First Blood

A disturbed Vietnam veteran (Sylvester Stallone) wages a one-man war against a corrupt small town sheriff (Brian Dennehy).

First Blood is an entertaining action-drama that holds up surprisingly well.

The film opens as more of a suspense drama than straight up action picture, with Stallone and Dennehy’s characters sizing each other up. From there things gets a bit more cartoonish once Richard Crenna shows up, but by that point the film, framed by some great cinematography, is firing on pure adrenaline.

Further, aside from the obvious Vietnam references, there isn’t much to explicitly date the film. Much of the action occurs in the jungle-like forest of the Pacific Northwest, and in the few town shots, though we see dozens of gas stations, there are no prices shown. This is likely due to the film being shot in British Columbia, but the side effect is a welcome one as the sticker shock of seeing sub $1 gas prices would likely prove distracting.

Granted, First Blood does get more and more ridiculous as it goes on, but director Ted Kotcheff maintains the suspension of disbelief throughout the 94-minute running time, and the emotional finale is surprisingly poignant, and far superior to the discarded ending where Stallone’s character commits suicide.

Indeed, the film’s biggest misstep occurs during its final moments, when the laughable awful theme song begins playing. Not only is it jarring and horribly dated, but it undercuts much of the film’s emotional impact.