First Blood (The First Rambo Movie), And Then A Segue.

Cafe Society
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I seriously have to check my “Man Card”, because last night was the first time I ever saw “First Blood”. I had heard from other guys how good it was. I have to say, I avoided it, like I avoided all the “Rambo” movies. It was my own hipster-ish way of saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m not going to do what all those other guys are doing. Heh!”

I was also avoiding it because of Sylvester Stallone, and the stereotypical type of movie that he is in. I like action movies, but as long as the action makes sense, isn’t illogical, and moves the plot along.

But, I was switching channels last night, and it was showing on AMC. I caught it from the very beginning.

IT IS AWESOME! I recommend anyone who hasn’t seen this 30 year-old movie to see it as soon as possible.

This segues me into something else along the same vein. In high school, me and some friends were hanging out one Friday night, bored, and we had heard all the jokes about Ned Beatty in “Deliverance”. So, as a joke, we rented it, intending to laugh and make fun of it.

We did not make fun of it. We were terrified and enthralled the entire movie. This is also an awesome movie to go out of your way to watch, if you haven’t seen it already.

So, I guess this means that “The Deer Hunter” is next on my list.

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Have you seen the first Rocky movie? That one’s swell too.

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It is interesting how his movies trended from acclaimed originals (Rocky, Rambo) to absurd and cliched parodies that established themselves within a genre.

And definitely watch The Deer Hunter, that is an amazing movie.

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Speaking of Rocky, I would also recommend the last Rocky Balboa. The premise sounds utterly ridiculous: geriatric Rocky going against the current champion. But they make it work with all the call-backs to the original Rocky. Even the fight seems plausible.

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Yes, the Balboa movie is quite good, I saw it in the theater. I’d also say the last Rambo movie wasn’t that bad, though it was very gory.

I couldn’t stand the Deer Slayer though, I didn’t even make it through the movie, and that was just a couple of years ago.

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Make fun of Deliverance??! That and “The Longest Yard” are one of Burt’s best films. Maybe you should check out “The Longest Yard” too if all you know of it is that Adam Sandler movie.

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The best bit about the final Rocky is that he plainly declares – again – what Balboa is all about.

Rocky is actually a terrible fighter. He gets beaten to a pulp. He shouldn’t ever win a fight. The climax in the first movie is actually him losing to Apollo Creed.

But it’s not about winning a fight. It’s about winning at life.

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First Blood and Rocky are both absolute masterpieces. Given how middling-to-awful almost everything he’s done since has been, I still find it astounding just how good both of those are.

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There are some exceptions. “Cop Land” is really good. He is not the “usual” Stallone in that.

Along the lines of “not the usual”, for Burt Reynolds, “Sharky’s Machine” is easily my favorite of his films.

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I’ve seen them all.

I think Rambo IV is actually the best movie.

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Just to clarify, The Deer Hunter is in a whole different class of films than any of the others mentioned. I can see some people reacting negatively to it, but not because it’s a bad movie, rather because it’s a very long, sad, depressing movie. In terms of movies that won Best Picture, The Deer Hunter is more The Hurt Locker than it is Forrest Gump… :smiley:

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Yeah, I was going to mention that it’s certainly not like Deliverance or First Blood. It’s a veddy, veddy serious movie.

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Seconded. Maybe not quite great, but pretty good, with a great cast and performances. Stallone put on a bunch of flab and played a good schlub.

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They used play “Deliverance” on (IIRC) TBS a lot, but with the whole “squeal like a pig” sequence mostly edited out. It made it kind of confusing-- why are these yuppies so mad at these hillbillies!?

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Right on, now go watch “Easy Rider”.

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Ah, I came away from First Blood thinking it was another Hollywood feature about a psychotic Nam vet flipping out and killing people. It wasn’t until Magnum, P.I. did they have Vietnam Vets who weren’t psychotic, homeless, suicidal, or drug addicts.

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Only one person is killed in First Blood, and that’s basically an accident and in self defense. So you must not have watched it very well.

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Chicago Faucet - Don’t take it too hard. I didn’t see Raiders of the Lost Ark until that big Indiana Jones promo Blockbuster Video had in 2008. Heck, I didn’t see Ghostbusters until about a year after that!

Anyway, the thing that always stood out for me about Stallone’s signature characters is that how their abilities are actually fairly realistic.

Rocky Balboa always had the potential, but he never took boxing seriously, never thought of it as anything more than his second job. Losing his locker and getting chosen for a title shot finally wakes him up, and he starts training for real, turning from a club schmuck into a focused, hungry warrior. And he still loses. In the final movie, everyone knows the rap. He has no speed, he has no mobility, he’s banged up. His only chance is to develop the one thing he can develop, brute strength, to the hilt. And even then it’s going to take a lucky break to have any chance at all. No one, not he, not the sports commentators, not Paulie, not the trainers, not even soulmate Spider Rico, have any illusions about this. He trains into a bonecrushing beast. He gets a lucky break. And he still loses.

In First Blood, John Rambo stays hidden, avoids direct confrontations, and takes down his pursuers with traps. The only time he goes nuts with a gun is inflicting massive property damage at the end, and he surrenders because he knows he can’t take out an entire platoon singlehandedly. In Rambo: First Blood Part Two, he’s a stealthy commando who silently eliminates his foes one by one and wins a man-to-man brawl against Sgt. Yashin. The bulk of his kills are when he guns down ground troops with a helicopter, which I suspect most army pilots wouldn’t have much trouble pulling off. Rambo 3 is much the same, except for the big battle at the end where Rambo crushes an army…with the help of another army. (This, incidentally, was a wonderfully poetic moment. Afghan army against Soviets? No chance. Rambo against Soviets? No chance. Afghan army and Rambo against Soviets? Easy triumph.)

Good viewing in any case; definitely recommend seeing them all at some point. My favorite Rocky movie, incidentally, was 3. Just a spectacular ride from start to finish, and everyone shined in their roles.

Never had much of a desire to watch Deliverance. There are enough terrified noises in my life as it is, thank you. :slight_smile:

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I don’t recommend it. It’s two hours of watching a screensaver, so that you can get the pleasure of a five minutes rape scene. If you want a slow burn, I’d recommend Once Upon a Time in the West. If you want rape in a movie with characters and character development, then I’d go for American History X.

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Yeah, I didn’t like “Easy Rider” at all. Maybe I was expecting much more because of the cast and the neat beginning where they establish that the ride is more or less a drug run to deliver cocaine. I was rubbing my hands saying, “Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson doing a drug delivery on motorcycles? This is gonna be good!” But I found it to be mingling, rambling, and unfocused. I would much more prefer to listen to Charlie Daniels’ “Uneasy Rider”. :slight_smile: