A Brief History of the First Blood Movies

05/23/22 • 38 min

5 Listeners

On this episode, we take a look back at the history of the First Blood movies.

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From its beginnings as an idea by Penn State English student David Morrell in 1968 to its publication as a novel in 1972, First Blood would spend nearly a decade in development in hell, attracting filmmakers like Richard Brooks (The Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood), John Frankenheimer (The Birdman of Alcatraz, Black Sunday, The Manchurian Candidate), Sydney Pollack (They Shoot Horses Don't They?, Three Days of the Condor, The Way We Were), and Martin Ritt (Hud, The Long Hot Summer), before it would finally go into production in Canada in 1981.

The films discussed in this episode, in order of release:
First Blood (1982, Ted Kotcheff)
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985, George P. Cosmatos)
Rambo III (1988, Peter MacDonald)
Rambo (2008, Sylvester Stallone)
Rambo: Last Blood (2019, Adrian Grünberg)

On this episode, we take a look back at the history of the First Blood movies.

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Previous Episode

This Podcast is Rated PG-13

On this episode of The 80s Movie Podcast, we work our way through the history of American movie censorship, the creation of the MPAA rating system, what lead to the creation of the PG-13 rating in 1984, and examine how little has changed in the battle for morality in entertainment has changed in the past 100 years.

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Movies discussed during this episode include:

The Flamingo Kid (1984, Garry Marshall)
Gremlins (1984, Joe Dante)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984, Steven Spielberg)
The Man with the Golden Arm (Otto Preminger, 1955)
The Moon is Blue (Otto Preminger, 1953)
The Outlaw (Howard Hughes, 1943)
The Pawnbroker (Sidley Lumet, 1964)
Red Dawn (1984, John Milius)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, Mike Nichols)

Next Episode

Happy Together

2 Recommendations

On this episode, film historian and host Edward A. Havens III briefly talks about one of the quintessential 80s movies, that didn't actually come out until May 1990.

Mel Damski's Happy Together.

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We talk about the creation of the movie, its two lead stars (Patrick Dempsey and Helen Slater), and the one supporting actor who would go on to become one of Hollywood's most successful actors for the next thirty years.

Patrick Dempsey in a scene from Happy Together

Dan Schneider in a scene from Happy Together