"first blood" was a semi-serious film about the trauma one suffers in combat, even when you are the one doing the killing, and about the alienation that Vietnam

"first blood" was a semi-serious film about the trauma one suffers in combat, even when you are the one doing the killing, and about the alienation that Vietnam vets felt when returning to a population who blamed them for the war and generally treated them like used-up human garbage. I mean, Stallone really hammed his way through in a way that wasn't really appropriate, if you ask me, for the tone that I got from David Morrel's book, but he did his best. The sequels were pure '80s action movie, and can be enjoyed (or not) on that basis... but what I'm saying is that 'first blood' stands on it's own as a (perhaps clumsy) piece of protest art; It really makes the "go usa" aspect of the third installment seem really out of place, and from an artistic perspective, the "Rambo" would be taken rather more seriously if it ended at 'first blood' I still haven't seen the fourth installment.