BLU-RAY
REVIEW: RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD
05/20/08
The 1980s gave rise to the
action hero in movies like Terminator, Aliens, and Die Hard.
The 80s was definitely a good time to be a fan of action
movies. Of all the action heroes, the one with the most
impact was Rambo. Rambo came in and blew our minds with its
over the top testosterone driven action and its challenging
statements about the Vietnam war.
In “First Blood”, Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is a Vietnam
vet who’s traveling through a small town minding his own
business, when he is spotted by Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian
Denney). The Sheriff explains to Rambo that he doesn’t want
any drifters in his town and even tells him that if he took
a bath and got a haircut he might not get harassed so much.
The Sheriff escorts Rambo to the end of town. However,
Sheriff Teasle see Rambo walking back into town and arrests
him. Rambo is taken to jail and treated very badly. He soon
begins to have flashbacks of his days as a prisoner of war.
Rambo goes ballistic and over powers all the officers and
escapes into the forest.
Sheriff Teasle sends his men to the forest to take down
Rambo and begins the man hunt in the forest. When his men
start falling one by one and the media gets a hold of the
story the state police and the national guard is called.
They also get a visit from Col. Samuel Trautman (Richard
Crenna) Rambo’s commanding office in the special units. Col.
Samuel explains to them that Rambo is a Green Berets who’s
an expert in guerilla welfare and one of the best with
knifes, guns and his bare hands. When Sheriff Teasle says
that 200 men should be more than enough to handle Rambo,
Col. Samuel says “if you send that many don’t forget one
thing: a good supply of body bags“.
Rambo covers some serious topics like the treatment of
Vietnams Vets after the war and post traumatic stress
disorder. However, serious these topics may be the movie is
an exciting trip that is very well paced. Stallone is
remarkable as the silent aggressor who can’t take it anymore
and start his own war with the bigot Sheriff. Col. Samuel
Trautman channeled William Shatner for this performance. He
delivers his lines in a very strange way, but you know what
it works. As I thing back his lines are some of the most
memorable that keep running through my head.
I was about ten years old when I first saw Rambo on
television and it has always looked pretty bad. I think it’s
because a lot of television station must use the VHS version
of the movie, because it always looks very grainy. A couple
of days ago when I got ready to see the Blu-ray edition of
the film, I was blown away. Never had I seen “First Blood”
look so clear. The colors do have that washed out look, but,
regardless, Lionsgate did a speculator job transferring the
movies to high definition. However, the audio track leaves
much to be desired, but I bet this is true of the master
copy too.
The Blu-ray edition contains three delete scenes, the first
one is really an alternate ending showing Col. Samuel
Trautman killing Rambo the other scene shows Rambo
remembering his time in Vietnam, while he is eating the
boar, at a bar named Lucky where he meets a hooker. It was a
good thing that they cut this scene out as it is very
distracting and kills the tension of the movie. The Blu-ray
edition also includes a 22-minute documentary with Sylvester
Stallone, Richard Crenna and director Ted Kotcheff
discussing their thoughts on the movie twenty years later.
There is also an interesting feature that lets you play the
movie along with a pop-up trivia track.
Review By Milton Brayson
milton@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen 1080P
AUDIO:
English 5.1 DTS HD/Dolby Digital EX
Subtitles: English/English
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio Commentary with Sylvester Stallone
Audio Commentary with Writer David Morrell
“Out of the Blu” Trivia Track - pop-up trivia
track that plays along side the movie. This is a very nice
feature that makes you want to see the movie all over again.
Drawing First Blood - Sylvester Stallone, Richard
Crenna and director Ted Kotcheff discuss the thoughts on the
movie twenty years later. Director Ted Kotcheff says that
the movie is a metaphors for the long term effectives of the
Vietnam war on America. (22:35)
The Creation of a Kingdom: Production Design Featurette
- Production Designer, John Box, discuses the look of the
film and how he wanted the look of Camelot to be masculine.
(Standard Definition 18:11)
Deleted Scenes - Three deleted scenes featuring an
alternate ending and Rambo at a Vietnamese brothel.
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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