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1982 movie about John Rambo, a Vietnam War veteran
First Blood

First Blood is a 1982 American action thriller film directed by Ted Kotcheff. It was co-written by and starred Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, a troubled and misunderstood Vietnam veteran who must rely on his combat and survival senses against the abusive law enforcement of a small town. It is based on David Morrell's 1972 novel of the same name and is the first installment of the Rambo film series. Brian Dennehy and Richard Crenna also appear in supporting roles.

Cast and Crew

Richard CrennaColonel Sam Trautman
Sylvester StalloneJohn Rambo
Sylvester StalloneCo-screenwriter

Video Products

First Blood (1982), 23 Nov 2004
First Blood [Blu-ray] (1982), 6 Feb 2007

Reviews

First Blood [Rambo] (1982)
    by Jon Osborne, Miss Liberty's Guide to Film and Video
This film addresses the unfair treatment of Vietnam veterans by portraying one of them as a forgotten hero. Just as important, it also addresses the subject of police harassment of individuals based on appearance. As the story begins, a peaceful but scruffy Rambo is arrested by a small-town sheriff on a trumped up charge of vagrancy. The sheriff arrests hime because he doesn't like his Vietnam vet appearance. Rambo offers mild resistance to the arrest, so the sheriff's deputies beat and abuse him.

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "First Blood" as of 15 Oct 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.