MovieChat Forums > First Blood (1982) Discussion > Is First Blood a hippie movie?

Is First Blood a hippie movie?

posted 4 years ago by Adam60z (3749)
6 replies | jump to latest

Rambo is a hippie drifter Vietnam Vet with PTSD who runs into some rightwing cops who first use police brutality and then try to kill him, so he defends himself. They escalate it into a "war". The writer David Morrell said he based it on Rogue Male which they plan to make a film about. In any case the film is ambiguous politically and will make both left (since the hero is a Green Beret) and right (since the bad guys are the cops and National Guard) cringe. Any thoughts?

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

just refresh my memory ..
whats a hippie? , whats a commie? , who's good? , who's bad?
who do the left like/hate? who do the right like / hate?

[–] stickman38 (3014) 4 years ago

I don't think so, no matter what your political stance is, you will most likely enjoy this film. It's quite entertaining and not at all a political statement other than perhaps making it seem like Vietnam vets were mistreated.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 4 years ago

Speaking as a former hippie, hippies DID NOT say “Name it,” when asked the question, “What do you kill with this knife?”

What an asshole.

[–] aavfreak (2861) 4 years ago

Here's an unpopular opinion:
The entire idea of Law Enforcement is the antithesis of the military supposedly fighting for freedom.

It's so bizarre to me to see the intersection of those that support the military and those that support the thin blue line.

Even other veterans that I went to war with came back to go on to law enforcement. The idea of being the paid enforcers of the political elite is detestable to me.

Law enforcement are the oppressors of citizens. The military is supposed to ensure the freedom of its citizens. They are opposite, but in our twisted world the same group tends to support both.

[–] Adam60z (3749) 4 years ago

In WW2 after the troops defeated Fascism they came home and saw police brutality, yes, the very thing they fought against. But since then things have become much more ambiguous.

[–] Roguemail (1562) 4 years ago

I genuinely don't know where you get the hippie concept from at all. There is nothing that suggests this in First Blood. Stallones character was certainly not a hippie.

You could consider himself a drifter maybe, but he wore his army jacket proudly.

To me he came across as a guy who was trained to be a killer in the war, but left that behind when he came home.

The essence of the movie is that he is a guy that has been through some traumatic times in the war itself, and also had trouble adjusting and fitting in to society when he came home.

Unfortunately he ends up in a hick town, and people mess with him and he reverts to the killer he was trained to be.

Though crucially...he stops short of actually killing anyone. The guy in the helicopter was more of an accident.