ass Rambo is, and then Rambo just shows you, which is one of the big reasons this film works. Seriously, Crenna just shows up to say lines like “God didn’t make Rambo. I made him!”, or “You’re ***damn lucky he didn’t kill all of you.” or “I don’t think you understand. I didn’t come to rescue Rambo from you. I came here to rescue you from him.” Crenna does some of the best scenery chewing in the movie, and relishes his time on screen, creating a character that is intricate to this mythology and series.
In the end, First Blood is a movie that deserves it’s place in the pantheon of Action cinema, earning Stallone’s spot next to his contemporaries more than any of his other films. This is a hard hitting, macho, and most of all smart action film that shows a man fighting against civilization, nature, and his own nature, with the real winners being us as the audience. While the rest of the films in this series may live in infamy for their excess and cartoon antics, and the new film may be the worst of all, First Blood is Hall of Fame-worthy Action cinema.
Picture Credits: impawards.com, outnow.ch
