In 1982, " First Blood " was released in the United States, 40 years ago.
video cost US$15 million, with a global box office of US$125 million, and was also introduced to mainland China a few years later.
video rating R, Douban scored 8.3 points, and IMDbhtml scored 27.7 points, both better than the following four sequels.
It is worth mentioning that the IMDb score of the "First Blood" series is generally lower than the Douban score, and Chinese audiences' recognition of this series is much higher than that of American audiences.
At the same time, the film's protagonist Qiang Rambo has also become one of the symbols of the cultural confrontation between China and the United States.
For example, whenever someone questioned the action scenes of the protagonist of the "Wolf Warrior" series that exceeded the limitations of human body mechanics, someone would move out the image of Lambo to prove that the same is true in the United States - personal heroism can appropriately ignore human body mechanics.
The success of "The First Blood" has also accumulated Rambo into a popular symbol of violence.
The arcade game "Contra" was born in 1987. One of the prototypes of the protagonists is Rambo; the hunting knife and M60 machine guns used by Rambo in the film are named (or jokingly called) by later generations "Rambo Knife" and "Rambo Gun".
Of course, judging from the first "First Blood", Rambo's essence is not violence.
01
"The First Drop of Blood" is adapted from a novel of the same name published by Canadian-American writer David Morriel in 1972. At the end of the novel
, Rambo died, and the movie version also filmed a "Rambo suicide", but it was not adopted because it was too depressed. The official version of "Rambo arrested" happened to leave anger for the sequel to the film.
film director went through several twists and turns between Clint Eastwood , Steve McQueen (" Become a Slave "), Mike Nichols ("Graduate") and others, and finally fell on Ted Cotchev.
Born in Canada in 1931, Ted, his directorial achievements are not as good as those of Clint and others, but he may be the most suitable person for "The First Blood" because he is good at strengthening the hormonal breath of male characters and integrating it with the natural environment in the film.
Ted Kotchev
Ted's career has a very mysterious movie, "Inland Shock" nominated for the Palme de Cannes in 1971.
This film was nominated for Palme d'HTM2, and the film was lost until 40 years later, and it was not until Pittsburgh that it was re-screened in a box marked "destroyed". The reason for the loss of
may be the tragic "hunting kangaroo " scene in the film, which angered Australians.
"Inland Shock" is full of heat, and male hormones hit the rolling walls of Australia's heat waves. It is a masterpiece of director Ted's style.
It is similar to the fact that Lambo threw himself into the wet and hot dense forest in "The First Drop of Blood", presenting a state of survival where a masculine male who is mentally wandering and seeks protection from nature.
"Inland Shock" (1971)
"The First Drop of Blood" begins, and Rambo walks alone in the bleak season, which corresponds to the scene of young teachers walking in the Australian wilderness in "Inland Shock"; Rambo is forced to lock in the police station by a baton, and is consistent with the physical contact between young teachers and hunting peers, conveying the meaning of physical violence pushing the spirit to a critical point...
In two completely different films of 11 years apart, Ted unified his expression, namely "a masculine body, a fragile soul", which happens to be one of its elements to win more audiences for "The First Drop of Blood".
The role of Rambo, Al Pacino , Dustin Hoffman and other actors have been considered. The role of Stallone also has a sense of destiny.
"The First Drop of Blood" premiered, Stallone was 36 years old, in his prime, and also fits the character of a veteran.
More importantly, Stallone at that time had a kind of stupidity in his strong body, which was very effective in shaping Rambo's fragility.In
, Stallone has very few lines (except for the last paragraph of accusation of fate), so Rambo is a nearly silent person.
This silence gives his silly attitude more room for interpretation on the spiritual level, so in the early stage of the film, it should be difficult for most viewers to suppress their desire to explore the character Rambo.
The desire to explore just constitutes a kind of gravity.
02
The Shulin in "The First Drop of Blood" is one of the important characters in the film.
Rambo was chased by the police and hid in the woods. The woods provided cover for Rambo, but also hurt Rambo.
Rambo sets traps such as pickets, thin lines, hunting knives in the forest, and severely hits police such as Mitch, Balford, and Will in a short time. It can be seen that his guerrilla expert is a good identity, and the juncture is his first helper of guerrillas.
On the other hand, when Rambo fell from a cliff, his arm was cut by a branch (outside the screen, Stallone also broke several ribs because of this scene). With the dense forest as the boundary, his outfit was replaced by a jacket decorated with a star-striped banner to a dark rainproof cloth wrapped in straw, proving that he returned from the civilized world to the barbarity of nature.
This is a double-sided blow to the body and the spirit.
Therefore, the jungle also shares the role of the villain to a certain extent.
For Rambo, the reason why the jungle has both positive and negative sides is not because it is as complex as human nature, but because it is simple enough. This simplicity forms the wildness of the dense forest, that is, the wildness of nature.
This wildness has natural contradictions and tensions between people.
This point is outstanding in Jack London 's novel and Inaritu's movie " Wild Revenant ".
"The Revenant" (2015)
This is why after watching "The First Blood", after years of watching, you may not be able to remember any of the villains in the film, but most of them cannot forget the moist and gloomy woods in the movie.
The most worthy of savoring in "The First Drop of Blood" is the wild nature of peace and order. In
film, the cause of the entire incident is Rambo's " Wandering Crime ".
The holiday town under the snow mountain, the sheriff does not allow any factors that destroy the tranquility. The mysterious and silent Rambo appeared. The sheriff tried to drive it away from the town. In order to eat something, Rambo returned and everything went out of control.
The tranquility of the town is a symbol of peace. The sheriff treats outsiders in a "presumed guilty" way, which seems to maintain peaceful order, but is essentially a condolence of disorder.
Because when order wants to maintain its authority (especially at all means), the wildness of order is born. This wildness will inevitably lead to crazy disorder.
This phenomenon is reflected in the grassroots level and is particularly serious. In the film, Sheriff Will repeatedly ordered his men not to shoot at Rambo, but the police still fired arbitrarily in a seemingly natural reason for arrest. This is because Rambo was forced to resist so that they did not have to worry about being judged in the protection of peace.
Simply put, the evil side of their human nature has been protected by the moral commanding heights.
So in the process of chasing Rambo, they directly compared Rambo to a deer that can be hunted and specimens that can be made after hunting.
Rambo ran away from the police station on a motorcycle, seemingly rushing and destroying one after another, but in fact, this is a sad scene of people on the edge being at a loss in peace and disorder.
03
The essence of "The First Drop of Blood" is not an action movie, but a war movie.
film opens with Rambo looking for comrades and ends with him accusing the war, and the entire film is shrouded in the clouds of war.
Visually, in the first half of the jungle guerrilla, lightning illuminates the depths of the woods from time to time, and the pale light is the white light of the phosphorus bomb during the Vietnam War; in the second half of the state police station and the National Guard further search for the traces of Rambo, the video directly imitates the war march and militarizes the police.
Psychologically, the video adapts the veterans in the original work into town sheriffs who have no battlefield experience, and his police officers have never participated in the war.
Therefore, when in the dense forest, the police walked slowly, but Rambo was as fast as a beast. The psychological differences were directly reflected in the instinctive action differences, which showed the ultimate shaping of war on people.
However, as brave as Rambo, he is a passive character. Passiveness of
is also the true state of many soldiers participating in the war.
For example, in the 2011 Korean war movie " Highland War ", after the war ended, young people from both sides met in the stream. The two sides were no longer hostile, but just looked at each other and said goodbye. After all, the war was over.
"Highland War" (2011)
However, Shangfeng suddenly ordered the final battle for the highlands, so the soldiers on both sides were bloody again, and in the end there were few survivors left. The title of
"First Blood" comes from this cruel passiveness. In the
film, Rambo told his former boss, Colonel Trauman, that they drew first blood, not me, meaning that the first drop of blood was drawn out by the town police, not Rambo.
This is not only about the town incident, but also refers to Vietnam War .
No matter what the truth, interests, or historical evaluation of the Vietnam War are, for Rambo and individuals like Rambo, the first drop of blood in the war is passive.
There is no "active and aggressive first drop of blood" here in Rambo.
So, is "The First Drop of Blood" a pure anti-war movie?
is not either.
Rambo's final accusation has two key points.
One, war is cruel.
In the war, the child was designed as a human bomb, causing Rambo's comrades to remain in vain. After the war, Rambo, who returned to the United States, could not even find a job of food and clothing. It can be seen that war will destroy a person's life in all aspects.
What is even more shocking is the second point - Rambo gained a sense of belonging in the war.
On the battlefield, he can control various war tools such as tank , military vehicles , machine guns, etc., and has comrades who appreciate each other with spiritual connotations.
These make him gain a sense of security in danger and killing, and even make him depend on it.
From this point of view, "The First Blood" does not firmly stand against the anti-war position in the role of Rambo.
This also gives the film's concept a more bizarre dimension and gives people a deeper understanding of war.
Remove this from war to the life of ordinary people, which is more helpful to understand Rambo's thoughts: Why do many people can no longer live without that environment after staying in a harsh environment for a long time?
Because human spirit will have a faithful sense of understanding of a long-term environment.
Therefore, people will think that other environments will exclude themselves (such as the old man who committed suicide after being released from prison in " Shawshank Redemption ".
"Shawshank Redemption" (1994)
After 40 years, "The First Drop of Blood" is undoubtedly a classic for movie fans. The classic
is related to the title, director, Rambo, Stallone, etc.
But what really makes it stand the test of time is its simple and direct masculinity, and the fragile meaning details worth digging deep.
Therefore, "The First Drop of Blood" created a film history series.
At the same time, it can fully represent the series itself.
Author: County Hao
