First Blood – Page 12 – Craig Zablo's StalloneZone

Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s All-Time Best Performances

Craig / April 13, 2020April 11, 2020 / 2020, Celebs, Cobra, Cop Land, First Blood, FIST, Get Carter, Nighthawks, Rambo

Ben Sherlock at ScreenRant posted his choices for Sylvester Stallone Vs Arnold Schwarzenegger: Each Actor’s 5 Best Performances. I thought I’d compare Sherlock’s Top 5 for Sly and Arnold to mine (using just his five best) and then what I’d include from all of each actor’s filmography.

First up: Sherlock’s choices and both of our ratings…

Sherlock’ Sly Picks	Zablo’s Sly Picks	Sherlock’s Arnold Picks	Zablo’s Arnold Picks
5. John Rambo In First Blood	5. Lt. Marion Cobretti In Cobra	5. Wade Vogel In Maggie	5. Wade Vogel In Maggie
4. Johnny D. Kovak In F.I.S.T.	4. John Rambo In First Blood	4. Sheriff Ray Owens In The Last Stand	4. Sheriff Ray Owens In The Last Stand
3. Lt. Marion Cobretti In Cobra	3. Johnny D. Kovak In F.I.S.T.	3. Dutch In Predator	3. Doug Quaid In Total Recall
2. Sheriff Freddy Heflin In Cop Land	2. Sheriff Freddy Heflin In Cop Land	2. Doug Quaid In Total Recall	2. Dutch In Predator
1. Rocky Balboa In Rocky	1. Rocky Balboa In Rocky	1. The T-800 In The Terminator	1. The T-800 In The Terminator

Now what I would’ve included from each actor’s filmography.

Zablo’s Sly All Films	Zablo’s Arnold All Films
5. Deke DaSilva in Nighthawks	5. Harry Trasker in True Lies
4. John Rambo In First Blood	4. John Matrix in Commando
3. Sheriff Freddy Heflin In Cop Land	3. John ‘Breacher’ Wharton in Sabotage
2. Jack Carter in Get Carter	2. Dutch In Predator
1. Rocky Balboa in Rocky	1. The T-800 In The Terminator

How About Behind-the-Scenes Facts from the “Rambo” Movies?

Craig / April 4, 2020March 30, 2020 / 2020, Celebs, First Blood, Rambo, Rambo 5, Rambo II, Rambo III, Rambo IV

Ben Sherlock, at ScreenRant, posted They Drew First Blood: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Rambo Movies. Before you click over, here are three of my favorite facts and my comments on each…

The Fifth Movie Had A Ton Of Unused Scripts.
…A script called Rambo 5: Savage Hunt was a horror movie in which Rambo led a Special Forces team into the Arctic Circle to track down a flesh-eating mutant creature.

…Another script called Rambo 5: Last Stand pitted Rambo against a band of meth dealers who were terrorizing a small town. There were also a few drafts about Rambo saving a kidnapped girl from a Mexican cartel before the final script was written.

(The Rambo 5: Savage Hunt script was based on James Byron Huggins’ Hunter novel. While this would have made an interesting Rambo movie, it might have been too much of a genre change. I hope that someday Sly will turn Hunter into the film it deserves. Rambo 5: Last Stand sounds a lot like Arnold’s Last Stand movie. – Craig)

Dolph Lundgren Was Initially Cast As The Villain In First Blood Part II. The role of Russian Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Podovsky, the only villain in Rambo: First Blood Part II with any lines in English, was originally offered to Dolph Lundgren. Lundgren even accepted the part and signed a contract.

(I did not know this. – Craig)

…Burmese Freedom Fighters even adopted some dialogue from the movie to use as battle cries. In particular, they were known to say, “Live for nothing, or die for something.” When he heard about this, Sylvester Stallone said, “That, to me, is one of the proudest moments I’ve ever had in film.”

(And we thought people only quoted Rocky for inspiration! – Craig)

First Blood: Differences Between the Book & Movie!

Craig / March 31, 2020April 1, 2020 / 2020, First Blood

Phillip Etemesi at ScreenRant posted an article that should appeal to a lot of folks who check in here. First Blood: 10 Differences Between The Movie & The Book takes a look at, well you read the title. Here are three of my favorite differences and my comments on each…

Escape From Jail.
In the film, the deputy sheriff decides to beat him up… The officers keep on brutalizing him… one of them comes with a razor to shave hi(m), it triggers memories of his torture in a POW camp in Vietnam. He thus fights his way out of the station while still clothes… No one dies in the process.

In the book, Rambo is not abused. He is simply locked in a cell. When Teasle shows up to cut his hair, he begins to panic. And when the deputy comes with another straight razor, he loses his mind completely. He takes the razor and slices through the deputy’s abdomen before escaping while naked. He steals a motorcycle and manages to hide from the police for the night after a good samaritan offers him shelter.

(One of the reasons that First Blood was hard to get made as a movie is because Rambo in the book killed police officers and wasn’t as sympathetic or heroic as he ultimately became in the movie. – Craig)

Guerilla Tactics
In the book…
Rambo in the novel doesn’t value the lives of law enforcement officers. He kills most of them together with their dogs before cornering Teasle and giving him a warning.
In the movie…
Rambo takes out the entire town’s police force by himself. Using guerilla tactics, he attacks one at a time until they are all wounded. It’s important to note that he only wounds the officers in the movie and doesn’t kill them.

(Again, the book made it harder for audiences to sympathize or empathize with Rambo. Killing a dog in a movie is perhaps the ultimate downer. – Craig)

Fleeing From The Cave
In Morell’s book,
Rambo keeps up with his murderous ways and goes on to kill plenty of the members of the state police who had been brought in after he decimated the local police. A couple of civilians and national guard members also ned up being casualties.
In the movie,
Rambo damages plenty of property in the town but doesn’t kill anyone.

(First Blood had been floating around Hollywood for years before Sly become attached. No one prior was able to get a handle on the character. Under Sly, Rambo became more heroic, sympathetic and less of a killer… at least until Last Blood. – Craig)

If you’ve read this far I encourage you to click over to get the full story!

“Rocky” vs “First Blood” in Joblo’s Face/Off!

Craig / January 14, 2020January 14, 2020 / 2020, First Blood, Rocky

Joblo.com brings Rocky and First Blood to their Face/Off feature where they rate each movie in several categories and determine a winner. Do you agree with their outcome?

Sylvester Stallone’s two most popular cinematic characters, Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, debuted in between 1976 (Rocky) and 1982 (First Blood) and went on to generate a number of sequels (and even spinoffs in Rocky’s case with the Creed films) that have lasted for decades. But, one of the most common debates is which was the best of the original iterations of these characters, Rocky or First Blood?

In this series we explore the pros and cons of each, while taking a look at things like box office, awards accolades, most-quotable lines, supporting cast and so much more to determine which film is the winner in the never-ending debate when two movies Face/Off!

Edited by Damion Damaske

Sly and the Family Stallone News for the Week

Craig / November 24, 2019November 24, 2019 / 2019, Balboa Productions, Celebs, Cobra, Escape Plan 2, Escape Plan 3, First Blood, Rambo III, Rambo: Last Blood, Rhinestone, Sly's Art

Sly and the Family Stallone News for the Week:

Sly Stallone’s Official Instagram: Thank you for being SO supportive of my artwork…
25YearsLaterSite: “God Won’t Get You” for Actually Liking 1984’s Rhinestone…
WordBoxingNews: EXCLUSIVE: Sergio Mora previews Sylvester Stallone and DAZN’s…
ScreenRant: Arnold vs Sly: Schwarzenegger & Stallone Have Been Feuding Since The 1980s…
411Mania: The Gratuitous B-Movie Column: Escape Plan 2: Hades…
Critical Hit: Nothing is over! Rambo lives again as a sixth-scale action figure from ThreeZero…
THN: The ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ Home Release Details In Full…
UPROXX: Live Riff Of Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Cobra’…
BloodyElbow: Video: Sylvester Stallone produces Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz documentary…
Daily Mail: Sly Stallone enjoys reunion with Dolph Lundgren at boxing documentary premiere…
NYFights: DAZN Rolls Out Stallone Produced Doc Look At Ruiz Win Over AJ…
411Mania: The Gratuitous B-Movie Column: Escape Plan: The Extractors…

“Rambo” Trivia

Craig / October 7, 2019October 7, 2019 / 2019, First Blood, Rambo

Thanks to Military.com today we have 8 Even More Incredible Facts About ‘Rambo’. Check out three of my favorites before clicking over to all eight.

4. Stallone hated the first cut of First Blood.
The first time Stallone saw the edit for “First Blood,” he hated it. It was three and a half hours long, and Rambo’s dialogue was terrible. At first, Stallone wanted to buy the film so he could burn it. Instead of that, he re-cut the film to 93 minutes with most of his dialogue removed, which is what you see when you watch it today.

5. Without ‘Rambo’ there would be no ‘Predator’
When Rocky Balboa took on Ivan Drago in “Rocky IV,” no one in Hollywood was quite sure who Rocky’s next opponent could possibly be. The joke was made that Rocky would have to fight some kind of Alien in “Rocky V.” After a while, Screenwriters Jim and John Thomas began to take the idea seriously and wrote a Rocky-Rambo Hybrid movie that we call “Predator.”

3. Rambo wasn’t a killer – originally.
John Rambo never actually kills anyone in “First Blood.” There is only one death in the entire movie, and that happened as an accident when an overzealous cop falls from a helicopter while shooting at Rambo. (This refers to the movie “First Blood” not the novel on which the film was based. – Craig)

In subsequent movies, that all changes of course. Rambo’s body count is 76 in “First Blood: Part II,” and 132 in “Rambo III.” In “Rambo,” he appears to kill the entire Burmese Army with one .50-cal.