Rambo: First Blood (UK)

Rambo The First Blood was one of those first movies (Ghostbusters & E.T were the first) that I saw as a kid, but unfortunately it was too violent for me back then and I was only able to see the policestation sequence and from that day I have been a Rambo fan. It took some time until the Rambo dvd (U.K version) had it`s way into my collection, but I can tell you that it was worth waiting for. This first part of Rambo comes among with the superb trilogy boxset and it`s packaging is beautiful, with cool covers for all movies. So,let`s start with this First Blood dvd review.

The First Blood is a great story about a Vietnam warhero called John J.Rambo (ex-Green Beret), who comes back into States to visit his old friend, but sadly he has died and Rambo seems to be the last one alive from his group. He continues his travel and finally comes into a little town, where sheriff "the asshole" doesn`t have anything better to do than challenge John into a fight."Hey, come on, Rambo just wanted to eat something". Next he escapes from the policeoffice and starts a manhunt that is impossible to win at the end.The story is mixture of action, drama, thriller, adventure and sometimes even comedy "Well, I think that Richard Crenna is very funny".

The dvd transfer from lousy vhs copies is superb. The video is presented as 2.35:1 widesceen and the quality + sharpness looks better than ever, even there`s few scenes with a little amount of grain, but you gotta remember that this movie was made in 1982 (perfect year). For now the Jaws has got maybe the best picture quality from old movies, but First Blood looks just also very nice, but also quite old sometimes. The audio is doesn`t give you anything to cheer for and we only get the Dolby Surround 2.0. It beats any other formats and the Jerry Goldsmith`s soundtrack sounds quite clear. Mainly the audio is quite poor, and the strongest part of this disc is the picture quality.

The extra features includes some nice trailers, but nothing more. The menu desing is excellent and it`s gives you some good power action feeling (better than the U.S menus). This is must buy for all the Rambo fans and nice first part of the trilogy.

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"when for no apparent reason, a small town police chief arrests a vagrant hitchhiker, little does he realize that he has set in motion a catastrophic series of events. The Vagrant in question is John Rambo, Congressional Medal Of Honour winner and Vietnam war hero. Responding to the harassment of his captors with sudden ferociousness, Rambo makes a daring escape from the small town jail, steals a motorcycle and roars off to the shelter of the nearby mountains. As the man hunt begins Rambo is in his element preparing himself for a one man war."

With those words the world was introduced to the character of John Rambo, a character who would go on to become one of the most popular action hero`s of all time. Yet despite what he was to later become this first outing for Rambo is a more humble low budget affair. They couldn`t afford the massive explosions that was to later make the series, and yet that didn`t effect the popularity of this critically acclaimed first outing. The reason is that the small budget forced the writers to give a little more attention to the characters, most obviously seen in the main character of John Rambo. In the later films he was destined to become this 2 dimensional patriot who always fights for the right cause. However in the first film he was a much better written character who`s mind was filled with emotional issues. He doesn`t fight to rescue anyone, or to defend his country but rather he fights because he can`t let the Vietnam war go. The war was basically all Rambo knew and so trying to live as a civilian wasn`t working causing him to start his own war with the police force. This is not the only part of Rambo`s personality that is developed here but because there are so many issues in his life then all I can do is recommend that you watch the film if you want to find out them all.

Of course none of this is to suggest that `First Blood` is anything it`s not, because when push comes to shove `First Blood` is, was and will always be a bit of fluff. While it is definitely more believable than it`s sequels it still comes down to Rambo taking on an army in a one man war. It wouldn`t have been a problem if it hadn`t been for the character of Colonel Trautman, because when it was Rambo vs the police you could sort of believe that a trained green bray could take on a small town police force, but when Troutman started going on about how Rambo is the best of the best I couldn`t help but cringe. Yes there have been soldiers that were trained well, but the suggestion that a soldier is so good that noone not even his own commander can stop him is just a bit too far fetched for me. The way he keeps going on about if they send 200 men they`ll need 200 body bags just make it all worse, but it doesn`t really matter because you can still look at `First Blood` as an action film. Taken as that it`s an enjoyable film.