FIRST BLOOD
Directed by Ted Kotcheff Screenplay by Michael Kozoll, William Sackheim and Sylvester Stallone
Given that Sylvester Stallone has always acted more expressively with his muscles than with his mouth, one has to admire the near wordless dispatch with which those who contrived First Blood set him to maiming and killing a multitude of people in a multitude of imaginative ways. That they manage this without causing any loss of sympathy for him shows a close analysis of the problem of selling the star when he is not defending Rocky's title as the heavyweight champion of the heartwarming cliché.
Stallone plays an ex-Green...