First Blood (1982) Movie Review

First Blood is the movie franchise to which Rambo belongs, before being a movie, First Blood is a book written by David Morrell, so First Blood is a big screen adaptation of First Blood, the movie First Blood is directed by Ted Kotcheff and was released in theaters in 1982. Rambo today is consolidated as one of the most recognized icons of popular culture, it is difficult to find someone who doesn´t know who Rambo is and this is due to the enormous success that their films produced at its time, so watching this film made me felt curious and I could appreciate a face that I didn´t see of the Rambo character that is rarely told, it will be strange to say this but the First Blood film has an interesting background that is worth analyzing which I will talk about later.

First Blood begins with our protagonist Rambo, it is explained that Rambo is a war veteran and that due to the strong war in Vietnam he developed PTSD which prevents him from being an ordinary citizen again, even so, Rambo makes an effort to integrate to society, however, Rambo gets into trouble because of the police, he is arrested and due to the great traumas that his PTSD has worsens making a disaster in the prison and escaping from it, in turn a group of policemen he chases after him and basically the movie is about Rambo running away from the cops.

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The movie is pretty good and I'll be completely honest, I wanted to watch it because I thought it was a movie in which there was nothing more than action and I ended up being surprised. Rambo is usually seen as the man who can do everything, handsome, muscular and basically what you are supposed to be as a man, but nothing further from the truth, as I mentioned before Rambo has serious PTSD issue so he is not mentally healthy, Everything that he lived in Vietnam has marked him for life and not in a good way, at first glance you can see that Rambo has an empty look, devoid of emotions, he seems very tired all the time which can tell us a lot about the bad treatment that war veterans receive in the United States where instead of receiving psychological treatments they are put aside, of course I am talking about the context at that time, I do not know if today is the other way around.

First Blood is quite a modest movie in monetary terms so we won't watch amazing action scenes every moment, basically what someone would expect to watch in a Rambo film. The film despite having its degree of action, it gives enough importance to the character of Rambo so that we can watch how hurted he is on a psychological level, to the level that anything reminds him of his horrible experiences lived in Vietnam, this way is easy to empathize with his situation. The second part of this movie is completely based on Rambo running away from the cops and in general, this part is very focused on action and making Rambo look like a super man until he has a mental breakdown.

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Sylvester Stallone does a good job acting as Rambo in First Blood, the look in his eyes that Rambo has through the film is very interesting, in addition to his behavior being a PTSD pacient, he knew how to personify Rambo very well as a war veteran who has not been taken care of by the government of his respective country. If I had to say something I didn´t like about First Blood it would be the fact that on a personal level I felt that in the last act it was taking too much time to end, to give an example, there is a scene where Rambo must cross a dark cave, it is something that could have been simplified a lot but the film chooses to lengthen that moment too much by more than 10 minutes.

Summarizing everything I have said, First Blood is more than a simple action movie, it allows us to see the sad life of a war veteran with severe PTSD which the government has decided to ignore, we can appreciate how difficult it is for Rambo try to re-integrate into society and that the police do not leave it all so easy; being a limited budget movie, First Blood manages to satisfy those who are looking for some action, I recommend watching First Blood totally, it is a movie that surprised me and I enjoyed from beginning to end.

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