Sylvester Stallones Rambo films have an unfair reputation as a series full of blood-and-guts action and nothing more, though in reality they have a lot more to offer than just gun fights and explosions. First Blood, the first and best film in the four-movie franchise, is not so much a war movie as it is thriller, with Vietnam vet John Rambo forced into a psychological and physical battle with corrupt local police back in the States. Stallone showed the world that there was an actor underneath all those muscles for the first time, though he wasnt given much of a chance to repeat the performance with First Blood Part II three years later. The lacklustre sequel begins with Rambo banged up in jail following his escapades in the first movie, though he will be given a clean slate if he agrees to travel back to Vietnam to locate some American prisoners of war. We always had to see Rambo in action in Vietnam, though instead of a ludicrous premise in which a man who took on an entire police force during a mass manhunt is pardoned, we could have had a straight up Vietnam War movie. The most appealing side to Rambos character is that he is fundamentally against violence, and showing him in the active line of duty would have given Stallone the chance to really flex his acting muscles. First Blood begins with a down-and-out Rambo finding out that Delmore Barry, the last surviving member of the Special Forces unit he served with in Vietnam, has died of Cancer due to Agent Orange exposure. A prequel could have jumped off from this, following the whole unit from the shores of the States to the jungles of Vietnam, where the battle against the Viet Cong made Rambo who he is.
