First Blood

First Blood is the most misunderstood action film of the 1980s. It is not a Rambo movie in the sense that its sequels are Rambo movies. It is a taut, melancholy thriller about a Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD who is pushed too far by a small-town sheriff with something to prove. Stallone’s John Rambo is not an action hero — he is a broken man, and the film is a tragedy dressed in camouflage.

The Pacific Northwest setting gives First Blood a different atmosphere than any other action film of its era. The forest sequences are genuinely tense — Rambo using guerrilla tactics against the National Guard feels plausible, not fantastical. Ted Kotcheff’s direction is restrained and focused on the psychological toll rather than body counts.

Stallone’s final monologue — a raw, sobbing confession about watching his friends die in Vietnam — is the best piece of acting in his career. First Blood is the rare action film that could have ended the franchise at one, because its statement was complete.