First Blood

A long-haired undesirable, run off-limits by a small town sheriff, turns right around and comes back. Taken to the police station for a spot of persuasion, he suffers flash recalls of torture in Vietnam. Going momentarily berserk, and hounded like a mad dog, he leads his pursuers a frightening dance through the woods before returning to give the town its comeuppance. As a Stallone vehicle this is sleek, slick and not unexciting, but crassly castrates the David Morrell novel on which it is based. Read the book: tough, provocative, savagely ironical and infinitely more complex, it's much better value.