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Trimming down a substantial portion of a movie in order to make it fit for a theatre release has often backfired for studios, with one major example being Zack Snyder’sJustice League. But it seems one of the most influential action movies is the biggest anomaly to this practice.
After rising to prominence throughRocky, Sylvester Stallone cemented himself as one of the biggest Hollywood names of the 80s, thanks to the success of 1982’sFirst Blood. Although the later sequels failed to replicate the success of the original, if Stallone didn’t step in during the production of the first one, there might not have been aRambofranchise to discuss.
Also read:“Now he’s getting older, so he’s getting hurt even more”: Sylvester Stallone Felt He Must Return to His Action Franchise as He Was Not Happy With How He Ended His Movie
Sylvester Stallone SavedFirst Bloodby Trimming It Down to Half
Surprisingly the original cut forFirst Bloodwas almost 3-hours long, contrary to the 93 minutes version that saw the light of day. But it appears, fans are fortunate to witness the shorter cut of the movie, which Stallone intended as opposing to the longer version that the actor hated. Recounting the production ofFirst Blood,Sylvester Stalloneexpressed the first cut of the movie was unwatchable, claiming it’d have killed his career.
And in fear of witnessing his career falling apart, theRamboStar demanded some substantial changes, the prominent one being the removal of his dialogues, which he absolutely despised. Stallone recalled,
“I was pontificating throughout the thing. For example, I shoot an owl, and then the owl drops, I go, ‘Take that, you mouse-munching motherf*cker… I said, ‘Here’s a good idea: Cut out all my dialogue. Every line. And have other people talk about you—which by the way is not a bad way to live in general. Other people fill in the blanks. Like the Greek chorus, you know, and I think that works really well.”
This resulted in the revamped version clocking at almost half the run-time of the first cut, and all cheap pop-culture references were removed in favor of delving more into Rambo’s PTSD.
Also read:“That’s why I gave them my salary back”: Sylvester Stallone Has No Regrets After Not Taking a Single Penny From Kevin Feige For His Marvel Debut as Starhawk
The Wasted Potential of theRamboFranchise
Even though the first entry in theRambofranchise is considered one of the greatest action movies ever made, the franchise as a whole failed to reach the heights it should have. Unlike Sylvester Stallone’sRocky, which keeps on ascending to new heights with each new entry, theRamboIP kept sinking low with every new release, with 2019’sRambo: Last Bloodfailing to earn decent scores among critics.
Also read:“The only solution is death”: Sylvester Stallone Was Afraid Rambo’s Alternate Ending Would Give American War Veterans a Disturbing Message
Underneath the heavy gunfire,First Bloodtold the tragic story of an American War Hero’s pain and torment, who is dealing with PTSD, making it more than just yet another loud soulless action flick. But the later entries in the franchise did nothing but plummeted the first one’s legacy, eventually diluting the IP in the process.
First Bloodis available to rent on Apple TV.
Source:The Howard Stern Show
Santanu Roy
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2539
Santanu Roy is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on movies, with over 2,000 articles under his belt. He has been pursuing a degree in Animation and possesses a deep love for the medium of animation. Having spent the better part of the last two years pumping out articles for FW, Santanu excels at covering movie analysis and news surrounding Pixar, DCU, DreamWorks, and Batman’s cinematic legacy.With psychological thrillers and intimate slice-of-life dramas ranking among his favorite genres, Santanu is a big admirer of Luca Guadagnino, Shane Black, Park Chan-wook, and Brad Bird.
