A Brief History of the First Blood Movies

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)