First Blood (Special Edition) dvd movie.|
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List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $12.99 You Save: $1.99 Features • Anamorphic • Closed-captioned • Color • Dolby • DTS Surround Sound • DVD-Video • Full Screen • Live • Special Edition • Subtitled • Widescreen • NTSC In Theaters : 22 October, 1982 DVD Release : 28 May, 2002 |
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First Blood (Special Edition) description It's easy to forget that this Spartan, violent film, which begat the Rambo series, was such a big hit in 1982 because it was a good movie. Green Beret vet John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) wanders into the wrong small town to find a fellow 'Nam buddy and gets the living heck kicked out of him by the local law enforcement (led by Brian Dennehy). The vet strikes back the only way he knows how, leading to a visceral, if unrealistic, flight and fight through the local mountains. Based on the 1972 novel by David Morrell, this film saved Stallone's then-foundering career and the Rambo character became the inspiration for countless political cartoons. But this film is Deliverance without the moral ambiguity. --Keith Simanton |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | 20th Century American Icon |
| Contemporary mythology, as Joseph Campbell once said, is how mankind is remembered both culturally and anthropologically. It is what lasts...
With that in mind, amongst the memorable archetypes of the last 50 years or so comes John Rambo. As easily misunderstood by critics as he is by everyone in his filmic universe, he is sometimes written off as a 'killing machine'. This misses the point. John Rambo is really every man who was called by his people to go to war for them. It's just played on a broad cinematic canvas. War is hell, as anyone who has ever experienced it can tell you. And the absolute impossibility of conveying those experiences with anyone outside the realm has created, particularly in our media savvy society, a number of disaffected and alienated young men. It is to this that Sylvester Stallone's nicely nuanced performance speaks. Beautifully shot in the Pacific Northwest, Stallone's Rambo is a drifter ostensibly in search of a Vietnam buddy whom he finds has died from toxic Agent Orange poisoning. What he is really searching for is is soul- and his humanity. The reception he is given by the town Sheriff (played beautifully by Brian Denehy) is an allegory for how we, as a society, have used and then turned our back on these young men. Ridiculed, humiliated, and jailed, Rambo takes war against the new enemy- those who are tormenting him. The plot thickens nicely when Colonel Sam Trautman (the hugely underrated Richard Crenna) shows to 'take charge' of the situation. Seems he trained Rambo in the Special Forces and commanded him in Vietnam. What he really is is the estranged father figure that Rambo desperately wants approval from. This works extremely well on a deeper psychological level than one might expect from a 'B' actioner. This is an important film. Important for it's cultural significance, for John Rambo is truly a great Ameican icon in the clasic sense. Important too, is it's impact on filmaking- his characterization has been copied endlessly by the likes of Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris, all of which lack the subtext that Stallone brought. I do suggest, however, that one skips the next two installments in the series (they're ok, but just really potboilers) and instead see his superb followup out in theaters now. Called simply 'Rambo', it serves well as a coda for the character. Forget the critics on this one, folks, and particularly the excellent Blu-Ray transfer will have you more involved than ever before. This movie satnds the test of time. Don Case |
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