First Blood (novel)
First Blood is a 1972 novel by David Morrell that was the basis of the first of the Rambo films .
action
The book begins with John Rambo, a veteran of the Vietnam War , in Madison, Kentucky, hitchhiking. Because of his unkempt appearance, Sheriff Teasle takes him along and takes him out to the city limits with the advice to move on. When he returns several times, Teasle arrests him and drives him to the station. He is accused of belonging to the Travelers and of having resisted his arrest and is sentenced to 35 days in prison. Trapped in the cold, wet, small cell, Rambo experiences a flashback to his days as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. When the police try to cut his hair and shave him, he kills one man and slits the other with the razor . He escapes, steals a motorcycle and hides in the nearby mountains. Rambo moves into the center of a manhunt in the form of a manhunt, which leads to many dead police officers and national guardsmen. His former instructor Colonel Trautman appears on the scene to persuade Rambo to give up. He fatally injures Teasle and is shot by Trautman.
development
Morrell claimed in an interview, "When I started First Blood in 1968 , I was very influenced by Geoffrey Households Rogue Male ." The main character's name came from the rambour apple his wife brought home when he was an appropriate name for was looking for its protagonist.
criticism
TIME's John Skow described the book as "Carnographie", a derogatory suitcase word that denotes the exaggerated representation of violence.
Adaptation as a film
Film development
1972 David Morrell sold the film rights for First Blood at Columbia Pictures , then the rights to Warner Bros. sold. It then took another ten years to make the film. The story of the traumatized Vietnam returnees went through three companies and 18 scripts. It went through the hands of directors such as Richard Brooks , Martin Ritt , Sydney Pollack and John Frankenheimer . Paul Newman , Al Pacino , Steve McQueen , Clint Eastwood , Robert De Niro , Nick Nolte and Michael Douglas have all been traded for the role of Rambo.
Movie changes
The film First Blood changes the subject of the book massively by sympathizing the character Rambos and demonizing the police and national guard. Because Rambo doesn't kill a single police officer, and their death is caused by their own manic desire to catch Rambo, the roles are completely reversed. This reversal drives Rambo into the role of hero instead of that of the cold-blooded murderer he was in the novel. In the introduction to the novel, David Morrell writes that “It was also made less fatal than my novel. In the film, Rambo throws a stone at a helicopter, killing an insane sniper. "
Film sequels
First Blood was successful enough to produce four sequels. In 1985, George Pan Cosmatos was the ghost director of Rambo II - The Mission . Peter MacDonald's Rambo III followed in 1988 . Twenty years later, in 2008, Stallone was the director of John Rambo . Rambo had his last film appearance in 2019 in Rambo: Last Blood .
"Sequels"
Since the two main characters Rambo and Teasle died at the end of the novel, no sequel books could be written. Even so, author David Morrell wrote novel versions of the first two sequels when the sequels to the First Blood film appeared . At the beginning of each book, as part of the author's note, Morrell wrote, “In my novel First Blood , Rambo died. He survives in the films. "
Further literature
- First Blood by David Morrell (1972). Morrell's introduction from 2000, called "Rambo and I", gives an insight into the suggestions and the development of the novel, as well as the development of the film adaptation and its two sequels (pp. Vii-xiv)
- Stiffed by Susan Faludi (1999). Chapter 7 (pp. 359–406) provides a more detailed treatment of the genesis and transformation of First Blood from book to theater, including the radical and retrograde turns of the script in development and the divergent film endings.
swell
- The book reporter's interview , Joe Hartlaub (March 23, 2007), found October 10, 2007
- TIME Carnographie , Skow John, May 29, 1972
- First Blood Edition 2000, Introduction
Individual evidence
- ↑ in TIME magazine ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Word Spy - carnography . Wordspy. Retrieved April 15, 2009: “Writings, films, images, or other materials that contain scenes of carnage or other types of violence. [Blend of carnage and pornography.] Also: carno "
