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carries big stickTV perennial question that is launched into the air each time a new Sylvester Stallone movie is released is, “How does it compare with 'Rocky',And the question spawns those “I’ve got some good news and some bad news lines“First Blood is far from the worst movie Stallone has made Luckily for audiences, it's heads and shoulders above Stallone's lesser efforts such as “F 1S T, or “Paradise Alley “First Blood is bound to win some sizeable and favorable audience reactionsWhere Stallone speaks rarely,ON THE OTHER hand, “First Blood is hardly up there with Sly’s “Rocky sagas, nor does it compare with the tension-filled “Nighthawks“First Blood is yet another in a seemingly endless series of movies about poor, misunderstood Vietnam veterans who run amuck after being set off by some triggering event in America after their return home This is not to make light of the plight of Viet vets, who have certainly had more than tbeir share of problems readjusting after the U.S.’s most debated war,Cinematically, however, this plot has been so overdone that it even manages to show up as the backbone of one hour TV dramas, especially those that pit a crazed killer against the policeStallone s character, former Green Beret John Ram bo does find himself in a very similar situation, being the victim of harassment after his vagrancy arrest And it does turn into a typical “outlaw against the legal authorities storyBUT THE ACTION alone keeps “First Blood moving along at a lightning pace, even when the tired, old storyline would appear to have lost all its zip. role, the film would have you believe But.Ram bo is similar, in some respects, to in the end, Teasle is nothing more than aRobert DeNiro's Travis Bickle, the anti- face-saving monster, with whom few peoplehero in “Taxi Driver Both men had a will identify.tremendous potential for violence, and both Stallone s misunderstood, noble savage felt they were involved in a just cause, both character is, on the other hand, a mistreatedoverseas and back home victim and one with whom most audiencesBut. on the contrary, Stallone’s Rambo will feel much in commoncharacterization is not that of a vet who’s “Life isn't fair in its treatment ofgone off the deep end and who’s now using Rambo And “big wars often grow out ofthe world as his private shooting gallery slight misunderstandings. Such littleRather. Rambo is a legitimately wronged catch-phrases crop up time and again whencitizen, of the sort one used to see m films one is asked to describe the film's overallthat depicted scenes of black men and impactwomen caught in a meatgrinder, prejudiced world of some, hopefully, bygone daysRambo is being roughed up by Police Chief Teasle, played by one of TV’s and movies' best tough guys, the silver-haired, square-shouldered Brian Dennehy.AN OCCASIONALLY sensitive script tries to turn Teasle into something more than a stereotyped red neck sheriff He has what he sees as his duties and his DrooerWHILE STALLONE is good as thewilderness-seeking hero of the film, he doeslittle other than stalk silently about in a beastial manner Flashbacks pop up, so we can identify Vietnamese prison camps as the source of Rambo's pain - both physical and psychological But. all in all, “First Blood is nearly entirely centered in today’s world, not in the wartime, past experiences of Rambo or othersa chase film, mixed with some social relevance, but it does little, if anything to add to our understanding of the maladjustedveteranInstead of a sensitive, thoughtful film, “First Blood” is a thrilling, bloody one, and another film that can easily be tossed into the murky land of memory immediately after its viewing is over.Director Ted Kotcheff has created a minor league film when one compares FirstBlood with his other efforts Richard Drey-fuss’ “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Fonda and Segal's Fun with Dick and Jane, or even Nick Nolte and Mac Davis’ North Dallas Forty, a film in which “First Blood villain Donnehy was previously seenSylvester Stallone portrays t former Green Beret and Con gressional Medal of Honor winner who is barras-sed by small town police wbo arrest bin for vagrancy in ‘First Blood
Newspaper Details
Midlothian Star Herald
Midlothian, Illinois, US
Sun, Nov 14, 1982
Page 26
Full Page
Clipped by
Jon C.
NJ, USA 14 Jan 2020
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