First Blood (1982)

First Blood is quintessential Reagan-era violent individualism, and one of the benchmark flicks that set the standard for most Hollywood action films for the next several years.  Resonant in the American psyche, this first film was based on the 1972 novel by David Morrell (a Canadian, ironically), who had worked on the book while a professor at the University of Iowa and hearing stories from his students about their experiences in Vietnam. The final screenplay is co-written by Sylvester Stallone himself, this paints a bleak picture of the troubled veterans of Vietnam, unable to hold a job or function in a family setting, who are pushed to the edge until they become killing machines for survival. 

John Rambo is one such man, who has spent years trying to track down the only family he ever really knew — the soldiers who fought alongside him in the war.  To Rambo’s dismay, he finds he is all alone, as all of the rest were killed in action, or died from cancerous war-related exposure to chemicals, leaving him but to drift along the roads in search of new meaning to his life.  In the small town of Hope, the local sheriff (Dennehy) named Will Teasle tags Rambo as a vagrant drifter and quickly ushers him out of town. 

However, Rambo defiantly tries to return, whereupon he is arrested for vagrancy. When he doesn’t quite understand why he is being incarcerated, he resists their strong-arm tactics to get him to comply, triggering flashbacks of his days as a tortured prisoner of war.  Rambo, an ex-Green Beret, perhaps the most lethal of them all, muscles his way out of the station and into the nearby woods, where the police are in hot pursuit.  What they don’t realize is that Rambo is a one-man killing machine, with raw instincts for guerrilla warfare and very little to hold his fragile mentality together.  He just wants to be left alone, but the police are going to see to it that he never gets his wish.

Trivia note: Rambo, who Morrell has stated is somewhat based on PTSD-afflicted WWII hero and actor Audie Murphy (who died in 1971, as Morrell was writing his novel), had no first name mentioned in the novel. It was put into one of the screenplay drafts originally as “Johnny Rambo” in homage to the song, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, changed to just John in later drafts. His last name came when Morrell’s wife brought home some Rambo apples at a time when he was struggling to come up with a name for his novel’s main character.

It would take nearly a decade before someone would develop Morrell’s “First Blood” novel into full production. The main hangup was its overall bleakness, particularly in its ending, in which Rambo would meet a fate that would have ensured there would be no further sequels. The novel was a hot commodity in Hollywood shortly after its publication in 1972, with Columbia Pictures immediately securing the rights for $75,000.  Richard Brooks was slotted to direct from his script, envisioning a bifurcated storyline about two different kinds of veterans, one from World War II and the other from Vietnam, perhaps starring the likes of Burt Lancaster or Lee Marvin as the sheriff.

However, Brooks didn’t get very far with the screenplay, and the rights were subsequently sold off to Warner Bros. the following year for $125,000.  Over the next several years, many would become attached to the project, with directors like Martin Ritt, Sydney Pollack, Martin Bregman, John Badham, John Frankenheimer, and Mike Nichols tasked to take on the project from a variety of screenwriters like John Milius, Walter Newman, and David Rabe on board. For Rambo, it was a who’s who of hot actors ranging from Clint Eastwood to Robert De Niro to James Garner to Paul Newman to Al Pacino (wanted it to be even more extreme) to Kris Kristofferson to John Travolta (passed on it claiming it was too violent) to Dustin Hoffman (also, too violent for him) to Brad Davis to Powers Boothe to Nick Nolte to Terence Hill to Michael Douglas given a chance. The sheriff’s role would find Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Lee Marvin, Steve McQueen, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, and Charles Durning were given looks.

By 1977, after all of this talent had taken a pass, a script was developed from producer William Sackheim, who collaborated with screenwriter Michael Kozoll, who would come up with a script that would be pushed forward to more failed attempts. This Sackheim/Kozoll script would remain as the most promising choice for the next few years. All of the stalled and aborted attempts by Warner Bros. would finally end when First Blood‘s slated distributor, Filmways, would get bought out by Orion Pictures in 1982.

One of the last slated directors was Ted Kotcheff, a Canadian of Bulgarian descent, who happened to be a friend and former client of Warner Bros. agent-turned-president Bob Shapiro. In 1981, Kotcheff had spent months with co-writer Michael Kozoll working on a new script that they were adapting straight from the novel only to be told by Warner Bros. to not bother; they just didn’t see much in making the film at that time given the depressing and disastrous nature of the war in the raw and sensitive public psyche at the time. It was the Reagan era now, and America was looking more toward optimism and fun in its entertainment.

After he had been told not to bother continuing to develop his script, Ted Kotcheff moved on to other projects, later connecting with Carolco’s Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna, who asked him what he would like to do as his first film with their fledgling company. He stated First Blood, though he wasn’t sure it Warner would give up the rights despite abandoning it. After about a year of negotiations, Warner Bros. finally decided to option out the rights to the film for the sum of $375,000 to Carolco, who also paid $150,000 to Cinema Group for the prior Sackheim/Kozoll script.

At Kotcheff’s suggestion, Sylvester Stallone, who had originally been uninterested due to the project going through so many hands already, signed on immediately for the sizable sum of $3.5 million to star as John Rambo in 1981 with the condition that he be able to help Kotcheff with his intended rewrite of that Sackheim/Kozoll script. As they worked through it, Stallone as struck with a zany idea that he should not have any dialogue whatsoever. They began the process of stripping away the dialogue but soon realized that things wouldn’t feel natural if Rambo says nothing the entire film, but they liked the idea of a mostly silent Rambo, keeping him from talking for extended periods. It wasn’t easy, requiring several revisions and the uncredited assistance of Larry Gross and later David Giler.

During the Stallone scriptwriting phase, the nature of Rambo’s character would undergo major revisions, reducing his aggressiveness, finding a more sympathetic angle than just being a damaged psycho, and having him act much more out of self-defense than in proactively exacting deadly revenge. Tired of death and violence, Rambo also wouldn’t out-and-out kill anyone, choosing to maim them as American soldiers were crippled rather than killed by their Vietnamese captors to send a demoralizing message back home for continued interference.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Teasle’s character would go from the book’s reasonable and rounded lawman to a jerk who runs the town at his whim and will, without a care of the rights of those he harasses, and most of his men are more of the same. With Vietnam becoming a hotter topic, particularly in the sufferers of PTSD due to the war and the less-than-friendly welcome they received from the American citizens back home, Rambo was to no longer be viewed as a psycho on a suicide mission that needed to be killed, but rather, a victim and survivor trying to find his spot in a country that no longer seems to want him, playing him up more as the reluctant hero.

Kotcheff’s vision would be that the film represents a statement on behalf of the Vietnam vets on how they have been treated, with the cops that harass Rambo representing the kind of attitude many of the soldiers had to come home to, just wanting to find normalcy in an environment of misplaced hostility.

Despite all of the revisions and people brought on board to fix it, they still didn’t know what the proper ending should be. Should Rambo be apprehended bu live or kill himself with the gun held by the man who made the monster, Colonel Trautman, at the end? Originally, Rambo was on a suicide mission and wanted to die, but Stallone had serious qualms about putting the character through so much and then just having him die at the end, feeling like audiences would hate it. Kotcheff decided to shoot an alternate ending where Rambo lives, just in case they changed their minds later. They ended up letting test audiences be the ones who would eventually decide the character’s fate. A test screening resulted in a mixed reaction, so they’d have to take make the decision themselves. They would choose the alternate ending and let Rambo survive.

Filling in the supporting cast, Kirk Douglas was originally hired on as Colonel Trautman, but would soon leave the role due to artistic differences with the direction of the revisions to the script, especially in the lines and actions he is supposed to deliver toward the end of the film. He complained that Stallone was the only one allowed to call the shots and that he didn’t need to be in a film that didn’t value his input. After Rock Hudson took a pass due to medical reasons, Richard Crenna was brought in on one day’s notice to replace Douglas, with the character beefed up to be a close mentor from the war days for Rambo, unlike the book, where they don’t have much of a connection. With only three days to shoot his scenes, Crenna didn’t have time to read the script fully and prepare for his role, having them feed his lines and actions before each take, which some have said makes his scenes a little campier than the rest of the film due to his less-somber and more old-school military line delivery. Nevertheless, it would become his most famous of roles in a long and distinguished career.

Despite being a story to appeal to Americans, First Blood would set in a fictional town named Hope, presumably in Washington State (though shot in the real-life British Columbia town called Hope), changed from the novel’s Kentucky town of Madison. While this would make for an affordable shooting locale, the weather was an issue that delayed production. Some days the weather was too sunny, as they wanted a grey and dour look to the film to go along with the tone of the story. A bad patch of heavy snow would also essentially shut down production for a week. On top of this, the high amount of action and stunt work would result in several injuries that would further delay the shoot, including a tree jump done by Stallone in which he broke about a half-dozen ribs. To make matters worse, there would be an incident of theft of about $50,000 worth of the guns modified to shoot blanks, causing them to have to repurchase and remodify new ones.

Once shooting was finally completed, the first rough cut was out together, clocking in at a hefty 3-3.5 hours, according to Stallone, who felt the film would be so ill-received that he contemplated buying it out so no one would ever see it.  Heavy edits soon proceeded forward, chopping out a good deal of the expository dialogue, until the final cut would run half that length at 93 minutes. Vajna and Kassar went about trying to secure a distributor for their film. They ended up having to put together a showreel to sell but found no initial takers. Eventually, after putting together a reel that showcased about half of the film, they secured foreign distribution, but still nothing for North America. After giving Paramount a chance that didn’t pan out, the original distributor, Filmways/Orion Pictures, would win out for distribution rights to the U.S. for the sizable sum of $8 million, with a release date of October of 1982.

First Blood would prove to be a huge hit at the box office, debuting at #1 in the U.S. and staying there for three weeks, and remained in the top ten in the country for two additional months. All told, the $16 million budgeted film ended up raking in over $45 million in the U.S., and over $75 million more internationally, where it would break a few box office records in places like Hong Kong. For Stallone, it was a needed breakthrough, as it was the first non-Rocky film in his career to make money. It would also be a career boost to Brian Dennehy. who would quickly become one of the most sought-after character actors in Hollywood throughout the next two decades.

Though gripping in spots and entertaining throughout, First Blood is a story that occasionally does feel at odds with itself.  The creators try their hardest to make this a serious character study of the effects of the Vietnam War on its soldiers, while also going for an over-the-top action flick.  Each element is strong on its own, but together, both tend to undercut each other at critical moments.  The grandiose action elements serve to make this an exciting and fun film, even when it may seem deadly serious, and the introduction of drama, particularly in a final monologue, while poignant for the character, is delivered in a manner which encroaches on becoming disingenuous and leads to unintentional awkwardness.  On the other hand, there is an earnestness in telling this tale for the soldiers that is respectable. Yet, the action lets on that Kotcheff and Stallone want to make this a vehicle that rides on populist entertainment more so than a realistic and in-depth character study, so dramatic momentum is never entirely achieved.

Even taking each aspect on its terms, First Blood is a solid effort that may not quite be as great a film as some of its rabid fans often tout.  The measure of its inconsistency comes from the campier-than-necessary performances.  Brian Dennehy is perhaps the sole actor who gives just the right effort in his performance in the secondary role as the hothead heavy.  Stallone is trying hard to stay subdued in a manner that borders on unnatural; he’s been unfairly underappreciated as an actor by critics but has still done much better acting-wise in his career. Despite this, there’s no question that he has a great screen presence. At least he is memorable in the role and delivers a gut-wrenching final monologue that would have been much more powerful had it not already been established that this is a movie that isn’t playing entirely seriously, not to mention that it is partially unintelligible.  Crenna’s lack of preparation shows in his performance, while the cast of supporting actors offer little in their roles but act like semi-comical hicks. 

There’s also the BS factor involved in seeing a man take on 200 armed and trained officers and beat them at every turn. There’s also some more of this when we witness Rambo involved in a few death-defying fights as well as falls from great heights with barely a scratch to show for it.  The absurdity level is more than a bit high, although not in a way that makes it less entertaining. Some viewers might even enjoy this departure from realism for the sake of the well-done action sequences.

First Blood is recommendable for the parts that work well, including the underlying themes on the Vietnam vet experience even with the unevenness involved in the alternating focus between action and drama. Taken as a smaller film than the series would eventually become om its subsequent four sequels, it’s still an effective action vehicle for Stallone and struck a nerve with the American public. Its appeal would be enough to see Rambo come back for even more over-the-top action, unfortunately glorifying the battlefield violence negates the anti-war theme of this first entry and makes it look like a somber issues-based drama by comparison.

Qwipster’s rating: B

MPAA Rated: R for violence and language
Running Time: 97 min.

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney, David Caruso, Chris Mulkey, Jack Starrett, Michael Talbott, John McLiam, Alf Humphreys
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Screenplay: Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim, Sylvester Stallone