First Blood
Short description
John Rambo, a Vietnam veteran and former Green Beret, is drifting through the United States when he arrives in the small town of Hope and is stopped by Sheriff Will Teasle, who arrests him for vagrancy. In custody he is mistreated by the deputies, and the abuse triggers a violent response. He overpowers the officers, escapes, and takes refuge in the surrounding mountains and forest, where his military training lets him evade and resist the large manhunt that the local authorities and then the National Guard mount against him. Colonel Samuel Trautman, his former commanding officer, is brought in to try to talk him down.
Released in 1982, the film was directed by Ted Kotcheff, arriving two decades into a career that had begun with Tiara Tahiti and included Wake in Fright and Fun with Dick and Jane. Sylvester Stallone plays Rambo and co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Kozoll and William Sackheim; Richard Crenna plays Trautman, Brian Dennehy plays Teasle, and Buzz Feitshans produced. Made for about 15 million dollars, it took roughly 125 million worldwide.
Audiences have kept the film in steady circulation: on IMDb it holds 7.7 out of 10 from around 300,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.5 from a much smaller base of some 7,000. A critics' rating of 7.5 from 49 reviews places it in much the same range as those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Nick Nolte, Chris Kristofferson, Jeff Bridges, Robert De Niro, and Michael Douglas turned down the role of Rambo.
- Despite the film's reputation for being excessively violent, only one person actually died during filming.
- Differences from the book: In the book, the cave where Rambo was hiding was filled with bats. In the film, they were replaced with rats. The scene with which the film begins, where Rambo visits his fellow soldier, is absent in the book. In the book, the helicopter pursuing Rambo explodes. Rambo kills the pilot with a rifle shot. In the book, Teasle participated in the Korean War. Rambo sees a medal in his office that can also be seen in the background in the film. Later, this fact, in Trautman’s opinion, became decisive in the confrontation between the sheriff and Rambo. In the film, Rambo only wounds the sheriff’s deputies with his ingenious traps. In the book, however, these scenes are more grim and violent. They all die at his hands, and a powerful surge of rainwater washes their bodies down the ravine. Only Teasle survives, fleeing rather than being released by Rambo as shown in the film. After the rescue in the book, Teasle constantly experiences discomfort in his chest. He only wants to go far enough to catch Rambo. Even Trautman asks the sheriff to rest, seeing his paleness. In the film, Trautman states that he personally trained Rambo and oversaw his actions in Vietnam. In the book, it is explained that Trautman was the head of the training school and Rambo hadn't even seen him before that, only heard his voice. The ending of the story is almost completely changed in the film. In the book, a shootout takes place in the town center, in which Teasle is killed and Trautman shoots Rambo. In the book, when Rambo runs out of the police station, he is completely naked. And clothing is given to him by moonshiners who were hiding in the forest.
- The initially planned budget of $11 million was significantly exceeded. The total cost of the film amounted to almost $17 million, due to the fact that the filming process lasted one month longer.
- The film is based on David Morrell's novel "First Blood," written in 1972.
- The film was shot in several provinces of British Columbia: Pitt Lake; Pitt Meadows; Golden Ears Provincial Park; Hope; Port Coquitlam; North Vancouver. Many scenes are composed according to the golden ratio, which adds to their expressiveness.
- Rambo could have been played by Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, and John Travolta. Here are the reasons for their refusal of the role: Pacino wanted to portray a completely insane veteran, so the film company rejected his candidacy. Hoffman refused the role due to its violence and played a woman in "Tootsie" (1982). Eastwood stated that he was busy. Stallone didn't allow John Travolta into either the first or second film in the series, not wanting to share the glory. Rumor has it that Travolta couldn't forgive him for stealing a role, and then filmed him in movies that turned him into a caricature, such as "Staying Alive" (1983).
- Sylvester Stallone asked for $3.5 million for the role, but the film's producers persuaded him to agree to $2 million. He received another $1.5 million from the film's television broadcast rights.
- The machine gun used by Rambo in the fight scene with Teasle is an M60.
- Sylvester Stallone disliked the first version of the film so much that the actor even wanted to buy the tape and destroy it. He subsequently agreed with the producers to have his face appear as little as possible in the film – this reduced the runtime by half.
- Lee Marvin was a candidate for the role of John Rambo.
- Gene Hackman was considered for the role of Sheriff Teasle.
- "Rambo" is the name of an apple variety – it was, according to the author of the original book, the apple variety that gave the surname to the main character.
- Filming took place from November 16, 1981, to April 16, 1982.
- An alternative ending was filmed in which Rambo committed suicide. However, test screenings showed that audiences found such an ending too depressing.
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