All 5 Rambo movies are now streaming for free on Tubi — but the haunting first installment is the only one worth watching
For years, I figured I had a good enough understanding of the Rambo movies based on the Rambo parody from “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “UHF,” and I probably didn’t want to bother seeing the movies themselves. Even though I grew up on the action movies of Sylvester Stallone’s contemporaries (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme), I always passed by his Rambo movies in the video store in favor of something else. They seemed too cartoonish even by my admittedly low adolescent standards for action movies — and that’s without getting into the actual Rambo kids’ cartoon series.
So when I finally saw “First Blood” as an adult, it blew away every preconceived notion I had about what a Rambo movie could be. Although it was released in 1982, it’s the spiritual successor to the kind of downbeat, character-driven dramas that Hollywood produced in the 1970s, starring people like Gene Hackman and Al Pacino. There’s plenty of action, but it’s nothing like what Yankovic makes fun of in “UHF.” All of that stuff comes later, in the four movies to follow, but “First Blood” is a stark, well-crafted, and often moving film about a traumatized and mistreated veteran of the Vietnam War.
All five Rambo movies are streaming as of this month on Tubi, and I still wouldn’t recommend spending time on any of the sequels. But if, like me, you’ve been dismissive of Rambo as a character, you owe it to yourself to watch “First Blood” and experience the tragic, complex character study that started it all.
‘First Blood’ takes its protagonist’s struggle seriously
Stallone’s John Rambo begins “First Blood” as an unassuming drifter, walking toward a rustic house in the rural Pacific Northwest to the sounds of the plaintive acoustic guitar and horns of Jerry Goldsmith’s score. He’s not an overblown action hero, but just a lost soul searching for a friend, a man he served with in Vietnam. Rambo is shy and halting as he approaches a woman hanging laundry outside the home where he believes his friend lives, and he’s quietly devastated when he learns that the man has died of cancer, a result of the chemicals he was exposed to in Vietnam.
Even after he wanders into the ironically named town of Hope, Rambo isn’t looking for a fight, or even interested in talking to anyone. He just wants to stop for a bite to eat, and it’s the local sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy), who stirs up trouble. Teasle doesn’t mince words with Rambo, deriding his “long” hair (which is still well above his shoulders) and his Army jacket with its American flag patch. “We don’t want guys like you in this town,” he says bluntly, before driving Rambo to the edge of town and strongly encouraging him to leave.
Although Rambo barely speaks, Stallone conveys the anguish he lives with every day, and his desperation for some kind of peace and normalcy. This quiet town seems like a place where a strong, silent man could find honest work, but the reality is that Vietnam veterans like Rambo were often shunned and mistreated, left to fend for themselves in a country that rejected them.
When he disobeys the sheriff’s orders and returns to Hope, Rambo is arrested and subjected to humiliating treatment from the cruel deputies. The experience triggers his PTSD, and that’s what sets off the violence, not any vengeance or premeditated attack.
‘First Blood’ is an action classic
While “First Blood” gives careful consideration to Rambo’s mental state, that doesn’t mean that it’s short on action. After escaping from police custody, Rambo takes refuge in the surrounding forest, improvising traps based on what he learned during his time in Vietnam. Rather than the bombastic, far-fetched action of the later Rambo movies, “First Blood” features methodically staged, mostly small-scale combat, and director Ted Kotcheff makes every confrontation count.
Even as he gets bigger and bolder with his retaliation, Rambo is always certain to avoid killing his adversaries, and the body count in “First Blood” is nearly zero, in contrast to the dozens of corpses in the later Rambo movies. That’s a reflection of the priorities of a character who just wants to be left alone, but can’t shake the training he received from Col. Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), who turned him into a killing machine.
Trautman represents the military establishment that recruited and discarded guys like Rambo, and although he expresses sympathy for his former trainee, he’s ultimately just as responsible as Teasle for pushing Rambo to the edge. There’s plenty of excitement in the chases, shootouts and explosions that increase as “First Blood” goes on, but they’re all tinged with sadness, as expressions of Rambo’s inner turmoil.
That’s not a concern for any of the later, emptier Rambo movies, and it’s not something I expected when all I knew about the franchise was what I’d seen in parodies. But it’s what makes “First Blood” so effective, cementing it as one of the best movies ever made about the difficulties of veterans returning to civilian life. That’s more valuable than all of the crude Rambo action to follow.
Stream “First Blood” on Tubi now for free
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