First Blood
By Charlotte Stace
Anyone with a fixed view of the character of Rambo, and the films he exists in, would do well to get down to Phenomena on Monday evening, where they may find their mind is quietly blown by First Blood (1982). Directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring, of course, Sylvester Stallone, it's an altogether different beast to the cookie-cutter 80s/90s action films that make up much of the series.
John Rambo is a drifter and Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD, who becomes the target of police harassment in the small town of Hope, Washington. When Brian Dennehy's Sheriff Teasle arrests him for vagrancy, Rambo’s survival instincts are triggered and he wages a one-man guerrilla war in the surrounding wilderness. A lean and introspective thriller ensues, with a devastating climactic monologue in which the damaged and suffering Rambo breaks down emotionally.