First Blood (Episode 1) - Kicking Off the Rambo Journey

0:00
[Music]
0:30
welcome to it's a long road the ramble series podcast this is exciting because this episode is the first episode where
0:37
we start discussing the film last episode on this feed if you haven't listened already I beg you I implore you
0:44
to go back and listen to the interview I did with David morale but this is the first episode I am doing covering the
0:52
films with a guest co-host let me just say this guest co-host was my only
0:58
choice for First Choice to guest with me and that is the podfather himself the
1:04
sly cast host himself Mr Craig Cohen how you doing I'm good and I apologize in
1:09
advance for any stuttering I might have it seems my internet doesn't like Discord tonight well well speaking of
1:16
Discord on the Rambo series podcast if you're listening to this podcast I invite you to check out the show uh what
1:22
do you call the show notes that's what they call the show description notes in the show description notes of every episode there is an invite we just just
1:30
click on the link and it will lead you to the last of the action heroes podcast Network Discord server and within that
1:37
server we record live obviously I mean every recording is live but you can join the recording the live recordings with
1:44
us as a guest member as a guest you know sort of like a guest audience member you don't come on mic or anything you don't
1:49
come on camera but you get to crack wise with uh me and my guest host whoever it is at the time of recording and offer
1:56
your insights about the ramble franchise and today we have Donald who is a regular the other shows that we do on
2:02
the last of the action heroes podcast he is a great contributor to the podcast with his insights and humor he's been
2:08
following Craig since his camell clutch podcast days welcome Donald to Discord so again I invite everyone to join our
2:14
Discord you can uh join these live discussions well Craig I'm personally very excited to start covering ramble I
2:20
have been looking forward to this journey for so long I'm actually Giddy and that's a good sign I'm giddy again I'm excited again to podcast you guys
2:25
ever get that feeling when you start a new project oh absolutely and I mean that's the reason you start something like that is because it's got your
2:31
excitement levels high and your juices flowing and you want to be creative this is a great set of movies to talk about
2:37
so I know people can go and I invite everyone to go to the sly cast podcast Mr Craig Cohen has actually interviewed
2:44
before me and rightfully so David morale the author it's a great what was the 35th Anniversary Special to first it was
2:51
the 35th anniversary of First Blood Part Two so we kind of talk about where David
2:57
is with or was with Rambo at that time time his thoughts on part two and then
3:02
also the unique situation which saw him writing the novelizations of those two sequels two and three which an author
3:09
hadn't really done before that's a great episode that 35th Anniversary episode I'm really proud of it you were part of
3:15
it Doug was part of it Mike kundle was part of it we got listener comments All
3:20
Around yeah that's on the feed here and then also if you go back to the early slide casts episodes we did a joint
3:27
First Blood and First Blood Part Two Episode and we also did a Rambo 3 episode yes so please check those out
3:33
Craig as always does a wonderful job dissecting talking about well all the Stallone films that he does but
3:39
particularly the ramble films the ramble franchise and I hope to do half as good as you do Craig and talking about these
3:45
films will be longer longer is it necessarily always better so I'm really hoping that my
3:52
series though it will be longer than your coverage it will have the same quality of coverage that you've done on Sly cast the beauty of you know what you
4:00
were doing with Going the Distance and now it's a long road is Sly cast we were doing 2 and 1 half three hour episodes
4:06
at some points you're going even longer sort of over the course of a season it
4:12
really allows you to explore sequences and things that are worth talking about it's awesome you can never have too much
4:18
coverage oh good well we're going to have too much on this podcast feed I can't wait so check out this show and
4:24
all the other shows on the last of the action heroes podcast Network just Google last of the action heroes podcast
4:30
Network and you'll get all the shows that are available on that Network a lot of great action movies and action heroes
4:35
Craig in a nutshell cuz we're going to have new listeners I think there's new listeners listening to us just because it's a new Ramble podcast so people
4:41
might not have heard your take what does Rambo mean to you oh wow Rambo was
4:46
really sort of my cinematic entry into modern action movies I'm not entirely
4:54
sure that in 2022 we can consider Rambo an action movie I'd almost wonder if it's kind of more of a Thriller would
5:00
you say for me I saw it at an age where you know it was on the cpit of of all
5:07
those classic movies coming out and it almost feels like first blood is a good bridge between the' 70s action adventure
5:15
movies and what we got in the 80s and then of course First Blood Part Two took
5:20
it to the level that everybody sort of aspired to for me it's really sort of my
5:25
cinematic entry into modern action adventure films it's a character that
5:31
I've been on the ride with ever since sadly it didn't end the way I would have preferred it to end and who who knows if
5:37
it's even over there's great things about it about each film and I also think the character himself was
5:43
important the idea when first blood came out and when David Morell wrote the
5:48
novel 10 years earlier of how these soldiers were impacted by the Vietnam
5:54
War and what they saw over there and how they were treated when they got home history has
6:00
appreciated those veterans alive and killed in action and missing an action a
6:06
lot more since first blood came out we got the big wall in Washington DC the the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and I'm
6:13
not sure if this film helped turn the tight or not I mean after first Blood you got a lot of Vietnam movies as well
6:18
I mean of course Apocalypse Now kind of started things but a couple years after this you had platoon and full metal
6:24
jacket it's interesting Rambo is a very very important character to me and I almost feel if I had to choose a side if
6:33
I was caucusing I would probably fall on the Rambo side as opposed to the rocky side yeah I mentioned that in my trailer
6:40
episode so to speak of what to expect from the series that there is a Stallone crowd of fans that there are people who
6:47
now you're not quite like this but there are people who are ramble fans that aren't Rocky fans and I was fully expect
6:53
I'm going to get listeners of this podcast who haven't heard one lick of my
6:58
Going the Distance podcast in fact I've got some fan mail right now that I'd like to read and I see s look at fan
7:04
mail look at me I got fans already we haven't recorded a full episode yet well I got a couple emails already if you
7:11
want to send an email and I'll read it to the listeners on the show send me an email to Rambo series podcast that again
7:18
is ramboer podcast gmail.com and already I got two emails from that introduction
7:24
episode that I did one is from a listener that I had from Going the Distance the Rocket series podcast he's our favorite German his name is Patrick
7:30
mtel he says hello Ryan just wanted to tell you that I'm very much looking forward to the ramble series podcast I
7:36
will be there all the way and I love all the five movies all for different reasons I think that's fair I I feel the
7:42
same way and maybe we get another Rambo film with Sly you never know and that's
7:47
true we just never know he says here quote it's a long road what a great
7:53
title you came up with Ryan or was it a guy from Germany in an email from November 23rd 2019 who wrote quote PS
8:00
are you still planning to cover all the rambles after Creed part two and what about it's a road the ramble series
8:06
podcast as a title end quote now wow that's very specific Patrick I wondering if you're trying to insinuate that
8:11
you're the one that gave me that idea and yes he was I think I put out in one of my podcast episodes when I was
8:17
talking about doing this podcast with the during the rocky time saying I don't know what to call it and Patrick yes
8:22
full credit to Patrick Mel for better for worse Patrick it is your title name I loved it when I saw it I'm like I
8:29
can't believe I didn't think of it but you came up with the idea so I love the title it's kind of fits with that Going the Distance moniker and so that's why I
8:36
loved it so much so thank you Patrick for that oh awesome yeah he goes on to say that he won't charge me for that
8:41
well that's good I don't make any money off this he goes on to say by the way when I turn 50 years old in 5 years I
8:47
guess he's 45 now my family and I together with another family are planning a trip to Canada my buddy and I
8:53
will definitely travel to hope for one or two days to visit the first Blood locations hey Patrick I don't know if
8:58
you knew this I'm just a few hours drive away from that fairy ride as well but so if you want to visit me and while you're in Canada come say hi we got 5 years to
9:05
plan that so no no rush he says so let's start walking that long road over the next five movies and 37 years there'll
9:12
be one hell of a journey cheers from Germany Patrick thank you so much Patrick that's amazing there's a movie that came out within the last couple of
9:18
months called antlers I believe it's here on HBO Max here in the States but
9:23
it's my understanding that was filmed in Hope British Columbia oh probably the Pacific Northwest here in DC is
9:30
beautiful for those type of films if it's atmospheric type I don't know the film but do you know that rocky rocky
9:37
himself saw the film but he referred to it as rantlers yeah a little rocky humor well that's a
9:43
deep cut for a rocky five fans boy if you're like what's Ryan talking about then you are not a rocky fan okay the
9:49
second email is from Mr Mark crane welcome to the show Welcome to the journey of the ramble series podcast I'm
9:55
99% sure he didn't listen to my Going the Distance but if I'm wrong let me know because he says hi he just says
10:01
here my first film I watched on VHS was first Blood he goes on to say how this happened was his mom rented two movies
10:08
Elephant Man and First Blood he thought First Blood was a horror film so he chose that based on the title to watch
10:14
and now it's his favorite film is First Blood says here really looking forward to listening thank you well thank you
10:19
Mark and I hope that I do first Blood Justice to your fandom of the movie I think it's great that your mom rented
10:25
the film and I will say it was actually my parents that rented the film too that's how I saw it at a young age it came out when I was 7 years old or just shy of
10:32
turning seven actually and I of course didn't see in the theaters but I saw it on VHS myself probably I was about I'd
10:39
say between 9 and 10 I probably saw it on Home Video First Blood was one of a handful of movies that I was Ultra
10:45
excited about when DVD became popular I was an early adopter of DVD I bought a
10:52
first generation player for those that didn't live through it VHS was a
10:58
struggle you had what was considered especially for movies like first blood
11:03
which is a very wide ratio film panis scan where they would crop the film and then they would create these artificial
11:11
camera pans to make sure they captured all the action First Blood was like that die hard was like that I remember those
11:19
were two movies that I was so amped to get on DVD when those came out because I
11:24
knew we were going to finally see nice beautiful widescreen images that people saw in theaters it just got released a
11:31
few years ago on 4K high def and so I owe it to myself I got them on Blu-ray
11:37
the box set of course but I I really do need to buy the 4K and I'm going to be one of those guys that yes every time it comes out a new edition 4K AK 16k I'll
11:44
probably keep buying First Blood do you have a 4K player like do you have a 4K Blu-ray yeah player okay the only
11:51
Blu-ray I have is the director's cut of Rambo which is part four all the others
11:58
I got in that like steel tin right yeah um when Rambo came out I think okay I
12:04
haven't seen a box set yeah I could be wrong I haven't seen a box set yet that has with last blood is there one or
12:10
there must be one you know I don't know were they all the same Studio good question we'll have to save that for
12:15
season five of it's a long road Series yeah a little Stallone trivia regarding
12:21
my Blu-ray history please The Expendables was the first Blu-ray I ever bought oh nice that's a good question i'
12:27
have to think about my first Blu-ray boy I remember my first CD I don't know why I remember that first CD I ever bought
12:33
was Errol Smith Toys in the Attic and Erol Smith's debut album Errol Smith yeah anyways little side note
12:39
there to get to know your host a little bit better yeah we're going to talk a little bit Craig if you don't mind before we get into the film because
12:44
we're going to go through the film piece by piece scene by scene or Moment by moment that's how we're going to do this
12:49
podcast so we're going to play the sequence and you The Listener will hear bits and pieces you're not going to hear the audio unedited so to speak because
12:56
there's moments where the audio would mean nothing to you it would be explosions or ramble falling out of a cliff playing that audio for an iTunes
13:02
listener does them no good but we will watch that as the guest host myself will watch that sequence then talk about the
13:07
things that we saw but because Craig this is the first episode of the series would you mind just joining me a little
13:13
bit of talking about some of the this isn't going to be anything revolutionary I'm not going to say very much that people are going to be like really it
13:19
was filmed in Hope BC and British clumb yes you know like I'm not going to say too much that people aren't going to already know but I think a couple beats
13:24
might be worth mentioning yeah absolutely and and also I don't know if and when or I haven't heard your
13:30
discussion with David yet but if you got into at all some of the differences
13:35
between the book and the movie I think most people listening to this know it's based on a book well here's little
13:41
behind the curtain right now we're recording before my interview with David so maybe some of the things that Craig and I are talking about now might sound
13:47
redundant but again some people don't listen to interviews so I guess it works either way people are like that some people don't like interviews you just
13:53
finished reading the book right three qus the way through I'm interviewing Mr Morel two days of this from this
13:58
recording and it will be done so we could talk briefly about the book and I don't mind doing that since that is the
14:03
Genesis of this character I mean I think the main thing is in the book it takes place in Kentucky it's one of a handful
14:09
of books I've read multiple times but it was not Madison Kentucky that's right yeah so it takes place in Kentucky so
14:16
that's a a location swap out they did and and I don't believe in the book it's
14:21
not like a Kentucky winter or anything right in the book it's fall it's crispy at night they're cold but there's no
14:28
snow that if I remember correctly but definitely the elements are uncomfortable for Rambo in the gang the
14:34
people are cold and wet there's a there's a lightning storm and rain and flooding and what have you so it's not
14:39
nice weather right now in the book The other thing that we should let people know is the changes that Stallone made
14:46
to the book made the movie the movie that it is made it connect with
14:51
audiences the way it did in the book you get alternating chapters devoted to
14:58
Rambo and then also teasel and you get a lot more teasel in the book in the book
15:03
Rambo's a psychopath he kills a kid in in it
15:08
premon Kentucky events with teasel yes he hunted down a kid and killed him in his car because he slighted him on the
15:15
street yeah Stallone when he sat down to adapt that book yeah I mean he sat down
15:21
and read that book and said I can't put this character on screen audiences aren't going to connect with somebody
15:26
like that and I think that's one of the great great choices that Stallone made
15:32
and and I'll go to the mat for the book and I'll go to the mat for the movie I'm a fan of both and I understand why they
15:38
made the changes they did and by no means am I like a purist in saying you need to they should have straight
15:43
adapted the book I do know that within the last couple months Quenton Tarantino talked about wanting to adapt First
15:50
Blood he was more joking when he said it I'm sure he would approach it in a different way than Stallone did there's
15:56
a lot of great material in that book and if you're at all a fan of Rambo I know you can get used paperback copies cheap
16:02
as David Morell will tell you when you interview him it's never been out of print which is amazing there's not many
16:10
authors that can say their books have never been out of print so that means you can go to the Barnes & Noble and
16:16
order a brand new copy of first blood in 2022 you don't have to go to your youth store it's also available on Kindle
16:22
which is how I read it when I reread it I don't even know what my point was okay we're gushing about First Blood
16:28
and I mean if you're if you're a fan of the movie First Blood or the Rambo series I think you owed yourself to see
16:35
or read and experience the source material now here's the thing it does differ from the movie or the movie
16:40
differs from the book but rightfully so they're two different mediums and this was also a film of the'80s and you have
16:46
to keep that in mind audience pleasing movies were different back then this movie could be made today like the book
16:54
I think having spoiler should I spoil I mean do I spoil a book that that was written in 1972 is 5050 years old am
17:01
I allowed to spoil the ending I think most people know about the alternate ending to this movie which was the ending of the book well at the end of
17:07
the book Troutman shoots Rambo in the movie he commits suicide yeah that was
17:13
the alternate ending now I'm getting mixed sources though I'm hearing Sly though that ending was filmed I'm
17:19
hearing Sly didn't like the ending period so they had it recut or refilmed but I'm also hearing Tess audience didn't like it or are both true that
17:26
gets to how Sly set up the character he provoked they drew first blood so if you
17:32
look at the movie he's not the psychopath from the book He's a guy that just wants to get a hot meal and go
17:38
through town and he's pushed probably could have reacted to it differently but this is also a guy that was trained to
17:45
do what he does he explored that in the other movies and he explored that brilliantly in part four his reaction
17:52
shouldn't surprise anybody and it doesn't surprise Colonel Trin what's really cool about this is that the book
17:59
and the movie are very similar in tone the character of ramble is actually very true like salon's performance is amazing
18:07
at First Blood yeah I think I think the go ahead I'm sorry you're the host here Ryan no that's fine you're the guest
18:13
I'll be here the whole series you go ahead yeah hopefully I get invited back no I think another major point is
18:21
David Morell wrote this in the early '70s Vietnam was still ongoing the character of Rambo was younger in the
18:28
book yeah and also he was looked at by the people in the book differently as
18:33
well but I agree with you in the sense that Stallone did capture the essence of it and I think overall the essence of
18:39
the book is there not to plug my other [ __ ] but on this network feed is an
18:45
episode of a show I used to do called big screen book club where we talked about die hard and the book that
18:52
inspired it called nothing lasts forever I'm a fan of both of those as well and I think the movie works as a movie and the
18:59
book works as a book and they both work for their reasons and I think the same thing can be said of first blood is
19:05
first blood's a great book and First Blood the movie is a great adaptation of that book other filmmakers would
19:11
approach it differently if they made an Amazon sort of original of it and made it an eight episode series it would be
19:18
different we wouldn't be doing the show right now if Stallone didn't sit down and write the script for First Blood the
19:23
way he did and create a character that audiences can get on on board with and
19:30
Sly knows how to give audiences what they want and he doesn't do it in a
19:37
Cheesy pandering way it's always just him knowing how audiences think and how
19:44
audiences respond and what they want to see that's what he did with Rambo and that's the reason that they made more
19:50
Rambo movies and that's the reason we're talking about Rambo in 2022 to me it's amazing that he created two iconic
19:57
characters most people don't even get to create one iconic character let alone too that's pretty remarkable have you
20:03
seen the alternate ending um I believe it's on the set I have and it was also
20:08
part of the Montage in Rambo 4 it might be the director's cut it's been a while
20:14
since I watched it but you actually see the shot of Troutman I think going for
20:20
the gun so you actually see the blast again it's been a while since I watched Rambo 4 and I can't remember if it's
20:26
theatrical the director's cut I'm pretty sure that the set I have has the deleted scene as well you can just go on YouTube
20:32
guys listeners if you haven't seen just put a first Blood alternate ending and you'll see uh I don't want to spoil it
20:38
you can watch what was filmed it's there to it's there to watch Rambo Dying by the hands of Colonel Troutman it's kind
20:43
of a combination I would say murder suicide per se but it was like troutman's holding the gum but ramble squeezes the trigger and you'll see
20:50
that's the reason Kirk Douglas left this movie he was originally supposed to play Troutman do you know why he was upset
20:55
about the script or something I know he wanted more screen time was that all he wanted to he wanted to kill Rambo I
21:01
think he just wanted to kill Stallone he wanted to Rive round in that bulletin they told him no sorry Mr
21:07
Douglas these are fake rounds that you're not killing anybody and he left in a tizzy okay yeah so he left Richard
21:13
krena was the last minute addition to the film and boy can you picture anyone else playing Troutman than Kina oh it's
21:21
one of those things where you always say it's it's great that things happen the way they did right I'm sure when they
21:26
were in pre-production on that movie and they had the quote unquote true creative differences with Douglas that nobody
21:32
felt great about it 40 years later you watch that movie and it's Richard Kenna's performance I don't know if what
21:39
you did when you read the book but when I read the book I picture Richard krena yeah and I'd actually just picture a
21:45
younger ramble because they really do a good job and well they Mr morale the author does a very good job of describing this young kid and you can't
21:52
help but see the character as a young kid in the novel but I still just see a younger ramble or SCE version of ramble
21:58
it's just easier to see his image running around speaking of casting Brian Dene playing teasel boy he want a
22:06
Powerhouse with those three in this film I mean absolutely all three of them every scene they are in is just scene
22:13
stealing amazing stuff the book again gets more into teasel sort of Korean War
22:19
backstory it's a great read and there's a reason that it's been in print or never gone out of print and that David
22:25
Morell is a working author he's got a lot of books out first blood's not the
22:30
only movie that's been made out of his material but what's crazy though is it was the first book he wrote or got
22:35
published yeah yeah what a way to start your career hey I'm just going to write this book shortly the rights to the
22:41
novel I should say were bought shortly after the publication in 72 I think the same year and it changed hands from
22:47
different directors from I mean some names we know robt dairo and clinty SW
22:53
were both asked to play ramble in the 70s I can see Robert doing the 70s not so much Clint Sydney poock was as to
22:58
direct it was aach direct John batam was asked to direct frankenheimer was asked to direct so all these different names
23:04
went through it but it finally fell into the hands of Mariel CER and Andrew G and of course caser is a huge name in
23:10
producing vagin is dead right he passed away a couple years ago he unfortunately did pass away but Mario CER he's only
23:17
well only he's 70 so and he started this stuff young check out some of his producing and executive producer roles
23:23
now of course we reviewed escape the victory he did that one other movies that he produced were Terminator 3
23:28
Lolita chaplain with Robert dairo but then check out of as executive producer I mean this is where you put the money
23:34
where your mouth is type producing stuff of course First Blood part two of course ramble 3 red heat I'm just doing ones
23:40
that we would like on this network Total Recall air America La story The Doors Terminator 2 Basic Instinct universal
23:48
Soldier Cliffhanger Stargate show Girls Terminator the sah Chronicles television show Terminator Salvation my goodness
23:56
yeah and he's younger than Sly which is kind of wild crazy also still alive I've
24:01
never made an attempt to reach out to Mario and I've never also made an attempt to reach out to Ted kochev who
24:07
is the director they fellow Canadian for me because DAV morell's Canadian as well yeah I believe Ted kochev or coef is
24:15
more of like a TV guy most of his credits are TV I don't know much about that to be honest with you he's 90 I
24:22
think you can say what you want about the aesthetic of First Blood it's a very raw movie everything in it looks real
24:30
because in 19 early 80s late 70s they had to do everything for real there was no way to fake it what I wanted to get
24:36
to and I think that's a problem with some of the more modern action movies is
24:42
they don't get guys like Ted kachef to direct these movies anymore you get a
24:47
Mick G or a Michael Bay and those are guys that don't care about the talking scenes they just want to watch [ __ ] blow
24:54
up one of the main reasons that first Blood works as well as it does and why I
24:59
wouldn't really call it a straightup action movie is because of the approach that Ted katf took could also say
25:05
Stallone script but they just don't approach these movies like this anymore there's something very special very
25:12
unique about first blood when I was younger I probably remembered ramble First Blood Part Two I think I
25:18
remembered that one the most for many years and then it wasn't until I got a little bit older late teens early
25:24
adulthood when watching First Blood I recognized boy this isn't isn't quotequote just an action film or not as
25:32
action as part two but this is a great film when I spoke to David we kind of
25:37
came to the conclusion that Rambo 2 is the Rambo that everybody knows that's
25:43
the Rambo that became an icon it's like Rocky 3 and four in some way yeah exactly the parallels are impossible to
25:49
avoid people that discount Rambo it's the same people that Discount Rocky
25:54
Rocky and first blood are are special movies respective franchises have been looked
26:01
at in a certain light because of the movies that came after them no Rocky won best picture yeah I think Stallone
26:08
should have won an Oscar for First Blood I think he should have been nominated I think he should have won I agree there's something about that nonspeaking acting
26:15
and the the physical acting that is nothing to S at physical acting is a real thing and we're going to talk about
26:20
those beats as we go through the film in in this season season one where we cover First Blood I me we're going to hit on
26:25
production stuff as we go through the series 2 I don't want to do old certain one episode I want to kind of hit some beats with other people yeah so based on
26:32
the novel by David morale again check out the interview I did with Mr morale I am going to try to reach out to Mariel's
26:37
team to see if he'll be willing to talk I think his job as a producer basically him getting this film financ was a huge
26:44
part of the success both for Mr morale career one other name I want to mention
26:50
before we start watching things and I think you hear him before anything else
26:55
and that's Jerry Goldsmith and the amazing score he did for this movie it's
27:01
the paralleled paths that Rocky and Rambo have taken but I mean Jerry Goldsmith score is just as important and
27:08
Powerful as Bill K's score was for Rocky both Bill K's Going the Distance with
27:14
the name of my Rocky podcast and and of course Jerry gold smith it's a long road composition is a named for this so I
27:21
just kind of found that interesed that happened that way but yeah go ahead the fact that the themes and the motifs that Goldsmith created he scored two and
27:28
three and then Brian Tyler when he picked up on part four he used a lot of
27:34
those themes and those motifs it's like the Bond theme it's not something that you can you have to recognize it right
27:41
yeah no I totally agree the first Blood score Jerry's uh score is in theme music
27:46
is just amazing in fact we're going to get into it pretty shortly right now as we cut to the movie itself and we're
27:51
going to hear Jerry G's theme what is interesting about the beginning of this film is how peaceful it is how quiet it
27:59
is and it really is the Calm before the storm I love that acoustic work
28:04
[Music]
28:16
there are you singing along tell me you're singing along in your head we're all singing the
28:23
song when they drew first blood there's a really good special edition of this
28:29
soundtrack that was released that you can probably still find
28:35
online I just love the acoustic guitar yeah it's a unique approach now I should
28:42
have gone back just a little bit here we got the first blood lettering I really love the lettering of the first blood it's got the red with the white outline
28:49
yeah that font is great so what we have here folks we have the opening sequence here of first blood is hit the screen
28:54
and of course actually before First Blood you got the big Sylvester Stallone in First Blood we would be remissive if
29:01
we didn't say the huge movies that Rocky one and two were before the coming out of this film that without Stallone's
29:06
interest in the script that was a huge part that made the movie of course what it was and its production to gold
29:12
greenlet was of course sly sign on saying yeah I'll do this yeah oh yeah absolutely uh so this movie cost 1415
29:20
million to make in 1982 wow that's it that's amazing that seems like a risky
29:26
budget in 1981 today's money so this film was green lit today today saying here's $42 million to make a film that's
29:33
you know for an independent film that has no CGI let's say some very small set pieces all in the force yeah I guess
29:39
it's kind of a healthy budget towards the star director composer and budget
29:45
enough where you're nearing half a million maybe where you're like okay we better make some money and money it made so it made 156 million 82 which in
29:52
today's money that's a $434 million box office hit on a $40 million budget so it
29:59
made a hundred times its money back yeah that's Global right that's Global and it was the number one selling movie in
30:08
China until 2018 oh wow and then some Marvel movie probably the title I think it was end
30:14
game end game was 2018 yeah yeah is that amazing it is it sold the most tickets
30:19
ever in China alone I I find that incredible every time I see the word China I hear Trump's China don't you I
30:26
hate he's ruined China for you or he's made it more fun I think he's made it more fun for me back to the film so we
30:33
got Richard kren's name has come up and we see Rambo walking down this gravel
30:39
driveway Brian Den yeah Brian Den's there now it says
30:44
Bill mckin and Jack stared I forgot to see who those guys were they're probably the other cops the older cops because
30:51
then we've got the redhaired guy from mypd Blue Jack St starett or stet I
30:57
don't know how to pronounce guy with the mustache right wants to shave him go yeah now here's the interesting thing I
31:02
this might be fun to talk about right now and I'll mention again when I get to his episode when G's introduced on screen but G was killed in the jail he
31:10
was the first death yeah ramble slid his stomach open with a razor with the Razer knife isn't that amazing yeah yeah and
31:17
again that's a change Stallone had to make in order you know have people be on board with him yeah we're going to see
31:22
the other two credits now for the guy from Miami Vice Michael Talbot yeah you remember uh Rico and tubs they had the
31:28
two other cops zch and zitto oh I totally forgot Michael talit was zch
31:35
that is crazy he's 67 now I think what we'll do though Craig is when we get to the actual characters on screen we'll
31:41
kind of hit their Beat hit their beats but yeah but those are the names and the rest of the names I'd have to Google anyway but when we get to the characters
31:47
I can't remember the redhaired guy's name that's David cruso David cruso David
31:52
cruso Michael talit before I remember David Caruso that's ridiculous but David
31:58
he went on to great Fame of course with CSI Miami where in every episode he' take off his glasses isn't that how yeah
32:04
he was like a meme he was one of the first memes probably taking off the sunglasses there he is David cruo yeah
32:10
right underneath elf elf humph okay so we see uh Rambo walking
32:17
down the driveway he's wearing that Army veteran type jacket the book he also carried a sleeping roll with a with a
32:23
rope so they kept that as well now this whole sequence here what we're going to watch Craig did not happen in the book
32:29
at all again this is 10 years later I think we were starting to see The Fallout they were starting to have
32:34
discussions about agent orange and what it had done to some of the soldiers coming home and it's alluded to here
32:40
that the cancer that he gets is because of chemicals he was exposed to while in
32:46
Vietnam and that's the question I maybe I have for you now we know it's interesting the book took place or was
32:51
published in 72 and the war was still on for another 3 years after the book was published but this film comes out in '
32:57
82 which is about what 78 years after the conflict ended officially still fresh in the memories of Americans but
33:03
it could make sense that is this one of those things where we are watching the events of 82 here and not the events of
33:09
72 in the film is that how you're understanding it yeah and I know our buddy Matt from Rambo Mania or whatever
33:16
his show is called now has talked about the timeline of Rambo before I think he
33:21
falls on the side of it is the 70s but I've always taken this as the movie
33:27
takes place in the year it was made yes there's no information well aside from
33:32
Stallone's age to indicate that because if it did take place in 72 Stallone
33:38
would have been younger because what Stallone was he's 36 in this film yeah so that kind of makes more sense for his
33:44
age he looks 36 which is he looks great he's in great shape but that would make more sense that the conflict ended 10
33:50
years previously let's say so he was 26 when the conflict was over that kind of makes sense he was you know 5 years in the Vietnam War survives the war and
33:57
he's still wandering the roadway so to speak you know 78 years later and he's 36 now in the film I think timeline wise
34:04
makes sense and I don't think it was uncommon for people to still wear their fatigues or jackets from the war even in
34:10
the early ' 80s well that was his identity that's all he had right the reason why he's on this property if you
34:15
look at his face here Craig as he's walking down the driveway he looks content and very happy wouldn't you say yeah I think there's going to be a shot
34:21
in a couple of seconds where he's sort of overlooking the property and they do a a shot on him where it's a look of
34:27
hope I think he's excited to meet his friend who he's going to learn in in a few short seconds is dead and that's
34:34
what really is the first thing that triggers him but it's heartbreaking almost to see the look on his face and
34:40
the Hope in his face and watching this movie now and knowing what happens feeling bad knowing what he's about to
34:47
hear and experience this is a great shot here he's going down it's a great camera shot
34:53
choice where he's walking down the driveway you hear laughter of children or whatever beautiful Lake say what you
34:59
want about the poor demise of delmare his widow's got a great property
35:06
y yeah I think it's coming here's the shot oh look at that shot there what a gorgeous shot not a shot you saw on VHS
35:13
you you saw basically Stallone in his bag oh because the widescreen abilities
35:19
yeah yeah good point so he's looking at the kids yeah look at that that's the shot right there
35:24
he sees children playing he's happy it's kind of heartbreaking man I mean when's the next time he made you
35:31
laugh in the films or made you smile in the Rambo Series yeah God I don't I don't know if he does well yeah in
35:38
ramble 3 when he tells that Afghani Soldier but the light it turns blue oh right yeah yeah ramble 3 I you I can't
35:46
wait to talk about ramble 3 but ramble 3 is it's the comedy edition of the ramble franchise It's the Last Crusade of the r
35:53
franchise so they got five kids e five kids
36:00
playing there Andrew llo believe he had a pretty long career too the uh the
36:05
cinematographer oh probably yeah based on the novel by David Morell I don't know if you heard that he goes talking
36:11
to the kids can you tell me if dalmar lives here I never noticed that before I just listen to my earphones there he goes can you tell me if Delmar lives
36:18
here that's a good point Donald says the amount of kids indicates that it's
36:24
probably 10 years later oh yeah good point yeah there you go good thinking yep dmar was
36:30
busy pumping out those kids before his cancer oh there's a guy hanging clothes with her there I never noticed that
36:36
before yeah did you I did not what in the world is this like Mandela effect am
36:42
I going crazy CG let's see if they show him again I mean he could be one of the
36:47
well no we already saw all the kids right maybe there's more than five kids he could have had a son before he
36:53
went off to war and then that kid's older now well I don't know who this gentleman is is here uh boy this guy
36:59
moved in awfully quick when delmare died she's got needs man come on I've never seen that guy before
37:07
excuse me can you tell me this where Delmar Barry lives oh
37:14
sorry okay you have to keep in mind people this we're over analyzing it too much just a very tall teenage girl
37:21
they've got about five or six kids for sure so the teenager 11 or 12-year-old she's as tall as the mom that just threw
37:26
me off there my apologies okay that makes more sense so she goes he's not here go on inside baby oh he's a friend
37:34
of mine as a matter of fact he wrote this address down right
37:40
here there you can see that's delm Mo's writing I'm sure had a hard time finding
37:47
this place that's his writing like I said he's a friend uh my name is John
37:53
Rambo we served on the same team together in N I don't know if you ever talked about me i' I've got a
38:00
picture of us together somewhere junk in your
38:07
pocket you know Sly what a great job he does here of just being quiet and humble
38:14
a little bit awkward he's sensing this woman doesn't maybe she doesn't trust me
38:19
maybe she's doesn't want to tell me we Dum or lives you know maybe he doesn't live here anymore but obviously Rambo wants to get information but the way he
38:28
says you know I've got a picture of us together and you can see this is his handwriting she's like I know what his handwriting looks like and but just how
38:34
he's got all this stuff that both the Rocky and Rambo characters both like to carry pictures in their pocket yeah and
38:40
show people here it is here it is that's me
38:45
that's uh Dan fors and Westmore Bronson Ortega and there's Delmore right in the
38:51
back they had to put him in the back cuz he's so big if he didn't they all the whole picture look how big he is dma's
38:56
gone what time will he be back he died what
39:03
died last summer died how cancer brought it back from n there you
39:11
go cancer brought it back from n did they use that orange agent is that what was that the war agent orange yeah I
39:17
believe Jessie Ventura he claimed to have suffered from a lot of effects of Agent Orange it affected his lungs and
39:24
he blamed a lot of health issues that he had on Agent Orange oh really yeah that unfortunate again I love sly's I'm going
39:31
to say a lot throughout this series but his acting at least this season at least season one his acting here is just so
39:38
great of just what he died is this the way he is and his how his face changes and this is Peak Sly right I mean chisle
39:45
jaw just features cut from yeah great hair old regular
39:52
eyebrows this is you know there's no rug here you know this is real hair I mean he he's kind of HFF in the front a
39:58
little bit to cover the receding but it's it's there though it's it's all there mhm all that orange stuff that
40:03
spread it around there you go cut him down to nothing I could lift him off the sheep
40:11
can we just say how great this actress is playing this very bit role she just carries this opening scene yeah I never
40:17
got her name cuz I would be interested to see just kind of you know where they grabbed her from yeah she might have just been a local you know this was
40:23
filmed in Canada what what are you talking I'm saying she might have just been been a local actress in British
40:29
Columbia you know are you you don't get my I'm actually not even trying to be funny there are no
40:34
black people in no black people 1982 all right I'm I'm actually pulling
40:40
up uh on IMDb IMDb right yeah sure please do she's not listed on
40:46
IMDb wow really I mean she's a big speaking part I know that is odd maybe
40:52
IMDb servers are in British Columbia Mrs bar all right thankfully
40:58
there's a rambo. fandom okay she is played it's not made clear as to whether
41:04
or not she is delmar's wife or mother that's a good point because if he's young maybe that was his family he was
41:11
the oldest one that left for war so he was the senior child but I think we're L
41:16
to believe that's his spouse somebody here on rambo. fandom is saying I've been trying to look her up and see who
41:22
she is she's not even in the ending credits so
41:27
that is insane we might we might have to solve a mystery here this is a challenge to all my listeners right now I need you
41:34
guys I need to techic work done right now because Ryan has to get her on this podcast hopefully agent orange hasn't
41:40
taken her yet I never thought about that I you
41:46
didn't see a female name in the opening credits and I don't recall the end credits of this movie and I haven't
41:52
really studied them too well might be a mystery in place that's insane that's
41:57
actually crazy this is fun okay if you have the answers hit me up on my email is Rambler podcast gmail.com or find me
42:05
it's a long road the ramble series podcast on Twitter look how beautiful that is that's beautiful British Columbia my friend in fact our license
42:11
plates that's what they says on license plates beautiful British Columbia it's just gorgeous beautiful Province best
42:16
province in Canada now this is supposed to be Washington State though in in the movie
42:22
I believe so Pacific Northwest yeah yeah so he hands her the picture that's a great gesture it's twofold uh we find
42:30
out later that dalmar was the last of the survivors from his platoon or his
42:35
troop and so it's him letting go yes exactly so he's given the picture and he's basically like I'm not holding on
42:41
to this anymore everyone's gone I'm the last one that survivors guilt she's the Widow I believe that's why I believe
42:46
she's the Widow you know it could be the mother but the age doesn't make sense I would mean maybe Delmore joined at 17 or
42:53
or 18 which is possible yeah but the kids that has right now are too young
42:58
that's why I think it's the wife but what yeah and his walk back slow
43:05
sauntered and he throws the uh the letter that dalmar read him into the fire pit
43:14
there man that is British Columbia if I ever seen it oh boy so he's walking on
43:20
the street the highway there his hands are cold he's breathing on them he's not hitchhiking but he's he is looking at
43:25
some cars as they as they pass by maybe he's thinking about hitchhiking but I haven't seen him put his THB out yet
43:31
yeah that's a good point Donald Rambo is not [Music]
43:37
sentimental now here we have great sequence here of him underneath the sign says gateway to Holiday land welcome to
43:43
hope so again this is the real that's really in Hope British Columbia I don't know if that's there right now but
43:48
that's a nice little sze of History like that's what hope British Columbia looks like or looked like uh again in 1982 so
43:57
nice little film history and it's nice for me cuz you know people who are from Philly or they watch movies in New York
44:02
or you in Las Vegas you get to say hey that's why that's in my area so for me this is my movie you know where I can
44:07
say this is my stomping grounds this is uh I wasn't raised in Hope but I've been through BC so much as a province that
44:13
been through hope PC many times and yeah it's just kind of cool to see this is my homeland so to speak for this film yeah
44:20
now we're going to stop it because the next sequence of course is uh he runs
44:25
into Mr sheriff teasel and Mr Doug rberg from the rocky Min podcast he and I will be covering that first introduction
44:30
between sheriff teasel and Rambo lucky guy you're the inaugural though you're the poda you came on the first episode
44:37
and I've told this to Doug for Rocky minute I fear no minute and the same
44:43
holds true for the Rambo Series so anytime you need me Ryan scheduling
44:49
permitted it does help that we're both in the same time zone I'm there man I'm not afraid to talk any scene in any of
44:55
the any of the movies and told I'll take the scenes in the Rocky movies nobody else wants and I'll do the same here that's
45:02
awesome this movie has a great setup and I think that scene it's not in the book but I think it's an important scene to
45:08
sort of set up the character where he's at mentally tells a lot of story very
45:14
little dialogue tells a lot of story yes I totally agree Craig and thank you so much for coming on so I guess that's it
45:20
Craig the first episode is over nothing is over Ryan you don't just turn it off
45:29
[Music]

First Blood (Episode 1) - Kicking Off the Rambo Journey
Broadcast by