FIRST BLOODFIRST BLOODTed Kotcheff, 1982 USA,
FIC, 01:33:00First Blood begins with helplessness: a failed hopeful meeting, a memory tainted by reality, a photo handed over as if one's giving away a memory in order to forget it . His friend is dead, the orange stuff's cancer took his life and the smile from Stallone's boyish face (climbing down the hill, excited by the possibility of a brotherhood of war in his hometown). No way, the film has barely begun and he's already isolated and the breech of communication is filling up with PTSD's gloominess. And we go from helplessness to despair, rage and the animality of a body used to death. Nevertheless, Stallone, motivated by the success of Rocky's film series, was able to humanise the character from David Morrell's eponymous novel. This candid change in the monster (the actor/ screenwriter defined the character as a Frankenstein's monster, but also compared him to James Dean in “East of Eden” [1955]), turns Stallone into a creature made up of stiff muscles and puppy eyes, tinted of a both powerless and mortal gentleness. It also indicates an eye for business, that Stallone had already proved (hence largely supporting his legacy as the great American hero), and his will to (literally) extend the life of the people around him: forced to age with the actor's body, to come to grips with his mortality, basically getting even more human, in a snarling face and stiff mouth. There is however a bit of an Exterminating Angel in this Rambo, a chaste, secluded and contemplative character at one with nature, almost monastic in his vow of silence and simple clothes. Indeed, one of “First Blood”'s most remarkable moments is when Rambo tears a piece of cloth and ties it around his waist with a rope. The Franciscan soldier walks through the bush dressed like this plotting the death of his stalkers. Dressed in this holy garments Rambo shines a light in the dark and (literally) finds his way out. This is thus a selfless tool for killing, without a cause, with no direction or destination, there is only death as a way, as a journey leading to (his) eternal redemption. (RVL)
PRODUCTION
Buzz Feitshans
COPY CONTACT
Tamasa Distribution;
33143590101,
contact@tamasadiffusion.com,
www.tamasa-cinema.com
SCRIPT
Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim, Sylvester Stallone
PHOTOGRAPHY
Andrew Laszlo
EDITING
Joan Chapman
MUSIC
Jerry Goldsmith
MAIN ACTORS
Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy, Bill McKinney, Jack Starrett, Michael Talbott, Chris Mulkey, John McLiam, Alf Humphreys, David Caruso, David L. Crowley, Don Mackay
