i want you to hit me as hard as you can
are you telling me that 200 men against your boy is a no-win situation for us
you send that money don't forget one thing what a good supply of body bags when you manage to
strike it big as a movie star you're exceedingly lucky if you can get that one iconic role that
everyone will remember you for but to many it's both a blessing and a curse some actors have
bristled the typecasting and many struggled to follow up such a role such a thing happened till
sylvester stallone in the wake of rocky but for the superstar something really rare would happen
lightning would strike twice as in 1982 his movie first blood would introduce the world to
his second signature character john rambo and just like rocky it would be a role he continues playing
to this day but first let's take a step back first blood is based on a novel by david morrell
an english professor his book was inspired by the tales many of his vietnam vet students told
him upon their return from the war published in 1972 the book tells the story of a shell-shocked
veteran gone berserk in a small kentucky town after a run-in with a local sheriff named teasel
don't push it don't push it i'll give you a war you won't believe
eventually his mentor colonel trotman arrives in the small town and bears witness to rambo
and tesel mortally wounding each other with trotman finally finishing off his former protege
the book's anti-hero rambo had some similarities to the most decorated war hero of the second
world war audi murphy a kentucky boy who became a household name and eventually a bonafide hollywood
star in westerns yet he also had undiagnosed ptsd and couldn't sleep without a gun under his pillow
first blood was quickly optioned for the movies and went through many iterations
everyone from steve mcqueen to james khan to paul newman were considered for the role of rambo while
tesol was earmarked for an actor like gene hackman or charles derning everyone wanted george c scott
coming off of patton to play trotman the film languished in development hell but it came
close to being made by john frankenheimer with midnight express star brad davis in the lead
eventually it fell into the hands of fledgling producers andrew rajna and mario kasar and their
company kuralco it was to be independently financed that director ted kochef was hired
kotchev was an interesting choice as he was best known for the canadian classic the apprenticeship
of duddy kravitz and the jane fonda comedy fun with dick and jane yet he had branched out with
the football satire north dallas 40 as well as the intense cult deprogramming film split image
which would actually hit theaters the same month as first blood eventually sylvester stallone
secured the lead role with him also co-writing the finished screenplay together with writers
michael cazale and william sackheim he would flesh out the character giving him the first name john
in the original novel rambo kills many of his pursuers in the film rambo would be much more
sympathetic being a tragic victim of circumstance and bigotry i'm warning you boy don't make a move
i'll blow your head off i didn't do anything who avoids killing only indirectly causing the death
of one cop who in a crazed moment tries to murder rambo from a helicopter and falls to his death
notably the screenplay also called for rambo to live although both versions of the ending
were in fact shot one in which he lives one in which he dies
the choice to make rambo liv changed up the cast with kirk douglas having initially been
signed on to play trotman a mock-up poster was made emphasizing his role but he quit because
he wanted the film to end with trotman killing rambo a certain degree of competitiveness from
the former he-man action star may have played a role too with stallone himself telling an
illuminating anecdote years later saying that the plan to include kirk douglas snowballed
into something he never expected he said to sly here's what i want at the very end of the movie
i should kill you the audience sees a cop car driving away and as it disappears into the fog
a hand reaches up to the rear view mirror the camera turns up and we see me and it turns a
bit higher and i'm wearing your headband i don't think it would have worked rock hudson would have
likely taken over the role of trotman but suffered a heart attack before shooting hence the part went
to richard krenna who'd had a long career as a character actor but for whom colonel trotman
would turn into a signature role krennis casting was so last minute he basically had to learn his
entire role on the plane to the set which was in hope british columbia doubling for the fictional
hope washington the choice of brian dennehy to play teasel was another strong creative choice
as the late character actor plays tesl as far more intolerant and cruel than perhaps someone like
jean hackman would even if he's actually far from a stock villain once his deputies start getting
killed or wounded he realizes in how over his head he is but his ego won't allow him to pull out
even when essentially given an out by trotman i do my own work i don't think the best way to
do that is to close my eyes and then hope he gets picked up in seattle in a strange side
note dennehy eventually got into hot water with vietnam vets for passing himself off as one he
was indeed a marine but was out of the service by 1963 and he apologized years later the shoot by
all accounts was physically grueling with stallone doing about 75 percent of his own stunts the film
was plagued with injuries with stallone and brian dennehy both breaking the ribs during the shoot
stallone broke rib and bruised his spleen on the fourth take of the famous cliff jump scene
he did the second half of the stunt stuntman benny e dobbins also suffered major back damage
a compression lumbar fracture in other words he broke his back and shortened his spine
this happened during the scene where the cop car slides down which was an accident but they
of course kept it in the film as it looked so damn cool and finally stallone broke the nose
of alf humphries who plays lester the cop during the jail escape scene by elbowing him in the face
he wears a band-aid the rest of the movie coincidentally this is actually what rambo does to
the police men in the novel during the exact same scene so i suppose it was meant to be stallone and
kochef also had some battles during production was stallone apparently forced to do the scene
where he's whipped with a rubber hose over and over because he wasn't happy with the way david
caruso delivered the line can't you see this guy's crazy can't you see i don't give a [ __ ] the
thing is crusoe nailed the line in every take and eventually stallone almost came to blows at
the director after being told to shut up after complaining he was tackled by security guards
before he could sort the director out resulting in yet another crack rib that said stallone holds
no ill will against the director and said they eventually both apologize and moved on
first blood would eventually emerge as one of stallone's most important vehicles
as it was the first time he'd been able to escape the type casting of rocky he made a lot of movies
that cast him in a variety of roles but none of them had been successful nevertheless first
blood would be a hit although the shoot was a fraud experience and no one stallone included
thought this violent thriller would launch a billion dollar franchise the first cut was
over three hours long and stallone famously wanted to buy the film and burn it yet in the
end kotchev whittled it down to just over 90 minutes and the end result as stallone himself
would say years later was perfect noting that he wouldn't change a thing it's over nothing is over
one of the big changes was that much of rambo's dialogue was removed making him much more of a
purely physical presence so why is first blood so good i think much of it comes down to the creative
collaboration between stallone and kotchev who's never really gotten his due as a director i grew
up watching first blood on ratty vhs copies which hampered the 235-1 scope of the film but watching
it on beautiful 4k is night and day as it's never been clear to me before i'd watch it this way
what a beautiful evocative film kotchev had made shot on location in british columbia the
movie has a lush green look and you can almost smell the forest rambos being pursued through
the action is much lower key than the sequels and in some ways that makes the big stunt sequence all
the more exciting another key creative element in the film was the score by jerry goldsmith
which ranks as one of his best and the way it complements the action scene such as rambo's
initial escape from the police station and his infamous cliff jump gives me goosebumps every time
stallone's performance is also one of his best he's never gotten his proper due as an actor
and it's striking to me just to see how good he is in first blood although his performance was
never actually considered for any awards back in 1982 you get the sense that rambo is traumatized
by trying to fit back into civilized society the opening seat is heartbreaking as he goes to visit
the family of a former comrade only to realize he's dead as the result of agent orange his final
monologue to trotman is masterful and probably the single best piece of screen acting he ever did
the rest of the cast is terrific too while ostensibly playing a scumbag denny he has
moments that reveal tesol's humanity well krenna is iconic as trotman with his delivery of the
line he was trained to kill period a classic his job was to dispose of enemy personnel
to kill period another subtle element i didn't pick up on until years later was that the film
actually takes place at christmas time you can see decorations in the office and around town
and i think by setting at christmas a hopeful time of year actually increases the sense of
tragedy and hopelessness it's a time of peace and joy for everybody but john rambo the film itself
is a sizable hit grossing 47 million domestically and topping out at 125 million dollars worldwide
that said mike medevoy who'd been running orion pictures at the time who distributed the film
maintained that if orion had put more money into marketing it it would have likely been
an even bigger hit a similar claim he made about another sleeper orion picked up two years later
the terminator he also said that orion's lack of marketing muscle led to the sequels going to
tristar and indeed rambo 2 would make three times what first blood did no matter for the first time
first blood proved that stallone was bankable outside of the rocky franchise and kicked his
career into another plane yet no one at the time knew just how massive the franchise would be
sadly ted kotcheff would not return opting instead to make the thematically similar
action flick uncommon valor coincidentally with gene hackman which is well worth checking out if
you get the chance nevertheless first blood still stands as one of the greatest action
films of the 80s and a masterful work of its genre i give this one 10 out of 10 stallones
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