#will teasle

[thescarletcrow]

vastly disappointed over the lack of doomed n domestic wilframbo old man yaoi on the internet

[365days365movies]

I could have killed ‘em all, I could kill you. In town, you’re the law. Out here, it’s me. Don’t push it. Don’t push it, or I’ll give you a war you won’t believe. Let it go. Let it go.

- John Rambo, First Blood (1982)

[littledozerbaby]

[365days365movies]

January 4, 2021: First Blood (1982) (Part II)

Quick Recap before we go on. Oh, and SPOILERS right up top!

John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is a Vietnam vet wandering through Washington State, until coming upon the town of Hope, run by the Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy).

Sheriff Will Teasle is an absolute dick who arrests Rambo for no real reason; just for being a “drifter.” His police force, which includes the sadistic Galt (Jack Starrett) and sympathetic Mitch (David Caruso, AKA Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami), beats John Rambo, and post-2020 me is UNCOMFORTABLE!!!!!!!

Rambo has Vietnam flashbacks (like you do) and escapes the prison, pursued by the obsessive and dickish Sheriff and his equally dickish men (except for Horatio, maybe).

Galt tries to shoot Rambo, and karma bitch-slaps him RIGHT in the face, holy shit. He dies, and Rambo is blamed and shot at, escaping into the forest.

OK?

OK. On with the recap!

At this point, all of Rambo’s actions are in self-defense. In truth, it’s been self-defense since the beginning. However, he does kill two dogs, so...yeah, can’t really justify that. That sucks. The dog’s handler gets shot by Rambo, who now has a gun, and we also see that Galt’s certified sociopathy has leaked into everybody else but Horatio upon his death, including the dog guy, who tells his dogs to straight up kill Rambo. But, as previously stated...that’s not what happens.

At this point, I should introduce the amemedala.

The amemedala is a portion of the mesencephalon (or midbrain) discovered in the brains of millennials and younger individuals, recently discovered, named, and made up by yours truly. This area, attached to the thalamus, acts as a relay center between the cerebrum and the various sensory receptors of the body, similar to the function of the thalamus. However, while the thalamus governs the broad relay of senses to the appropriate areas of the brain for analysis, the amemedala relays appropriate sensory signals to the frontal lobes, where catalogs of shared sociological trends, or memes, are housed. This relay and association generates connections between extrenal stimuli, and entries in the meme catalog of the frontal lobes. While this is technically an autonomic process, it can be suppressed with enough willpower.

Why am I ringing this up in the middle of First Blood? Because EVERY. SINGLE. CELL of my brain is working to suppress the amemedala right now. Why? BECAUSE OF THE LORAX, AND FOR WHOM HE SPEAKS.

Is it an outdated meme? Very much so. BUT I CANNOT GET IT OUT OF MY GODDAMN HEAD AS I WATCH THIS MOVIE.

OK. That is now out of my system. Anyway, Rambo continues to speak for the trees, which is understandably starting to spook the smalltown cops. This leads to the VERY surprising moment where a camouflaged Rambo appears OUT OF NOWHERE and stabs Horatio in the goddamn leg! Like, wow, he was invisible! I had to rewind the film to see where he was. This is tense...and awesome, not gonna lie. This is awesome.

And then, he gets another cop by JUMPING FROM A TREE. Well, a tree stump, BUT STILL. After he takes him out, he stands in plain sight in front of an approaching cop. That cop, subscribing once again to the shoot-first-ask-questions-later policy, fires. And I SWEAR, Rambo is FASTER THAN THOSE SPEEDING BULLETS, as he dodges out of the way, and the bullets HIT THE COP HE JUST TOOK OUT!

And then, when I didn’t think this could get any more intense, that cop triggers a booby trap, and A STICK WITH WOODEN SPIKES GOES THROUGH THIS MAN’S LEGS, AND HE’S SPEARED LIKE A KEBAB OH MY GOD

The asshole sheriff runs to the NEW set of panicked screams, and his compatriot is just Batman-ed away by Rambo. It’s just the sheriff, now. The storm is building, and the forest is getting darker. The sheriff frees leg-spike cop, and goes to find the other cop, who’s been PINNED TO A TREE LIKE A BUTTERFLY IN A DISPLAY CASE. See, look!

HOLY SHIT IT’S RAMBO WITH A KNIFE IN THE FOREST. He pins the sheriff up to a tree, then with some legitimately badass lines, threatens with the sheriff with “a war [he] wouldn’t believe,” and telling him to make like Elsa and…

I love this sequence. It is the most intense, crazy, holy shit sequence I’ve seen so far this month. Wow. I understand why people talk about this movie. Man, that was a hell of a ride! Good movie, though. All right, so, time for the final sco-

Oh. Oh, my God. I’m only HALFWAY INTO THE MOVIE?

...Wow. OK, then.

We now meet Colonel Sam Trautman, Rambo’s commander in the Green Berets. He’s come to “get his boy.” He says that he came to rescue the Sheriff’s dumb ass from Rambo, rather than the other way around. And the Sheriff is...an idiot. He’s an ass, he’s a maniac, and he’s a stubborn idiot. Even after learning that Rambo is the best, he’s unwilling to back down, the dummkopf.

Rambo kills a wild boar in the woods, which makes no sense for Washington State, but whatever, sure. Anyway, they try to get the colonel to lure Rambo out, even though that’s obviously gonna make his PTSD, just...SO much worse. Especially as he starts using Vietnam parlance in contacting him. Not gonna end well, guys. But it’s then that we learn that Rambo is now the last surviving member of his unit, contributing to his trauma. Rambo’s also been trying to get in contact with the Colonel, winding up here because he has no place to go. He says that there are no friendly civilians, and the trouble’s been caused by that “king-shit” cop. I will be using this term from now on.

Wow. Damn. Hell of a reason for that title. And I think I love this movie. Seriously, I’m having a good time.

King-Shit Cop keeps going ahead with his absolute idiocy, despite all warnings to the contrary. So, a bunch of troops now converge upon Rambo’s place, but he naturally opens fire on them, without killing a single person. In fact, he hasn’t killed anyone this whole movie, and they make a point of saying that he’s been holding back the whole time. So, they decide to use the next, most logical course of action. They FIRE A ROCKET AT HIM.

Afterwards, the Colonel and King Shit Cop catch up at a bar, where the latter exposes his full sociopathy, commenting that he just wanted to kill Rambo. This is opposed to the Colonel, who doesn’t really know what he’d do if Rambo survived.

Which, of course, he did. C’mon, you think a little military-grade propelled explosive is gonna kill John Rambo? Nah. He’s the best there ever was, and he’s gonna prove it now. He jumps into a military vehicle holding an M-60, and hijacks it. Doesn’t take long for the news to break that Rambo’s still kicking, and he’s quickly intercepted by King Shit Cop, who JUST. DOESN’T. KNOW. WHEN. TO QUIT. And I’d admire his tenacity if he wasn’t SUCH AN ASSHOLE.

The cops try to run Rambo and the truck of the road, and he plays the UNO Reverse Card on them instead. And I’m pretty sure at this point…

...that old Johnny boy’s just killed some cops. So, yeah, now there’s a bigger problem. He powers through the State Police blockade like it was a banner blocking a football team, stops at a gas station, grabs the gun from the car, and LIGHTS ALL OF THAT SHIT ON FIRE! Destroying the livelihood of an individual who had nothing to do with this.

Yeah, Rambo’s starting to turn from innocent acting in self-defense to public menace REAL quick. And yeah, it’s King Shit Cop’s fault entirely...but, yeah, Johnny needs some help, because he’s losing the train at this point. But, not to be outdone, King Shit Cop is also beginning to lose it, and it’s definitely beginning to seem like only one of them is going to come out of this alive. And the Colonel tries to give him an out, but King Shit Cop’s prepared to go down with the ship that he blew a hole in in the first place. Like an asshole.

But here we go, the finale. John Rambo vs. King Shit Cop (whose name, by the way, is Will Teasle. I just like Rambo’s name for him better). KSC’s on the roof, Rambo’s on the street. Rambo causes more property damage, possibly because banks also give him PTSD (I joke, but PTSD is no laughing matter, John clearly needs help), and then finds his way to a store that has just all of the ammo a psychologically-damaged Vietnam War veteran on a revenge quest could ever need.

And then he BLOWS. THAT. SHIT. UP.

And he does this...ALL of this...just to lure KSC out of hiding. This man DESTROYS A TOWN because this idiot, sociopathic, unhinged, King Shit Cop, won’t just STAND. THE FUCK. DOWN ALREADY.

Rambo enters the police station, where KSC is on the roof. And, like the Colonel and the rest of us guessed, KSC gets shot in the process. And as Rambo stands over KSC, the Colonel finally shows up and does what literally everybody else should have done.

Talk. He just...talks to Rambo. He talks to this mentally ill man, and that mentally ill man responds, espousing his pure anger at the war, the public, protesters, work, the country, the town, himself...everyone. And goddamn, is that shit palpable.

This man can no longer fit in the world that he was forced to leave, and forced to return to. This poor, poor, poor man. It hurts. And it sucks. And he pours his heart out to the Colonel, and to us, and...you feel it. You feel his trauma, you feel his pain. You feel the aftermath of war. And it’s been seven years at this point for the Colonel, but no time for John. Not Rambo. John. And it’s just...never over.

Damn. Goddamn.

This...this is one hell of a good movie. And not just a good action movie, either. A damn good movie.

And that’s it. That’s First Blood.

[365days365movies]

January 4, 2021: First Blood (Epilogue)

So, uh...

Yeah. Basically. That movie was amazing, seriously, holy...

But before I jump into the review, I think I promised that I would clear up the reason that the first act made me so uncomfortable. And I’ll just say the following things to clear it up:

Last year was a hellscape for many reasons, especially in the USA.

The first act of the movie highlights police brutality and the unlawful persecution of a disadvantaged citizen.

Current events of 2020 may have been haunting to me personally because of a particular facet of my...oh fuck it.

I am Black American, and the police brutality shit set me off because of BLM.

There. It is out. And we shall now move forward. Seriously, though, looking at that through 2020-stained lenses...whoof. REVIEW TIME

Recap

Cast and Acting

I had no idea that Stallone had it in him. Seriously, wow, the ending monlogue that he gives is the longest that he speaks since the very beginning of the film, and you can feel the pain in his delivery, both when he’s shouting his lines, and when he’s sobbing them. Other than being a badass, Stallone gives Rambo an inner pain that should be implied by his status as a Vietnam War veteran...but one that I still was not expecting. It was fantastic. And he’s not the only one! Brian Dennehy plays a dedicated slimeball, and does it well. Richard Crenna as Trautman is also good in his role, and the rest of the supporting cast does their job well. Even Caruso, for the tiny role that he has, is at least a little memorable. I have no complaints about the cast or the acting, real talk.

Cast and Acting: 10/10

Plot and Writing

Stallone puts pen to paper once again, which he was able to do because of his success with Rocky (which I am now VERY much looking forward to). And yeah, the writing here is pretty good throughout, excelling once again in that ending dialogue, even though Stallone’s delivery really pulls it off. As for the rest, it’s good, even if it has the typically dramatic tone seen in most of Stallone’s films. Michael Kozoll and William Sackheim also deserve credit for this script, which took 18 drafts until completion. As for the story, it was based off of a book by David Morrel published ten years prior. From what I know, Stallone made sure to make Rambo FAR MORE SYMPATHETIC than he was in the book, while making the Sheriff a lot more villainous. The ending from the book is also changed. And it does indeed work well, even though the changes made were drastic. You should check out CineFix’s YouTube video on this film if you’d like to know more.

Plot and Writing: 8/10

Directing and Action

Ted Kotcheff is the director for this baby, and he does a great job! Cinematography is good, even if it isn’t the most amazing cinematography I’ve ever seen. But the action? Check out that clip in the GIF above! And the one below! The action in this movie is AWESOME, and the action sequences are fantastic. So, even if the directing isn’t too much to write home about, the action certainly is!

Directing and Action: 9/10

Production Design

Production design is the new term I’ll be using to describe costume and set design from here on out. And...yeah, it’s great again! I feel the haunting spirit of the woods, and that spirit is John Rambo. While the lighting sometimes leaves something to be desired, Rambo’s final look, as well as the iconic forest sequence and setting, makes this category stand out above average, at the very least.

Production Design: 8/10

Music and Sound

I’ll be honest...I don’t like the ending credits song. Took me out of the tone of the emotional ending. But the rest of the score, composed by Jerry Goldsmith, is awesome! It’s not the most memorable score in the world, but it still heightens the experience of the film while you’re in it, that’s for sure. If anything, the film takes great advantage of silence. And that, in and of itself, is an achievement.

Music and Sound: 8/10

86%. That’s my final score. And that’s pretty damn good. Personally, I like it more than that, but I’m comfortable with that score.

This movie is an example of what I’m hoping to get out of this whole year: an unexpected delight of an experience. I mean, my God, I was NOT expecting to like this movie in the way I like it. The depiction of PTSD in this film is one of the first of its kind, and it seems to be done very well. I’m not a psychologist, but I was still severely affected by this movie. Made me really feel for John Rambo. I always thought that I would like the action sequences, but really wasn’t expecting to like Stallone’s acting. All I know is that I’m looking forward to seeing Rocky, and other Stallone movies.

Wow. First Blood, man. Made me think, made me cheer, made me undergo my own form of 2020-related PTSD. What else can you ask for? Well...maybe not the last part.

OK, then. Two Cruises, two Stallones. Who’s next? I mean...wait..oh. Uh-oh.

January 5: The Running Man (1987)

[365days365movies]

January 4, 2021: First Blood (1982) (Part I)

War. War never changes.

OK, so, going into this movie, I know a few things.

Sylvester Stallone plays John Rambo, a Vietnam veteran with massive PTSD, in one of his most famous film roles.

Rambo wages a way against a group of local cops after being arrested for some reason.

There’s a bunch of badass antics and cool stuff.

That’s all I got. Well, I also always had the impression that this is one of those college frat boy douchebag movies, where said demographic will always espouse how badass Rambo is. So, those are the expectations I have going in. But then...I do have to wonder why this movie is also lauded as one of Stallone’s best. It’s also one of the earlier action film dynamos of the 1980s, and it couldn’t have just earned that through pure badassery, right? Well, in any case, I’m ready for some mindless violence! WHOOOOOOLET’SGO!!! SPOILERS!

Recap

Just watching the opening, I’m realizing how surprisingly calm it is compared to the action movies that I’ve already watched. Even Cliffhanger, for what it is, started with Sylvester Stallone clinging to a goddamn mountain. But this view of a calm pristine lake and a content-looking Stallone watching families play...it puts me at ease immediately. Which is probably going to seem ironic in a few moments.

John Rambo (Stallone, of course) is looking for an old friend from his unit in ‘Nam, only to find that he died of exposure to the insiduous Agent Orange. And it is at this point that I realize I am NOT PREPARED for this film. Immediately cuts the goodwill I had from the calm opening with the Knife of Sobering Reality. And that’s a Legendary item, I tell you what.

Rambo makes his way to a mountain town called Hope, and the sheriff (played by Brian Dennehy) immediately makes it clear that he’s the villain of this picture, as well as being a massive asshole. I also immediately want to see him get punched. So very hard. The sheriff immediately shows a hatred for those he calls “drifters,” and I actually think it’s a specific hatred for veterans. Why? Never truly explained. In any case, he tries to get Rambo out of town, but when he comes back just because he wants some food, he’s immediately unjustly arrested.

What follows is...unexpectedly and extremely uncomfortable, given various events during the hell-year that was 2020. I’m not kidding when I say that the scene when the Sherriff arrests the innocent John Rambo gave me...shivers. And wow...I didn’t expect this. I know I should be trying to be funnier here, but..watch that scene again, with fresh 2020 eyes. You’ll see what I mean.

Rambo’s disarmed and brought to the station, constantly being insulted by the Sheriff and other shitty policemen. And as he’s being treated poorly, our first Vietnam flashback happens! And it’s triggered by...police brutality...

I...uh...HEY LOOK IT’S HORATIO (DAVID CARUSO) FROM CSI: MIAMI

Seriously? That’s the second time a CSI: Miami actor has shown up in a Sylvester Stallone film! Neat. Gonna be on the lookout for them now. Anyway, my discomfort grows as Rambo continues to be treated as less than human by the police of this little nowhere town. And I’m aware that there will be an extended fight sequence against them in this movie. And lemme tell ya, I’m looking forward to seeing Brian Dennehy get punched in the face, MAN.

And then Galt (Jack Starrett) hits Rambo in the back with the police baton, and they spray him down with a high-powered fire hose, and...

I’m sorry. I, uh...I wasn’t expecting this. I had to pause the movie and walk away for a minute. I knew that the cops were involved, and I expected Vietnam War flashbacks, but…yeah. I’ll explain later why this affects me so much, if you haven’t already guessed.

Whew. OK.

Back to the movie, with renewed expectations, the cops forcefully hose him down and are about to shave him, with Galt showing his extremely sadistic nature. This unsurprisingly leads to a psychological break caused by PTSD flashbacks to torture in a POW camp, because...YEAH. VIETNAM JUST HAPPENED, YOU GUYS. AND YOU KNOW HE’S A VET. DON’T WAVE KNIVES AT THE MAN, YOU IDIOTS.

Rambo escapes the police after literally fighting his way out, in a much needed cathartic sequence for me, then rides away on a stolen motorcycle, while Dennehy follows in high pursuit. And at this point, I realize two things. One, Dennehy is obsessed with getting this man who, prior to his interference (read: prejudiced bullshit), did absolutely nothing wrong. And that obsession proves self destructive as he crashes his car into a ditch, and Rambo escapes. And the second thing? Rambo’s running on instinct at this point. And my hunch is this: the last thing you want to do is make this man run off of PTSD-fueled impulse. Pretty sure that that’s gonna lead to trouble.

As Dennehy abuses his power and becomes Captain A-hole, his Moby Dick is improvising an outfit from fabric and immediately proving my point. Horatio, on the other hand, shows that he might be the only good apple in this particularly rotten bushel. A particularly well-funded bushel with access to a helicopter for a manhunt of this one dude. And in that helicopter is the psychopath Galt, who is making me think of the last year of this country’s existe-NOPE. PUSH IT DOWN, MAN, WATCH THE MOVIE.

Rambo escapes by going The Way of Sarah (Blessed Be Her Fall; check out the last review for that one), and lands in the trees, injuring himself on the way down. Galt continues to shoot at this guy, and Rambo throws a rock at the helicopter in self defense. This accidentally leads to Gant ALSO going The Way of Sarah. Which, wow, karma is an angry, ANGRY force in this film. One corrupt sociopathic asshole down. Woof.

Rambo surrenders, rightfully stating his innocence, and he gives himself up. AND THEN THEY ALL FIRE ON HIM ANYWAY. NOT TO MENTION THAT THE SHERIFF CALLS HIM BOY AND I NEED TO STOP THE MOVIE FOR A MINUTE.

OK, so after these absolute ASSHOLES shoot Rambo, it’s revealed that Rambo is a Green Beret and a war hero who fought for our country in Vietnam! And instead of acknowledging that he’s a piece of shit who’s over his head and did something that he ABSOLUTELY SHOULDN’T HAVE DONE, THIS ASSHOLE DOUBLES DOWN. Fuck these guys, wow. Except for Horatio...I guess.

See you in Part II! Of this review, not the Rambo franchise.

[vanishing-point-1971]

this may be an unpopular opinion but viewing trautman and rambo solely through the typical "father and son" lens and leaving it at that is reductive and sanitizes a lot of the moral complexity in their relationship and the central message of first blood in general while also absolving trautman of his role in rambo's exploitation. i'm not saying that a father and son angle does not exist, it most certainly does, but it's undoubtedly the angle that's the least focused on in FB.

trautman does care about rambo, but FB also goes out of its way to emphasize the power imbalance in their relationship (trautman is a career military man, deeply respected, and neurotypical. rambo is basically just a grunt [he did serve in a specialized unit, but the people back home don't know that and treat rambo as any other soldier/vet], he has no power in civilized society as a homeless man with no capital [made more complicated by rambo being canonically indigenous, though i understand if a lot of people treat rambo as functionally white because of the racial implications of an indigenous man being played by a white actor], and he's mentally ill), trautman speaks of rambo fondly but also dehumanizes him and talks about rambo as though he's little more than a weapon owned and made by trautman ("god didn't make rambo, i made him", teasle describes rambo as "one of trautman's machines", trautman occasionally addresses rambo as you would a child: "look john, we can't have you running around out there killing friendly civilians.").

to him, rambo's value comes from the fact that he is such a good soldier. trautman's ire for teasle and the hope police department doesn't come from their brutality generally, but the fact that their brutality is directed toward such a good soldier ("that's gonna look real good on his grave stone in arlington: here lies john rambo, winner of the congressional medal of honor, survivor of countless incursions behind enemy lines. killed for vagrancy in jerkwater, usa.").

erasing this colder side of trautman really hampers the source of first blood's drama and tragedy, that rambo essentially has nobody in his corner. teasle and the police department is the america that neglects and spits on its veterans, trautman is the unfeeling government that both abandons and uses vets for their own political capital. rambo crying in trautman's arms at the end of the film is less a son returning to his father and more a man with nothing left to lose returning to a devil he knows, and what better a devil than the US government?