When most people think of Rambo, they think of Sylvester Stallone, naked from the waist up, covered in sweat, and gunning down hundreds of foreigners bad guys while not getting a single scratch himself. (Right? That’s what people think of? Naked, sweaty Sylvester Stallone? Eh, maybe it’s just me.) But that’s the Rambo of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III, which were basically straight action films with a side of jingoistic political content that has aged a bit poorly (especially Rambo III).
But the original 1982 film, First Blood, is quite different from the sequels. It’s a taut thriller about a Vietnam vet with post-traumatic stress disorder who gets pushed a bit too far by a small-town sheriff and goes crazy, waging a one-man war on a small town in Washington.