I’m having a very Sylvester Stallone-ified 2026 so far.

First, there was my rush of Rocky movies that I watched earlier this year. Then there was my recent rewatch of Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2, which I will be covering on the 8/12/26 episode of the Stew World Order podcast. I actually always forget Stallone is in that, his role is so minor and inconsequential. But there he is!

And then, today, as I was searching through my streamers for something to watch, I came across First Blood. The weird thing is, I definitely remember having seen Rambo II and Rambo III as a small child in the 1980’s (not that I could remember enough to tell you anything about them), but I’m positive that, even as a youth, I have never seen First Blood.

So here I am, having seen five movies starring Stallone so far this year, and having to see his handsome mug as my most watched actor of 2026 every time I open my Letterboxd statistics.

(Well, he’s tied with Ethan Hawke, actually)

I have heard enough over the years to know that First Blood is not like the other Rambo movies of my youth. While in those affairs, Rambo is an unstoppable killing machine sent into war to obliterate the opposition, the first movie tells a more dramatic tale of a Vietnam veteran dealing with life back home after the war. I was not sure what, if any, action to expect from this outing.

In today’s movie, Stallone stars as John Rambo, the aforementioned vet visiting the Pacific Northwest to drop in on one of his enlistment buddies. When he makes it to the home of his compadre, he finds out that cancer from Agent Orange has killed him. With no further agenda, a despondent Rambo wanders the local area.

He is eventually picked up by the sheriff who wants the apparent drifter out of his town on the double. He drives Rambo to the town limits and is incensed when he looks in his mirror and sees the drifter has simply turned back around.

At this apparent lack of respect, the sheriff hauls Rambo into the station on charges of vagrancy. This turns out to be a life-changing mistake for all involved.

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ Brian Dennehy does a really good job as Sheriff Will Teasle. He is an absolute asshole, but he does, at times, feel like he’s doing his best at his job in law enforcement, and he’s certainly not the worst cop in the picture. He’s just blinded by prejudice and pride. That said, he does try to bring Rambo in alive and try to keep the men under his orders in line. And when everyone thinks Rambo is dead mid-movie, Dennehy presents a feeling like Will is at least mildly remorseful. He’s absolutely an antagonist, and one you want to see defeated, but there are layers to him, and that’s thanks for Dennehy’s performance.

+ Director Ted Kotcheff has a superb production in this one. It’s all well-shot and well lit to show what Rambo is going through as he escapes and survives in the wild before mounting his counter-offensive on the little town of Hope. I did particularly like that lighting, as it is bright enough to be seen but also dark enough to set the mood and establish the situations in which Rambo finds himself.

The drama is all built up well through what we see and how we see it, based on the angles used and the tension and sound built around scenes. The actors all feel like fleshed-out characters, and I’m sure that is in no small part thanks to Kotcheff’s hard work getting the most out of them.

– The movie establishes very early on that John is tormented by Vietnam flashbacks and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. We see him having visions of his torture in ‘Nam when the police are harassing him in Hope. But that’s the end of that. If these rushes of memories had carried on throughout the movie, we could have seen even more of what made Rambo go from Congressional Medal Of Honor awardee to vagrant.

I honestly feel like there just isn’t enough Rambo in this film; he barely has any dialogue, and just somewhat more screentime. For a movie in the “Rambo” franchise, there is just too little of the character himself (and I know this was not intended as a franchise, but still…). The film is more set on showing Will and military liaison Trautman than it is on working the audience into Rambo’s past, and that feels like a detriment.

– When you get to the end of First Blood, and you see John have his breakdown in the police station, it becomes all the wilder what this franchise would become in the 1980’s. Now, I haven’t seen Rambo II or Rambo III since I was a child, but I don’t remember there being any real depth to the titular character. Maybe I’ll rewatch them someday and see, but those movies were more in love with refighting Vietnam on the big screen than they were with dealing with the ramifications of war like this first outing was. 

It’s not really a Down for THIS movie, but it’s something that is impossible to not consider as you watch this in an era where the other Rambo flicks exist.

OVERALL

First Blood is a potent story of a post-war life for a Vietnam veteran hero. While not as high of quality as the initial Rocky movie, it still measures solid storytelling and drama with great action… action I wasn’t really expecting because all I knew is that this movie was not indicative of its sequels. I was overall pleasantly surprised by all aspects of this one.