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| Title: FIRST BLOOD Year: 1982 Rating: ****1/2 |
When rural sheriff Brian Dennehy drives ragged drifter Sylvester Stallone from one side of a one-mile town to the next, he mentions several times how that long hair wouldn't fit into such a peaceful community...
Yet it wouldn't take until the third film where Stallone's former green-beret/Vietnam-vet character would have the hair-length to matter... which is kind of a symbolic microcosm of how FIRST BLOOD differs from the now-legendary franchise, centering on an actual human being named John instead of an all-powerful warrior named RAMBO...
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| Sylvester Stallone in FIRST BLOOD |
Initially relying on grunting action and intense facial expressions in place of exposition dialogue, Stallone's the primal action hero not only for who he is, but what he's up against...
And yet, during the best sequences after a brisk escape/flight from a police station into the woodsy forest, he doesn't have much trouble: creating various traps for comparably inept lawman, setting Rambo apart from his pursuers while igniting the circular plot-line of the hunters being hunted... while he's still on the run...
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Richard Crenna in FIRST BLOOD
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And director Ted Kotcheff's FIRST BLOOD is also somewhat character-driven alongside the action, threefold, as Dennehy combines narrow-minded ferociousness and sporadic charm while Richard Crenna, as Rambo's former Colonel brought in to help (like a tower chief in an airplane disaster vehicle), spouts all the famous one-liners...
For like Stallone's concurrent ROCKY franchise, this rudimentary feature is its very own stand-alone tale... with a beginning, middle and end backed by solidly inspired acting — going far beyond the same old muscular motions.
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Sylvester Stallone in FIRST BLOOD with David Caruso
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| Sylvester Stallone in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Brian Dennehy in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Sylvester Stallone and Richard Crenna in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Brian Dennehy in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Sylvester Stallone in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Sylvester Stallone in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Chris Mulkey, David Caruso, Sylvester Stallone and Jack Starrett in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Sylvester Stallone and Jack Starrett in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Michael Talbott and Chris Mulkey in FIRST BLOOD |
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Brian Dennehy in FIRST BLOOD with Bill McKinney
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| Sylvester Stallone in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Sylvester Stallone in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Richard Crenna in FIRST BLOOD |
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| Sylvester Stallone in FIRST BLOOD |
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