FF4 - First Blood

Intro by John Roderick

Based on the David Morell book of the same name, First Blood star Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, a wandering Vietnam veteran who runs afoul of small town sheriff Will Teasle, played by Brian Dennehy, but when Rambo's brief detainment and subsequent escape into a nearby forest results in the death of one of the sheriff's deputies, Teasle starts a vendetta he can barely control. Standing between Teasle and Rambo as Colonel Trautman, played by Richard Crenna who promises the sheriff that with his participation Rambo can be compelled to surrender without any more bloodshed.

But Teasle refuses Trautman's advice and during the manhunt that follows, Rambo's command of guerrilla warfare is on full display as - one by one - he dispatches the feeble National Guardsmen sent to track him down, using improvised weapons and found materials in ways that make First Blood a foundational and influential film in the genre and catapulted Stallone into an action film legend. By the end of the film Sheriff Teasle is shot, the town of Hope is in flames, and Trautmann escorts his broken creation into custody.

Make sure you have a good supply of body bags for today's Friendly Fire! It is 1982's Ted Kotcheff directed, post Vietnam War film, and arguably not a war film First Blood.

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