Rambo: First Blood by Ted Kotcheff was one of the most influential films of its day. On the surface, it’s an epic wilderness showdown, but underneath the layers of action and suspense resides an author’s purpose that confronts the manipulation and rejection faced by returning Vietnam veterans and the effects of war on their psychological states. Upon journeying home from the brutal Vietnam War and finding out his only surviving comrade has recently passed away, John J. Rambo is met with discrimination and disdain from the people of the town of Hope, Washington. When Sheriff Will Teasle pushes the veteran to the breaking point with verbal and physical abuse, Rambo’s military instincts take over. He violently escapes his confines and flees into …show more content…
Unwilling to admit defeat and ignoring the advice of Rambo’s former commander, Colonel Trautman, Teasle utilizes everything from the state police and national guard to sniper rifles and rocket launchers in a crazed attempt to bring down Rambo. If we look at Rambo through the sheriff's point of view we see a dangerous criminal who is a threat to the locals and his town but in reality, Rambo was an ordinary man who had dreams and passion but sadly he has been scarred mentally and has forgotten how to function in society. For years Rambo was trained to survive and to kill, “A man who’s the best! With guns, with knives, with his bare hands! A man who's been trained to ignore pain! To ignore weather!” Rambo is a man who has been completely stripped of his human nature and morals, formed into a killing machine that has no mercy. When you put this machine-like being back into normal society he is going to have trouble fitting in and following rules that he has forgotten. In the last scene of the film when Rambo is surrounded from all sides and it seems as if the long manhunt is finally coming to an