So a few months ago
Rambo: Last Blood was released, the latest in a series of
movies that, much like its lead character, refuses to die (though
personally I really do think that this will be the last one). I
didn't actually see Last Blood – in fact I've only seen the
first and fourth Rambo films – but it got me thinking that maybe
it'd be fun to read the David Morrell novel where it all started:
First Blood. Author David Morrell was inspired to write First
Blood after witnessing the effects of the Vietnam War on American
society. This made him wonder what might happen if a returning
veteran were to bring the war home with him. Published in 1972, First
Blood became a big hit with Morrell selling the movie rights to
it immediately. After several rewrites – none of which involved
Morrell – and a decade in development hell First Blood
stormed the theatres in 1982 with Sylvester Stallone in the starring
role. First Blood is one of the best action movies of the
1980's and one of my favourites as well. So how does it stack against
the novel? Let's take a look.
First let's recap the
plot which generally remains pretty similar from book to film. Rambo
is a homeless, shell-shocked Vietnam veteran hitchhiking around,
making his way through a small town looking for a place to eat.
Distrustful of such scraggly-looking outsiders, local top cop Will
Teasle gives Rambo a lift out of town. Refusing to be pushed around,
Rambo returns to the town in spite of Tealse's warnings leading to
his arrest. “The kid” proves to be uncooperative and the police's
attempts to shave him triggers a frightening flashback from the war.
Rambo freaks out, overpowers the cops, breaks out of the police
station, and leads them on a chase into the nearby mountains.
Multiple officers start searching for him – both on foot and by
helicopter – but Rambo's expertise in stealth and guerilla warfare
give him the upper hand; he incapacitates them all with Teasle barely
making it out. In the following days a massive manhunt takes form
with the involvement of state police, the national guard, and
civilian volunteers. Teasle receives advice (which he refuses) from
special forces Colonel Sam Trautman who reveals that the kid was a
highly decorated member of the Green Berets in Vietnam. Eventually
Rambo is cornered in an abandoned mine/cave complex. After navigating
the cave he finds an exit and makes his way back into the town to
confront Teasle. Rambo blows up a good chunk of the town before the
two engage in a climactic gunfight with Trautman not far behind.
I think the biggest
differences between the book and film can be seen in the portrayal of
its main characters, Rambo and Teasle. The novel almost evenly splits
its focus between the two of them and they're both made out to be
flawed and complex characters. Whichever one – if either – is the
good guy and the bad guy is left ambiguous as each man has his
reasons and his faults. In contrast, the movie First Blood
simplifies things by making Rambo – who in this version is given
the first name John – the sympathetic main character. The film
begins with Rambo looking for one of his old war buddies only to find
that he's died from the effects of Agent Orange. Once he's arrested,
the kid is treated rather viciously by the sadistic policemen (in the
book the policemen seem agreeable enough). In addition, movie Rambo
only inadvertently kills a few dogs and one police officer (which
arguably wasn't his fault) and during the manhunt scene in the woods
he dispatches all of Teasle's men, including Teasle himself,
non-lethally as a warning to leave him be. This contrasts heavily
with the book version of Rambo: he kills dozens of people. During his
escape from the police station, he uses the razor to slash open and
disembowel a cop, during his escape the next day he manages to shoot
down a helicopter that had two people in it, he methodically
slaughters the cops that were after him one by one, he knifes two
civilian volunteers to death, and he blows up the police station with
people still in it (in the movie he only shoots up the station once
everyone but Teasle has gone). Before his arrest, book Rambo – who
doesn't have a first name – has plenty of opportunities to back
down and de-escalate the situation but he can't stop provoking
Teasle. Once things have gotten out of hand, Rambo admits to himself
that against his better judgment he wanted the fight, that it gives
him a sense of purpose, and the thought of surrender seems disgusting
to him. Compare this to the film version of Rambo who tries
surrendering after Deputy Galt dies, but is forced to flee after
Teasle opens fire on him. It's clear that this version of Rambo was
just minding his own business and wanted to be left alone.
By the same token Will
Teasle's character is changed up even more than Rambo's. In the book
he's kind of a jerk but this is partially due to some personal issues
he has at the moment. He'd lately been fighting with his surrogate
father, Orval, over nothing and he's also anxious about receiving a
phone call from his recently estranged wife. (There's a line in the
film where upon walking into the police station Teasle says “hold
my calls.” Possible reference?) He narrowly manages to escape Rambo
in the woods by crawling though some thick brambles in an exhausted
panic. It's this chase that prompts a serious heart condition but
Teasle repeatedly refuses to rest/seek medical attention and instead
loads up on painkillers because he feels guilty about starting this
whole murderous affair and he's determined to see it through until
the end. Towards the end he develops a bizarre admiration for Rambo
as well as an uncanny ability to anticipate where Rambo is going.
This differs wildly from the movie version of Teasle who is simply a
proud, stubborn policeman who's mad that things aren't going his way.
You don't learn much about his backstory, his motivations, or his
sense of responsibility: he's just a jerkwad. This downgrade in
Teasle's character comes with a corresponding downgrade in Orval's
character as well: he's a major supporting character in the novel but
in the movie he's nothing more than an angry redneck.
It's these differences
between Rambo and Teasle's portrayal that change First Blood's
whole tone and theme. This can be explained by the fact that both
versions of the story are very much products of their time. You see,
many Americans in the early 1970's were getting sick and tired of
crime and hippie culture and were longing for stern authority figures
to reestablish law and order in the country (see 1971's Dirty
Harry). One must also remember that the United States was still
involved in the Vietnam War when this book came out and the public
was very divided on how returning veterans should be viewed. Rambo's
beard, long hair, and roaming loner lifestyle would have led many
readers to label him as a hippie and therefore not as agreeable as a
small town police chief. However, by the 1980's the American public
was ready to view Vietnam veterans in a more sympathetic light. As a
result, the veteran-focused themes in First Blood the movie
are given far more attention than in its novel counterpart. More
importantly, action movies in the 1980's were becoming more
in-your-face as audiences' appetite for destruction swelled. This was
the era of the underdog, one-man-army action films featuring a lone
hero on a destructive rampage: Commando (1985), Robocop
(1987), and Die Hard (1989) all owe at least some measure of
their success to Rambo's first cinematic outing in 1982.
The tonal change can
also be seen in how Colonel Trautman's role was expanded. In the
book, Trautman and Rambo had never met; Rambo only recognized the
man's name and voice as one of the commanders of the army base that
had trained him. But the movie makes their connection way more
personal; Trautman commanded Rambo's squad on missions in Vietnam and
is now basically the only friend that Rambo has left. As such the
movie version of Trautman makes more of an effort to save Rambo by
talking him down. There's an interesting line in the movie where
Teasle asks Trautman , “What would you have done with [Rambo] if he
came in? Wrap your arms around him, give him a big sloppy kiss? Or
would you've blown his brains out?” Depending on the version of
First Blood you're going through, Trautman did both!
That's the other huge
difference between the book and movie: the ending. In the novel
Teasle chases Rambo through town and successfully sneaks behind the
kid. The two deliver mutually fatal gunshots to eachother. Rambo
survives long enough to crawl into some nearby woods with Trautman
and a stumbling-yet-determined Teasle in pursuit. Hoping to coax
Teasle into killing him – and thus go down fighting – an unsteady
Rambo hits the policeman with a shot that he actually meant to miss.
Trautman responds with a shotgun blast to Rambo's head. The colonel
delivers the news to Teasle as he dies peacefully. In the movie Rambo
makes his way towards the police station where Teasle waits for him
alone. Rambo sneaks inside and a brief gunfight ensues with Teasle
shot and Rambo about to kill him. Trautman shows up – moments ahead
of hundreds of national guardsmen who surround the building – to
talk Rambo out of it, insisting that there's no chance of escape and
reminding the kid that he's the last of his army unit. An incensed
Rambo throws his weapons away and starts to rant on his frustrations
with losing the war, how unfair and unsatisfying civilian life is,
and how sad he is that all his army buddies are dead. Now in tears,
the despondent Rambo embraces Trautman who escorts him outside to
surrender to the police.
These are both really
great endings, each one well-suited to the story preceding it. Book
Rambo was a violent man who got what he wanted: a violent death. But
since the movie version of First Blood tried to bring veterans
issues like post-traumatic stress disorder to the forefront, it makes
sense to let the main character express his grievances to a world
that turned its back on him. It's not often you see an action movie
where the hero breaks down and sobs helplessly at the end. And this
is helped by the fact that Sylvester Stallone is an excellent actor
in this film. (Fun fact: this wasn't the original ending to the film.
Initially Rambo was supposed to beg and then force Trautman to shoot
him dead. This ending didn't go over well with test audiences and was
thus reshot.)
One other difference I
wanted to bring up is the setting. Whereas the book took place in the
small town of Madison, Kentucky, the movie takes place in the small
town of Hope, Washington. I'm not sure why the filmmakers chose to
change locations but I certainly am in favour of it for purely
selfish reasons. First Blood was filmed in Hope, British
Columbia, which is just down the road from where I live! Some of the
locations in the film are places I've been to and whenever I find
myself in Hope I can't help but think of Rambo movies. Pretty neat,
huh? Just thought I'd share that.
And speaking of
tangents, here is a list of a bunch of other differences whose
effects on the film are slight and were probably only made to save
the filmmakers time (which normally happens with adaptations):
- The book takes place in early October whereas the movie takes place in December.
- In the book Teasle is the Chief of Police but in the movie he's the Sheriff. I'm unsure if this makes any practical difference.
- Teasle's status as a Korean War veteran isn't given any attention in the film. However there is one shot where you can see some military medals in his office.
- Sylvester Stallone has no beard, which makes the whole shaving scene in jail a bit confusing.
- In the movie Rambo escapes the police station in boots, jeans, and a sleeveless shirt. In the book he was bare-ass naked.
- The movie does go to great lengths to recreate the cliff scene from the book. However, the police helicopter isn't shot down and considerably fewer people die in this version.
- The owl that Rambo caught and ate was changed to a pig.
- The novel's version of Rambo's escape through the caves is considerably more hazardous and longer than in the film. Most of it happens in complete darkness, he gets attacked by bats, and he even comes across the skeleton of someone else who also got lost a long time ago. At one point things look so bleak that he briefly considers committing suicide.
And that's First
Blood, both a gripping thriller novel and a fine action film.
Both pieces of media do a fine job at what they've set out to do
while telling a story that is mostly the same, but with two radically
different tones, themes, and endings. For that reason I recommend
trying both the movie and the book. I say start with the movie
and if you're left hungry for more, for something meatier and more
sinuous, check out David Morrell's novel, which I believe is the
better version of the two.