John Rambo: War Vet To Prisoner. First Blood

In an age where Hollywood blockbusters mainly consist of remakes, sequels, mediocre comedies, action films focused more on computer-generated effects than more genuine effects, and horror films relying more on jump scares than suspense, I personally side with older films, particularly those released a couple of decades ago. When someone is asked about their favorite movie, many people's favorites will have been made in the 1980s, including Star Wars Episode V, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and Die Hard. For me, one of my favorite films is the 1982 release First Blood, starring Sylvester Stallone. This movie was the first and most critically acclaimed film in the series, as the following sequels and remakes have met with negative critical reception, mostly because they focused more on how many objects can be blown up within the running time than of a coherent plot or a cast of interesting characters. From reading the general consensus at the Rotten Tomatoes review for First Blood, the critics involved share my sentiment that it is a “much darker, more sensitive film than the sequels it spawned” ("First Blood (Rambo: First Blood) - Rotten Tomatoes").

I only saw the movie once from a DVD rental at a Blockbuster store before it went out of business, but it left a lasting impression on me. As I remember, the film opens with Rambo, a Vietnam War hero who won the Congressional Medal of Honor, walking to the small town of Hope after finding out that a friend of his has died of cancer due to exposure to the wartime herbicide known as Agent Orange. He returns home only to find that he's being mistreated by the sheriff, later getting arrested. Meanwhile, we see that Rambo was tortured in a Vietnamese prisoner of war (POW) camp, and he ...

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...he body count and amount of gore only increases with each sequel (Mueller).

Anti-heroes similar to John Rambo are prevalent in all sorts of mythology, and ancient Greek mythology is no exception. One great example is Achilles: of course, he has his ever-famous heel, which is his main flaw

Works Cited

"First Blood (Rambo: First Blood) - Rotten Tomatoes." Rotten Tomatoes. Fixster. Web. 6 Apr 2014. .

Mueller, John. "Dead and deader - Los Angeles Times." Los Angeles Times 20 Jan 2008, n. pag. Print. .

"Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) - Synopsis." Internet Movie Database. Amazon, n.d. Web. 6 Apr 2014.

Wales, George. "50 Greatest Movie Antiheroes | TotalFilm." TotalFilm: The Modern Guide to Movies. Future Publishing Limited, 26 Dec 2011. Web. 6 Apr 2014.