Lost in Adaptation: First Blood

The Dom compares the 1972 novel First Blood with its 1982 film adaptation.

Intro
The Dom: Hello, my Beautiful Watchers; and welcome back to Lost in Adaptation, the show dedicated to discussing the differences between films and the books they were based on. Now, don't get me wrong, I had a fine time reading Ella Enchanted; but *gosh*, it feels good to sink my teeth into a testosterone-fueled explosion-fest where basic *artillery* weapons are utilized as *handguns* and biceps the size of Christmas *turkeys* are used to choke one's enemies into submission. This is First Blood.

Poll
People Asked: 106

Saw the Film: 51

Read the Book: 5

Were Unaware of the Book Until Now: 31

The Dom: First Blood was published in 1972 by then-newbie author David Morrell. Apparently, the inception for the story came when he watched two news articles back to back: one showing footage of a firefight in Vietnam, and the other showing conflicts between rioters and the National Guard in American cities. Realizing that if he'd had the sound off, he might not have realized that the two clips were not of the same battle, he was inspired to write a book about what would happen if a U.S. soldier inadvertently brought a war *home* with him.

Here are my thoughts on said book. Fun fact: Rambo was named after a type of *apple* that Mrs. Morrell bought her husband while he was writing the book -- I, uhhh...just thought I'd share that. I would class First Blood as possibly not for everyone, but I personally enjoyed it immensely. Morrell had apparently been given quite a lot of advice on writing by his friend Philip Klass, a.k.a. William Tenn; and I think it resulted in his first novel being *remarkably* well-written and mostly absent of the rookie mistakes made by first-time writers. I can't really go into the details of what I liked about it *now* without spoiling surprises I want to spring on you *later* -- suffice to say, then, that I am a big fan of moral ambiguity *if* it's utilized in a clever way. It's kind of a shame there weren't any sequels to the book, like there were to the film, and definitely never will be for reasons that will become *very clear* shortly.

And now, let's talk about the film. I mean...what is there to say about First Blood the movie? It's an '80s action film starring Sylvester Stallone; that *kinda* tells you all you need to know about it. I could be wrong, as action films are not exactly my specialty; but from what I can see, First Blood is not particularly famous for being a great film in its own right -- more it's primarily remembered for being the *launch* of the Rambo *franchise* and, more importantly, one of the pinnacle movies that fueled Sylvester Stallone's rise to stardom. As I mentioned there was only one book, you should've guessed that the confusingly-named sequels -- Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo Part III, and Rambo (text appears reading "I got all the names wrong. I did mention they were confusing.") -- have no connection to David Morrell; just like Die Hard and (sighs) The Princess Diaries -- gods, that's a weird list -- uhhhh, they apparently decided that Rambo was just too fun a character to confine to just one film and started to *use* him in original screenplays. These days, the name "Rambo" is pretty much synonymous with wanton destruction and mayhem; the unstoppable war machine that he developed into in *later* films became the far more definitive version of him than his more...uhhh, let's say "merciful" portrayal in the first film -- I'm not actually upset about this at all, again for reasons that will become very clear shortly.

There were apparently *ten* years and *18* different screenplays involved in the long life of the First Blood film adaptation, along with a *huge* list of actors considered for the role of Rambo -- delays were apparently due partly to a deepening dislike in the American populace for *anything* connected to the Vietnam War. As I've mentioned in reviews past, multiple scripts tend to be a *very* bad sign in regards to *any* hope that the end result will be accurate to the original book. Well, let's see if that's true here; let's talk adaptation.

Just a quick warning: this is going to be more of a "big picture" episode; I've had to let some of the details go so that I can talk about the ramifications of the larger changes.

What They Didn't Change
The Dom (V.O.): First Blood is one of many adaptations that *can* sound quite accurate to the book *if* you are very selective in regards to how you describe the general plot. For example, Rambo, a Green Beret Vietnam veteran with *severe* post-traumatic stress disorder is not long back from the war and has taken to living rough and traveling through the backcountry USA. He attempts to stop by a small town for a meal and a rest; but the local head of police -- a older man named Teasle -- doesn't want him stinking up the place, so drives him out and dumps him on the road, warning him not to return. Rambo decides to ignore his warnings, resulting in his arrest on...semi-trumped-up charges.

While being processed, the police accidentally set off a *terrible* traumatic flashback for Rambo, causing him to panic and fight his way out of the station and go on the run. The police try to track him down using dogs, but are no match for his badass war training and experience in jungle fighting; he takes out a helicopter, a sniper, and *everyone* following him, though he is wounded several times in the process. Receiving reinforcements from the state police and National Guard, Teasle is forced to try to figure out a new strategy. Colonel Trautman, Rambo's former commander, turns up to help and strongly advises them not to underestimate him.

Rambo is eventually cornered by all the men hunting him and has to escape through an abandoned mine. Once he makes it back to daylight, he hijacks a vehicle and returns to town, blowing up a gas station on the way to hinder pursuit. After causing a *hell* of a lot of property damage, Rambo is eventually surrounded in the town and comes face-to-face with both Teasle and Colonel Trautman.

In the next section, you'll see why everything I just mentioned is *somewhat* of misleading; but for now, let's talk about the details they adhered to from the book. Rambo's *insane* jump off the cliff face onto the tall trees is in the book and was *equally* unpleasant for him there; that Rambo had received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award for military service in the U.S. Army; the turning point for Rambo at the bottom of the cliff, where he decided to stop running and start fighting, which ended *so* very badly for his pursuers.

The Dom: There's a few more things scattered around; but the problem is that in each scene that they got something right, it was figuratively *surrounded* by a dozen things that they changed, so it's hard to count them in this category. So, instead, let's have a look at...

What They Changed
The Dom: There were two *huge* changes to the film that, very interestingly, don't affect the overall plot, but *radically* alter *everything* about the book's original message and the author's intentions for the characters. The first is how phenomenally different Teasle is as a person -- it's worth nothing that the book is split almost *evenly* between him and Rambo as perspective characters. In a commentary about his book, Morrell explained that he set out to write a story in which you are left, in its conclusion, unsure who was the *hero* and who was the *villain* OR if *both* leads were the hero and/or both the villain by the end. He specifically wanted to *avoid* writing Teasle as an angry redneck stereotype, a "big fish in a small pond" policeman who's wary of strangers simply because they are not from these parts. It is therefore both ironic and unfortunate that that is *exactly* what they made him in the film.

As you have almost certainly guessed from this, Teasle was a *much* more complex character in the book. Don't get me wrong, he was still a *massive* asshole; but you always knew exactly why he was doing the things he was doing, and he often *regretted* his part in creating the situation leading up to Rambo's manhunt. He also never attempts to lie about how Rambo had gotten the better of him in the book, fully admitting he had been *no match* for him in the woods and had run like *buggery* in a moment of panic. Teasle was probably harder on Rambo than he would have been usually because he was going through a nasty divorce and had recently had a huge fight with his adoptive father over nothing -- a stupid and unfair reason, I know; but remember, he never intended for things to get so out of hand. He just wanted Rambo out of his town because he was *convinced* he was going to start causing trouble.

Teasle was *also* a veteran and a war hero in the book, having fought in the *Korean* War and earning himself the Victoria Cross, which is apparently only second to the Medal of Honor. It's *possible* that if he'd known that Rambo was a soldier, too, he *might* have gone easier on him, although he does deny this to himself.

The other huge, huge, *huge* change is Rambo's methods for defending himself. In the film, he goes to great pains to ensure that he wounds all the policemen chasing him non-fatally; the only time he does kill anyone, you can see that it was either unintentional or his only option.

Heh heh heh...heh heh heh...heh heh, ha ha, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!! Nope! Nope, nope, nope, *nope*, nope, nope, *nope*, nope, nope. In the book, RAMBO...kills...EEEEEEEVERYBODY!!! It starts with the poor bastard trying to shave him in the jailhouse; Rambo takes the razor blade *from* him and *cuts* his belly wide open, spilling his guts all over the floor. Then, when the police are *stupid* enough to stand out in the open at the top of the cliff, he shoots almost *all* of their dogs and then kills two *humans*, including Orval the dog trainer -- who's actually quite important, so I'll come back to *him* later. He then circles back *around* the cliff and SLAUGHTERS all of them but Teasle one by one, either by shooting them as they try to escape or by sneaking up on them and *cutting* their *throats*. Teasle only escapes by *inches* as Rambo chases him for miles, but he manages to slip through a thicket of brambles while Rambo tried to loop around and ended up losing him. Rambo then goes on to kill *everyone* who crosses his path -- the reason he got cornered originally wasn't because he *spared* a kid; it was because he didn't get to the guy *quick* enough to kill him with his knife before he fired a shot off. At the end, he uses dynamite that he finds to blow up a large part of the town, including the police station that *still had* policemen in it!

In addition to both characters being kind of equally dickheads, they also *contribute* equally to the situation escalating like it did -- Rambo had far more opportunities to not provoke Teasle in the book. Unlike the film, where he only makes it about 30 feet back into town before getting arrested, originally, he came *all* the way back into town *twice*. The *first* time Teasle picks him up, he's actually quite polite as well as firm with him; the second time, he was *just* firm with him; and it was only on the *third* time that he completely lost his temper and arrested him. Rambo then *could've* gotten off with just a slap on the wrist; but he intentionally aggravated the justice of the peace, earning himself jail time.

Towards the middle of the story, he admits to himself that he really *wanted* to get into a fight because he missed the sense of *purpose* he had in the war. He also had *countless* opportunities to escape, but instead, chose to hunt down his former pursuers and kill them all. With all that in mind, even though Teasle did indeed draw the proverbial first blood, Rambo kind of has a much stronger claim on being the true bad guy of the story. Comparatively, Rambo is virtually *friendly* in the film, especially when he thought his friend was still alive at the beginning.

I must confess, I got a tad confused trying to figure out what Teasle's job was in the film. In the book, he's the chief of police, so *referred* to as "Chief" by most; however, he's clearly addressed as "Sheriff" in the film, which I'm given to understand is a completely different branch of law enforcement.

Rambo of the film being clean-shaven and having medium-length hair instead of the huge, unkempt beard and shoulder-length locks, like his book counterpart, is a *bigger* change than you might think -- and not just because it makes you wonder, "Why the fuck were the police trying to *shave* a guy with no *facial* hair?!" Rambo's wild-looking appearance was the primary reason for Teasle's and everyone else's instant dislike of him, as they all initially mistook him for a hippie. Rambo's appearance in the film isn't *overly* disheveled, making their immediate assumption that he was a drifter a bit more of a stretch. This is another one of the book's lost messages; there was a serious "don't judge a man by his looks" vibe to the original story.

Presumably, Book Rambo discarded his dog tags when he left the army, as he didn't have them *on* him when he was arrested. This matters because in the book, the police had no idea that he was a veteran until *after* he had wiped out over half of their group in the woods.

Apparently, making *Teasle* a douchebag wasn't sufficient for the film's desire to cement *Rambo* as the uncontested hero of the story; so the *rest* of the police force are given the complete asshole makeover as well. Art Galt in particular -- someone who was, for all appearances, a pretty decent guy in the book -- was made into a prisoner-beating, murderous *psychopath* whose death seems entirely deserved and not a little bit satisfying. Everyone else, with the possible exception of the young redhead, are just generally unpleasant all the way through, laughing at Rambo's suffering and making mean-spirited jokes while they hunt him. It's actually kind of unfortunate that *these* guys survived while their book originals, who were basically normal, nice people, were all UNMERCIFULLY SLAUGHTERED!

If you thought that Rambo running off into the freezing cold with just a tank top on was bad, you'll be *horrified* to hear that in the book, he was butt-ass *naked* when he escaped the police station. A completely irrelevant and minor change, but Rambo killed and ate an *owl* in the book, not a pig -- I don't know, I just thought I'd mention it.

Colonel Trautman *isn't* as radically changed as Teasle or Rambo, but he's not all that similar to his book original either. He originally didn't have any sort of *personal* connection to Rambo, being the commander of the Green Beret *compound* that Rambo was trained in, not his direct commander -- in fact, they had never met face-to-face in the book. He made his radio appeal to Rambo to *chill the fuck out* much later than in the film, *and* Rambo completely ignores him. I was beginning to think in the film that maybe he was just there to drone *on* and *on* about how awesome Rambo is.

While the National Guard was a tad inept in their ability to track Rambo in the book, they were made possibly a little *insultingly* stupid in the film -- it's kind of like the entire battalion was made up of rejected members of the Three Stooges. I also believe the location was changed, but I'm hesitant to go into too much detail here because of my track record of misunderstanding American geography. Slightly disappointingly, Rambo never got his hands on *anything* as big as an M60 in the book; he killed almost all of his victims with a hunting rifle.

The Dom: There is, in fact, a *third* major change that *does* affect the plot in all the ways the other two didn't; it concerns the ending. Now, you remember that I mentioned that there weren't any sequels to the book. Well, that's because at the end of the first one, Rambo is super-super-super-super-super-super-SUPER-DEAD!

The Dom (V.O.): Yep, Teasle actually managed to get the upper hand in their final duel for just a second *and* put a bullet in him. He figured out that Rambo would be so used to jungle fighting, he would never assume someone would just circle around and walk up behind him on the street. Rambo's extreme reflexes let him return the favor, resulting in them both being mortally wounded. A little bit later, they both drag themselves to the same spot, convinced that, as they *started* this together, they should *end* it together. Rambo tries to fire at Teasle and miss so that he would finish him off, but ends up hitting him by accident; so it falls to Colonel Trautman to put him out of his misery by *blowing* the top of his *head* off with a shotgun!

The Dom: I'm just gonna give you a second to process that. (makes a shocked face as text reading "RAMBO DIES AT THE END!" appears above him and dramatic music plays) Okay? Okay.

The Dom (V.O.): What's mildly amusing is that in the film, Teasle actually asks Trautman what he would do if he came face-to-face with Rambo again, hug him or blow his brains out. It turns out he did *both*, depending on the version of him. Interestingly, the film's ending, where Rambo makes that big speech about how shit America is to its veterans, then gets talked into surrendering, was *actually* a reshoot. In the original, more *depressing* ending, he basically commits suicide; so that would have been *slightly* closer to the book.

(shows a TV screen showing The Dom as Rambo murdering people in the street, as David Morrell and a studio executive -- both also played by The Dom -- watch)

Studio Executive: So, yeah, David, we're thinking of making a few minor changes to the, um...hero.

What They Left Out Altogether
The Dom (V.O.): One rather *odd* thing from the book they left out was Teasle developing what appeared to be some sort of psychic link with Rambo. After he barely escaped from him in the forest, he started dreaming about where he was and what he was doing, premonitions that turned out to be surprisingly accurate. *My* theory is that he was subconsciously figuring out Rambo's next move due to his newfound understanding of his methods, and it was manifesting itself like that because he was HIGH AS FUCK on all the painkillers he was taking. However, it's never really explained; so "magic" is left as a distinct possibility.

(shows Terrence and Rambo, played by The Dom)

Terrence: No, no, no. Rambo, it's (waving his wand) "wingardium leviosa".

Rambo: (waving a stick and speaking unintelligibly) Wingardium leviosa.

Terrence: Okay. Getting better.

Orval, while technically *in* the film, might as well have not been for all they cut out in regards to him. He was an old-time friend of Teasle's father and adopted him when his friend was killed in a hunting accident; the rather *strained* father-son relationship they developed over the years was a big factor in shaping who Teasle was. Obviously, Rambo *murdering* him right in front of Teasle did nothing to endear him to the already pretty pissed off police chief.

Rambo's before-described naked run for the woods only ended when he came across a hillbilly father-son team at an illegal moonshine still. In exchange for him *not* sticking around and leading the cops right to them, they provide him with clothing and the rifle that he then uses to *wipe out* the local police force. The film skipped over the part where quite a few people got killed in the woods, as scores of heavily-armed locals and adventure hunters joined in the manhunt and *accidentally* started shooting each other. It's homaged *slightly* in the film with Rambo hiding in the river, but there was a long description in the book of Rambo submerging himself in mud and almost *suffocating* to death while he waited for the soldiers to pass by.

The Dom's Final Thoughts
The Dom: The version of the book that *I* read happened to have an introduction by David Morrell talking about his process of writing it and, more interestingly to *me*, his thoughts on the film's changes -- including the smaller body count, Teasle's transformation, and the alternate ending. His thoughts were, satisfyingly, remarkably similar to my own: while he didn't *dislike* the movie in any way, he couldn't avoid the fact that, while it was still generally his plot, it most *certainly* wasn't his *story*. Instead of a *cautionary* tale of the dangers of two stubborn people letting a situation escalate to the point that a lot of innocent people get *hurt*, it becomes a pretty clear case of right and wrong where you can root for the obvious underdog. Instead of Teasle being an allegory for the establishment to counterbalance Rambo's representation of the disenfranchised, he was made into *exactly* the kind of two-dimensional antagonist that Morrell was trying to avoid. He went on to compare *his* book and the sequel films to trains that *look* kind of similar, but are heading in different directions; and the character of Rambo as a *son* who outgrew his father and walked his own path -- meaning he's definitely still *proud* of him, even though he can't relate to his choices anymore.

Of the two versions of Rambo, I kind of think the right one lived and the right one died. Book Rambo may have been legitimately just kind of a straight-up bad person deep down; while I have the utmost sympathy for his trauma in the war and his anger at the neglect and sometimes open *hostility* he experienced from the public since returning to the U.S., it's just *impossible* to not hate him just a little bit for all that he did. It is genuinely unsettling when you find out how much he *enjoyed* turning the tables on the policemen chasing him and killing them all -- it certainly didn't help that you actually got to *know* some of them quite well in the first half of the book, and maybe even *liked* them a little bit. In contrast to Teasle -- who started out full of self-righteous fury, then *slowly* came to *see* the folly in his actions -- Rambo started out trying to see both sides of the conflict, but then slowly *lost* all his compassion for his enemies as the story went on. Film Rambo really was just trying to mind his own business, got dragged into the fight entirely against his will, and never stopped trying to stop things from escalating to lethal force whenever possible; so in my opinion, he deserved to *survive* the experience and go on to have a bunch of other adventures -- ummm, even if he didn't always *enjoy* them.

So, all in all, while I wouldn't go so far as to say the film is dumbed down -- because that would be unfair; it still deals with important issues like PTSD and the mistreatment of veterans -- it's just not *as* complex as the original book. If you think about it, it's kind of ironic that the trigger-happy nature of Rambo in the non-book-related sequels is actually much closer to the guy in the book than his behavior in the one film that was actually *based* on the book. So, yeah, this is a pretty bad adaptation; but I kind of think this is one of those times when the book probably would've faded into *obscurity* by now if it weren't for the film's popularity, so it's hard to be as mad about that as I would usually be. It's also kind of amazing that this film stuck to the book *at all*, considering all the politics that ended up involved in its production. So I guess that, while I *can't* really *endorse* this as an adaptation, I also can't really find it in myself to be overly upset about it either; just like the author, I kind of feel that Rambo went on to become something *more* -- he did things that may not have been in keeping with his creator's original *intentions*, but were still kind of worthwhile in their own right. See you soon, Beautiful Watchers.