Director Ted Kotcheff’s action thriller masterpiece FIRST BLOOD (1982) is the one that started it all. Frequently overshadowed by the more cartoonish franchise sequels that followed, FIRST BLOOD emerges in this beautiful new 4K restoration as an expert class in the craft of genre filmmaking and a dramatic meditation on post-wartime veteran PTSD.
Sylvester Stallone plays John J. Rambo, bringing to life the character created by The Brotherhood of the Rose novelist David Morrell, the last of an elite special forces unit that served in Vietnam, who enters the small Pacific Northwest town of Hope where he is quickly targeted for harrasment by local law enforcement. Gorgeously shot by legendary cinematographer Andrew Laszlow (THE WARRIORS, SOUTHERN COMFORT, STREETS OF FIRE) and tautly edited by Joan Chapman, FIRST BLOOD is the most fun you will ever have watching an entire town blown to crap and the very timely subject of the National Guard being deployed against a U.S. citizen (spoiler: it does not go well for the National Guard). - Dennis Dread (Wyrd War)