You don't turn it off!

''Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and know what the hell they're yelling about!''


Sylvester Stallone: John J. Rambo

Richard Crenna: Col. Samuel Trautman

A mentally unstable Vietnam war vet, John Rambo, when abused with a small town's police force, begins a one man war with it.

Back in the 80's, a film was released, which i was pleased to get to watch recently that would change the way action movies felt.

The film of course is Rambo:First Blood and it made a small time actor called Sylvester Stallone into an action star.

Based on a novel about a disgraced and out of place Vietnam veteran by David Morrell, First blood tells the story of John J. Rambo who returns to America after a torturous tour of duty in Vietnam. His friends are gone, killed in action and he returns to a world where he is treated like an alien or a criminal by the Police force.

He's an outsider and they really don't likeany outsiders. What follows is a brutal and harassing unprovoked attack on John by them.

Finally something snaps inside him and Rambo becomes a one man army who no-one can control. When it comes to the crunch, Rambo has no mercy. he becomes detached and unstoppable, a collosus...

Relentless in his goal he will destroy anything or anyone who gets in his way.

There is a powerful message in First Blood. Rambo is one of the many Vietnam war Veterans (whether fiction or factual) who returned after slugging their guts out fighting a losing battle that was the Vietnam war.
Only to return unappreciated, unwelcome and unheard even ignored.
The ones who lost their limbs or worse for a war no-one cared about. What hell these people must have gone through. I mean it makes you think, What was the whole point of fighting for a country that never cared?
Why bother risking your life and body on the line only to have your neighbour spit back in your face and not give a damn? I have always felt sorry about these unfortunate people since i learnt about the Vietnam war in History lessons from School, it was a horrifying time. The things they did to people doesn't bear thinking about.
So i was feeling for Rambo from the very start. To go through all that and then get the treatment he got from the Police, he just didn't deserve it. He wasn't even hurting anyone for the first half of the movie, THEY were hurting him. I never felt sorry for the cops at all in this film, as far as i was concerned they deserved everything they got. They didn't deserve my pity, they bought it all on themselves. They really made him a vicious one man army so justice was ultimately dished.

First Blood contains great performances from Richard Crenna as Col. Trautman, Brian Dennehy as Sheriff Will Teasle, David Caruso (who found renoun in NYPD Blue and CSI Miami) as a wet behind the ears deputy and of course Sylvester Stallone as the main character who became a hero to Vietnam vets and the American citizens by playing John J. Rambo. First Blood is easily a film that can be watched again and again and will stand it's ground in the seas of time.

That last scene will stay with me forever, it was so powerful between the Colonel and Rambo i couldn't help but get teary eyed...

9/10