An excerpt from my script review for First Blood which will be available 04/30/24:
3.) Quality of Characters
Will Teasle.
Nothing in this script happens without him.
Think about that…we don’t get to see just how “Special Forces” John Rambo is without Teasle’s ego.
Teasle is the law in this town, and he wants everyone to know it.
Like I said in the previous section, all it took for Teasle to avoid utter destruction was to let John buy a cup of coffee and a sandwich, but no…Hope is Teasle’s town and drifters like John aren’t welcome.
And he’s given multiple times to stop…
When John asks for something to eat in the patrol car.
Once John is abused by the other officers during processing, beating them up and escaping with ease.
(A scene that’s not in the script, is where Rambo catches Teasle in the woods off guard, warning him to leave him alone at knife point, or be ready for all out war.)
But as the destruction and body count gets worse, Teasle has to double down on his ego or admit he was wrong.
They find out John Rambo is a war hero, and still Teasle pursues.
After suffering casualties in the woods, and being warned by Trautman that this is exactly the type of environment Rambo was trained for, still Teasle pursues.
Even after knowing Rambo escaped grenades and a mine collapse, still Teasle pursues.
Naturally he has to pursue or we don’t have a story, and it all felt natural in the plot, boiling down to one man’s pride.
John Rambo is the best, and Will Teasle isn’t.
(Something Trautman calls him out on, but Teasle dismisses.)
The final note here is Rambo’s speech to Trautman at the end of the film, talking about trying to join civilian life but not being welcome.
He flashes back to the story about losing one of his buddies to an improvised explosive, and it really allowed Stallone to develop a character worthy of the franchise.
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