MovieChat Forums > First Blood (1982) Discussion > About Teasel running him out of town...

About Teasel running him out of town...

posted 10 years ago by InfidelDog
39 replies | jump to latest

Oh please give me a break with all the posters that proclaim self righteous indignation of the unfairness of Teasel running Rambo out of town. He point bank tells Rambo why is is doing what he doing in the car ride. The speech that this is a quiet town and that some would say it's even boring and he gets paid to keep it that way, and Rambo repeats the word boring. He even goes on further that if he lets him stick around soon he will have a town full of drifters to deal with. He is maintaining the peace of his sleepy little town.
Now before everyone here starts their rant on rights and this is a free country, let me tell you a scene I witnessed recently that ties into this.
I was at a coffee shop in a trendy revitalized part of downtown where I see all these trendy hipsters hanging out. A bum shows up an starts panhandling outside and hanging around said hipsters. Someone must of called the cops because they showed up in less than five minutes and run him off. Did anyone there protest? Did anyone there state he has a right to stand outside? What I saw is everyone look away like there was nothing to see here. I'll bet that the same hipsters would protest the treatment of the same bum if they heard or read abut it.
What Teasel did was run a bum out of town before he started getting phone calls that a bum is hanging out. Did Teasel know he was a vet? Did Teasel know he just lost the last member of his elite unit?
I believe that Rambo had a right to get something to eat too but what gets me is the hypocrisy I read on this board. You would all be the first ones on the phone complaining about a bum if he wandered into your neighborhood.

[–] witster18 9 years ago

only issue is that Rambo wasn't being a nuisance! not doing anything accept walking. he didn't even ask for food, he asked for a place to eat(to which he was told there was a diner 30 miles out of town), then he was tortured FOR WALKING... there are no points in this film where rambo is a "nuisance"... none. There can be problems with bums being a nuisance, turning around asking everyone that passes for money in places where their presence may hurt the business etc, but none of that applies to the opening scene of first blood. none of it.

[–] baratheveggie 9 years ago

I read somewhere that in the book Teasle is behaving towards Rambo the way he is behaving because he was himself a veteran but of Korean war that didn't get much media or cultural coverage compared to Vietnam war. Nobody speaks about Korean war and yet everyone in the world knows about Vietnam and what a disaster it was. I guess Teasle doesn't like that fact, even though Vietnam veterans got a lot of hate, he's still jealous his war evaded the history spotlight.

[–] tub51461 9 years ago

If it wasn't for the Korean War, we wouldn't have MASH though and that was a great show.

[–] barttp 7 years ago

I even heard Stallone himself saying once in an interview that Teasle's attitude towards Rambo had nothing to do with Rambo being a vagrant, that it was only "the war of wars" and he was trying to show Rambo that "my war was better than yours".

[–] ArthurDental 9 years ago

So you saw a bunch of hypocritical hipsters (that's why they're hipsters, genius) and that means Teasel is not a complete maniac.

Typical backwater small-town minds.

No wonder you guys (I'm not talking about small-town folks here) are beating up and shooting innocent black people left and right.

[–] franco_xxl 9 years ago

Well, I don't condone the way Teasel handled the situation in general.
But to be honest, it's only the first car ride out of town that is the real crime, after that the situation just escalates in a way to a point of no return...

1) Teasel is being an a**hole for driving him out of town, because he can "feel" that Rambo is trouble. This is where he went wrong.
2) Rambo walks back towards town... He's refusing to follow a police officers order. Teasle might be an a-hole, but he's still a police officer.
3) Rambo is resisting arrest, not violently, but still resisting.
4) Teasle pulls out a huge Knife from the back of Rambos pants, that he uses for "hunting".

Stop to think about it. At this point, any police officer; good, bad, corrupted or valiant would probably think, "oh, I think I just did a good job. This guy IS trouble".

5) At the station, Rambo is refusing to get his finger prints taken.

6) Galt (not Teasel!) is abusing Rambo in the shower.... "clean him up".
7) Galt, Mitch and Ward is going to give the man a shave before court, which trigger torture-flashback and, well, there we go...

Galt is the biggest prick in the story. While Teasel might behave like an a**hole towards Rambo, at least he does it because he feels it's for the best of his town. Galt though, is a sadistic prick that physically and mentaly abuses a prisoner, that even his younger colleagues can see "is crazy".

There is no way that Teasel could've handled point 2-5 in another way than he did... It all started with him driving him out of town, which - while being an a**hole - was a call he made. Right or wrong.
What if he'd let him into town, and later that night, two locals were gutted in a bar fight over a flag on a jacket?

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[–] trenchcoatwizard 8 years ago

2) Rambo walks back towards town... He's refusing to follow a police officers order. Teasle might be an a-hole, but he's still a police officer.

Rambo has no moral or legal obligation to follow his orders. It is only illegal to knowingly refuse to follow a lawful order, as given by a police officer, and Teasle has no legal power to tell Rambo that he cannot enter the town.

"No man yet found drinks his tea blacker"

[–] CrazyJim2004 7 years ago

But to be honest, it's only the first car ride out of town that is the real crime, after that the situation just escalates in a way to a point of no return...

No, nearly everything shown from when they meet to when Rambo escapes the jail is blatant illegal use of power by Teasle and his department.

2) Rambo walks back towards town... He's refusing to follow a police officers order. Teasle might be an a-hole, but he's still a police officer.

Refusing to follow an officer's order is not in itself illegal if the order violates the suspect's rights. In this case, prohibiting someone from entering public property without legal grounds do so is extremely illegal, like losing your badge and possibly serving prison time kind of illegal.

Stop to think about it. At this point, any police officer; good, bad, corrupted or valiant would probably think, "oh, I think I just did a good job. This guy IS trouble".

That's horrible, corrupted logic. If I randomly run over somebody with my car and it is later revealed that they were planning to rob a bank, it doesn't make me a hero. You can't use hindsight to defend reckless behavior on the grounds that it inadvertently prevented a crime or misdeed from occurring. That isn't doing a good thing. That is using sadistic logic to put a moral spin on a horrible thing. You can't say what a good or valiant cop would do in this situation because a good or valiant police officer would not have unlawfully forced someone out of town. Without cause, there is no effect.

Galt is the biggest prick in the story. While Teasel might behave like an a**hole towards Rambo, at least he does it because he feels it's for the best of his town.

Once again, I will disagree. Galt is employed by Teasle. They are clearly friends. Overlooking his erratic behavior is not in the best interest of his job. By allowing this person on his force, he is enabling the reckless and illegal tactics being used.

What if he'd let him into town, and later that night, two locals were gutted in a bar fight over a flag on a jacket?

That's neither here nor there. Cops are not allowed to enforce law based on who they perceive to be a criminal based on appearance. Furthermore, even if the officer had grounds to believe there was suspicion of a crime, how is it lawful procedure or even good problem-solving to simply throw the suspect over into the next town. If I suspect someone of being a violent criminal, the solution is to let them go commit crimes in another town?

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[–] geoh777 9 years ago

Whatever you or anyone else might say, it's against the law to do that. LEO has to make up his mind whether he is a law enforcement officer, or some unwritten rule officer.
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[–] T-eschberger 9 years ago

OP is troll.

[–] DeadandBuried81 9 years ago

Teasel was a prick and deserved everything everything Rambo gave back to him and the town.

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[–] beierfilms 9 years ago

Teasel isn't as bad as Galt but he's still a complete an ass. He's more nuanced and realistic but that doesn't excuse his actions.

If there is a drifter he is breaking the law by harrassing customers or squatting in a place they aren't suppossed to then the police have a right to do something about it. What they DON'T have a right to do is to harass someone just because they decide he's a "bum." It's not illegal to be homeless (in fact, it really sucks and we should feel pity for anyone in that position). It's not illegal to have long hair, dirty cloths, or smell bad. It IS illegal to force someone to leave your town just because you don't like how he looks. Teasel broke the law first and abused his power. He doesn't get to decide who deems worthy of stopping for a bite to eat. I've met a lot of people like him who immediately decide to judge poor people as "trouble."

[–] HalRagland 9 years ago

I live in Seattle and this is a realistic portrayal of how small town law enforcement between here and Portland would behave toward somebody who doesn't look like he belongs.

Rambo should have the same to right to be on the land of the fictional town in the movie, but that isn't the way the real world works, unfortunately. He is a citizen who had not done anything wrong, except look like he doesn't belong.

[–] gabby_bm 9 years ago

Seattle? Didn;t they kick all the homeless out of "tent city" about a decade ago? moving them under the freeway or something?

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[–] HalRagland 9 years ago

They move there tents to wherever they can and move along when the city shows up to toss them out. Right now there is a small tent encampment underneath the bridges at 4th Ave. South that lead to I-5 and I-90, next to the home of the Seattle Mariners, Safeco Field. I work at both Safeco Field and Centurylink Field and this group of, say, about 2-3 dozen people moved in about a couple weeks ago.