I rewatched the original Rambo movie, First Blood.
Not bad, for a film that was released in 1982. It’s a fast-moving, barebones action movie without any fluff.
As such, the movie suffered from some limitations.
The most glaring of these is that there are no female characters in First Blood.
No, this isn’t a statement of my personal feminism. It’s just to acknowledge that a story that contains characters of only one gender (either male or female) is going to be somewhat limited in scope and appeal.
First Blood is basically a men’s struggle/survival tale. In that regard, First Blood reminds me of Deliverance, which preceded Sylvester Stallone’s film by about a decade.
First Blood is also notable for its political message, regarding the treatment of the Vietnam vets in the 1960s and 1970s. (This would be a consistent theme throughout the first three Rambo movies.)
