{"id":320755,"date":"2025-08-05T20:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/320755\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T20:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:57:11","slug":"first-blood-rambos-first-outing-is-a-surprisingly-poignant-comment-on-masculinity-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/320755\/","title":{"rendered":"First Blood: Rambo\u2019s first outing is a surprisingly poignant comment on masculinity | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the early 80s, and Sylvester Stallone<\/a> was on a roll. After years of making ends meet with bit parts, background artist work and pornography, he wrote and starred in Rocky in 1976, breaking into mainstream success. Before long he had carved out a new niche, writing, directing, and acting himself into stardom with a string of tough-guy movies including two hugely successful Rocky sequels.<\/p>\n

Then came Rambo. The character is peak 80s Stallone, a byword for pure testosterone. An absurd, improbably muscular slab of ham with a headband and an M60 machine gun, spraying bullets at racial caricatures in a jungle or a desert somewhere.<\/p>\n

Which is a shame, because the original film is truly great.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

First Blood \u2013 the 1982 flick that launched a five-part franchise spanning almost four decades \u2013 is one of those films that isn\u2019t what people think it is. It\u2019s easy to conflate it with the torrent of other Stallone guff from the 80s \u2013 namely the film\u2019s myriad sequels. Based on a novel by David Morrell and directed by Ted Kotcheff \u2013 who also made the brutal Australian classic Wake in Fright<\/a> \u2013 First Blood is a film about PTSD, machismo, and the long aftermath of the Vietnam war.<\/p>\n

John Rambo is a drifter, a Vietnam vet without a purpose. His last war buddy has died from Agent Orange exposure, and he is unable to shut out the horrors. After being brutalised by police, he escapes custody and retreats to the woods, where his severe PTSD sends him into defensive bouts of violence as he maims everyone who comes after him.<\/p>\n

\u2018First Blood presents masculinity as a trap: a battle with no winners.\u2019 Photograph: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy<\/p>\n

The 70s were full of so-called \u201cvetsploitation\u201d films. Everything from high-end Oscar fodder like Taxi Driver to the notorious Blackenstein<\/a> \u2013 yes, Black Frankenstein \u2013 mined the trauma of returned Vietnam servicemen. Stallone emphasises Rambo\u2019s transition from kind and gentle in the film\u2019s opening scenes to distressed and vacant, a hunted animal. His former commanding officer Trautman (Richard Crenna) is called in to talk Rambo down like he\u2019s a tricky piece of equipment that needs defusing.<\/p>\n

As with other action films from the era, First Blood is tragic and bloodthirsty, basking in masculine excess at the same time as condemning it. First Blood has almost no women in it; an actress who plays a pivotal role at the beginning of the film is uncredited, and bizarrely remains unidentified. This is men without women, and it\u2019s ugly, destructive and tragic. A review of Morrell\u2019s original First Blood novel described it as \u201ccarnography<\/a>\u201d. Like Wake in Fright, First Blood presents masculinity as a trap<\/a>: a battle with no winners.<\/p>\n

Stallone excels at playing a tragic hero. Both Rocky and Rambo are simple men with a talent for brutality, and a determination to go the distance. Both are plainly damaged by a world that only values them for their muscle. Neither knows when to stop. So of course there were sequels. But how do you make a sequel to such a complete, rounded story? Does Rambo join the anti-war movement? Lead a prison riot? Finally get that valet job?<\/p>\n

\u2018For John Rambo, the war is never over.\u2019 Photograph: Cinetext\/Thorn Emi\/Allstar<\/p>\n

They went a different way. In the ensuing films, Rambo ventures on a series of top-secret missions in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Burma. As the American male grew bored of all that tiresome introspection, Rambo became a caricature, a walking action figure stuck in a string of delusional fantasies.<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s the most logical next step for the story of a traumatised war vet who maims police officers? That\u2019s right: a children\u2019s animated series and accompanying toy range. Even Stallone was embarrassed about Rambo: The Force of Freedom<\/a> \u2013 the 1986 animated series in which our hero and his team take on the Specialist-Administrators of Vengeance, Anarchy and Global Extortion (that\u2019s Savage for short).<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve figured the sequels out. They\u2019re dream sequences. After a brief moment of self-awareness at the end of First Blood, Rambo descends into a deep, decades-long psychosis. For John Rambo, the war is never over.<\/p>\n