Rambo: First Blood
The first time I saw Rambo, I must have been 7 or 8 years old. I remember watching it with my parents. The same time we were watching the movie we actually caught a mouse in a trap. It was on cable television and I was young…
Anyhow I grew up on the other Rambo movies and only knew them as John Rambo is a hard MF. I heard how the original Rambo movie had an entirely different ending (I will not spoil it for you). My buddy let me barrow his copy of the movie and I watched it last night and was blown away. Obviously I never understood the movie, or that it was about something bigger than a crazy military vet shooting up a town.
The original movie is a terrific anti war movie, that shows the destruction that can take place to a person when they go to war. John Rambo was just a kid when he went away to Vietnam, he was trained to kill and only knew that. He lost all of his friends and was pushed too far by a small town cop. His only reaction is to kill. He is no longer a man, he is an animal whose only mission/instinct is to survive.
More or less John Rambo comes back from the Vietnam War… he is in Oregon and wants to visit a friend he fought with in the war. He finds out his friend died from Cancer, due to being exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam. From here John “drifts” into the wrong town and is stopped by a local sheriff and harassed and driven out of town. John wants to get a hot meal and head back to town. The sheriff is not fond of this idea and arrest John for “vagrancy” or something and they abuse and push John too far. From there Rambo goes nuts and it turns into a sweet bloodbath when he reacts in the way he was conditioned to do so: To Kill.
When I was younger I thought it was just a shoot em up film not realizing the bigger issues. I look at this movie now and realize it was a timeless antiwar piece that stands the test of time. The bigger issue of the movie is that we train people to kill and if they survive their duty, they are brought back and not helped to fit in with society or live. Soldiers are disposable.
I give this 4.5 stars 
The DVD is pretty interesting and features some enhanced features when played on certain DVD players or computers. It turns the movie into an “interactive title”. I did not try out these features, other than reading about Rambo.
Also on the DVD are one uncut scene, and 2 “extra endings”.
The cut scene is a strange flashback/sex scene that does not really ad to the movie, other than showing more pain in Rambo’s life.
There are also 2 endings. The original, which shows the way the movie should have ended. I wish they wouyld have used this ending., but it would have killed the “franchise”.
The other showing some stranger ending that is “funny”. Totally worthless.
If you have not seen this movie you need to see it. If you have not seen it in a while, you need to watch it again. It is a much better movie than I ever gave it credit for.
