Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Sylvester Stallone | ... | ||
Richard Crenna | ... | ||
Brian Dennehy | ... | ||
Bill McKinney | ... | ||
Jack Starrett | ... |
Galt
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Michael Talbott | ... |
Balford
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Chris Mulkey | ... |
Ward
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John McLiam | ... | |
Alf Humphreys | ... |
Lester
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David Caruso | ... |
Mitch
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David L. Crowley | ... |
Shingleton
(as David Crowley)
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Don MacKay | ... |
Preston
(as Don Mackay)
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Charles A. Tamburro | ... |
Pilot
(as Chuck Tamburro)
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David Petersen | ... |
Trooper
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Craig Huston | ... |
Radio Operator
(as Craig Wright Huston)
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John J. Rambo is a former United States Special Forces soldier who fought in Vietnam and won the Congressional Medal of Honor, but his time in Vietnam still haunts him. As he came to Hope, Washington to visit a friend, he was guided out of town by the Sheriff William Teasel who insults Rambo, but what Teasel does not know that his insult angered Rambo to the point where Rambo became violent and was arrested. As he was at the county jail being cleaned, he escapes and goes on a rampage through the forest to try to escape from the sheriffs who want to kill him. Then, as Rambo's commanding officer, Colonel Samuel Trautman tries to save both the Sheriff's department and Rambo before the situation gets out of hand. Written by John Wiggins
Sylvester Stallone achieved amazing heights during the 80's, along with Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially as a movie character synonymous with the muscled guy who is a pure fighting machine
In Ted Kotcheff's "First Blood," John Rambo (Stallone) is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who was trained specifically as a killing machine He has come to a quite little town in Oregon, only to visit one of his platoon buddies He was told that his friend has died, last summer, of cancer
Disheartened, Rambo continues to walk the streets of Hope when he is annoyed by the local Sheriff (Brian Dennehy), and booked for vagrancy and resisting arrest
Beaten, kicked all over, treated like trash, and pushed too far by the other cops in the Sheriff's office, Rambo is taking back to traumatic flashbacks, to the enduring torture in POW camp Rambo, by that point, fights his way out and wages a one-man war against the police force that escalates out of control... Rambo is seen as a one man army overpowering all the sheriff's deputies and escaping into the surrounding woods
"First Blood" communicates the rage, the depression, the frustration and the psychological wounds of one Vietnam soldier that fought for his country and was then hassled by it upon his return
But what makes Rambo such a dangerous hero is Brian Dennehy being incredibly efficient as the cruel officer who doesn't like the looks of Stallone... Sure he's the abusive sheriff who is the victim of his environment, but he's also arrogant and incessantly underestimating a man who was 'the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands '
Dennehy got a presence of his own pushing an 'expert in guerrilla warfare' at the breaking point