Review of Rambo: First Blood

Introduction

Despite trying to convince us otherwise in recent years, Sylvester Stallone should stick to what he does best - action movies. Stallone and Schwarzenegger vied for the honour of being the biggest action star throughout the eighties and both were very popular - except when they moved genre to comedy or drama etc - eventually they have to come back to the action film to get fans back into the cinema. Stallone is rumoured to be considering a fourth Rambo film...

Rambo - First Blood Part II came out when I was at school and it sparked an interest in trying to see the first one. I remember once we all had, discussion centered on the "sewing up his arm" and "spikes in the leg" scenes. You remember those don`t you!

Basic synopsis for anyone who hasn`t seen the film, or can`t quite remember is that local Sherriff (Brian Dennehy) doesn`t like the look of drifter John Rambo (Stallone) and decides to move him through town as fast as he can. Rambo take exception to this and comes back, looking for a meal - and is duly arrested. The Police then give him a hard time and escapes into the woods, starting a massive manhunt - but the Police just can`t cope with the ex-Green Beret.

Video

The first thing to remember about First Blood is that it is (almost unbelieveably) 18 years old (this worries me!). The anamorphic picture is actually very good for the age of the film and is clear and stable throughout.

There`s a reasonable amount of detail, and there are no problems with the numerous dark scenes.

Audio

Again, you`ve got to remember that this is an 18 year old movie. The sound transfer itself is actually fine - the problem les with the master material - for example the first fight scene in the Police Station made me laugh - the punches sound more like slaps - and the gunfire later in the film is equally feeble.

As this is 1982 film, the sound really wasn`t top of the filmmakers list of priorities - and as such there`s little or no rear channel action or atmospheric sounds etc.

Dialogue however is clear and precise throughout.

Features

Features here include "First Blood: A Look Back", an audio commentary, the theatrical trailer, production notes, and cast crew bios.

The menus themselves are animated with sound from the film etc.

Conclusion

Overall, this film does show it`s age in places, namely the sound - but was still enjoyable - perhaps it suffers from having been seen too many times in the past.

There are some "classic" moments, liek Stallone`s jump off the cliffs onto a tree which tears his arm open and requires him to sew it up (ouch) and the great booby trap consisting of a spiked branch that gets launched into a Policeman`s legs (again, ouch). One thing that I would say is that these scenes and the other similar ones that looked really nasty all those years ago don`t seem so bad now - I guess that we`ve become a lot more used to such things.

The picture is good and there`s a reasonable range of extras.

First Blood doesn`t really have anything in common with it`s two sequels other than the character itself - it is a world apart from the Afganistan setting of the third film for example, but this is a good entertaining trilogy of films - there`s no Oscars for acting, but they`re all fast paced with plenty going on.

None of these films have been available on VHS in widescreen in the UK (as far as I know anyway), so for someone like myself who`s missed that opportunity to own them, First Blood is a worthy purchase.