Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Sylvester Stallone | ... | Rambo | |
Richard Crenna | ... | Trautman | |
Brian Dennehy | ... | Teasle | |
Bill McKinney | ... | Kern | |
Jack Starrett | ... | Galt | |
Michael Talbott | ... | Balford | |
Chris Mulkey | ... | Ward | |
John McLiam | ... | Orval | |
Alf Humphreys | ... | Lester | |
David Caruso | ... | Mitch | |
David L. Crowley | ... | Shingleton (as David Crowley) | |
Don MacKay | ... | Preston (as Don Mackay) | |
Charles A. Tamburro | ... | Pilot (as Chuck Tamburro) | |
David Petersen | ... | Trooper | |
Craig Huston | ... | Radio Operator (as Craig Wright Huston) |
John J. Rambo is a former United States Special Forces soldier who fought in Vietnam and won the Congressional Medal of Honor, but his time in Vietnam still haunts him. As he came to Hope, Washington to visit a friend, he was guided out of town by the Sheriff William Teasel who insults Rambo, but what Teasel does not know that his insult angered Rambo to the point where Rambo became violent and was arrested. As he was at the county jail being cleaned, he escapes and goes on a rampage through the forest to try to escape from the sheriffs who want to kill him. Then, as Rambo's commanding officer, Colonel Samuel Trautman tries to save both the Sheriff's department and Rambo before the situation gets out of hand. Written by John Wiggins
This is a truly unique movie that quickly became obscured due to the later sequels. It tells the story of a man who survived one hell, only to return home despised and forsaken because of it. There was a time when America didn't quite know what to think of the lost war, and so it was forgotten - and the men who came out of it as well. Rambo finds he cannot survive this war, because it is still going on within him.
Finally, pushed too far by a small town sheriff, Rambo returns to the only thing he can relate to. War. Yet it is a war he almost mercifully wages on the macho egotistical deputies and week end warriors that pursue. To potentially misquote Rambo :
"I coulda killed them all, I could have killed you. In town you're the law, out here it's me. Let it go..."