"They drew first blood, not me."

Action films wouldn't be where they are today if it weren't for one man, and that man my friends is John Rambo. The Rambo series started a trend that is still in use today with the introduction of practically every new action "superstar". It's been a while since I sat down with First Blood in its unedited from, I've been stuck with late night reruns on TBS, ugh. Artisan has released the entire Rambo series as individual special editions as well as in a 4 DVD box set. Today I'm taking a look at the standalone edition of First Blood, the one that started it all and the one that happens to be my second favorite in the series. How did Artisan do with the DVD premier of First Blood? I'd say all in all pretty good, but it's certainly not without it's flaws.

John Rambo (Stallone), a decorated Vietnam Vet "loses" it in a small town, when he's hassled by the local feds. Rambo is falsely arrested and mistreated by local Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) and it isn't until his escape that his thirst for revenge really takes hold. Can one man alone hold an entire town and its police force at bay? In First Blood the answer is yes. Rambo reverts back to his military survival training, as the hunted soon becomes the hunter. It takes Col. Samuel Trautman (Richard Crenna) who trained Rambo to come in and try to make some sense of the situation. Unfortunately, John Rambo has no plans of easing up. With or without the consent of his former superior, Rambo is gonna teach those who hassle him a lesson. You go Rambo!

Artisan presents First Blood in both a full frame and widescreen edition. Of course I took the widescreen version into consideration here, but I also did a side by side frame comparison of the two editions, you can see by clicking here. The picture quality is fairly solid with a few exceptions. There is really no visible print damage, except for these annoying specs that seem to pop up a little more often than I would have liked. Does it get annoying? Yes. Colors are fairly stable although I would have liked to see them a bit brighter. Dreary is definitely the word here, but this could have been the filmmakers original intention. Overall. This is a fairly solid presentation, and I'm willing to say without a doubt that this is the best that First Blood has ever looked. Although, I still feel it could have looked a little bit better.

Sound is presented in 5.1, DTS and the films original 2.0 mix. You'd be hard-pressed to notice much of a difference between any of the audio options, as they all pretty much sounded the same to me. I actually found the original 2.0 mix to be the most pleasing option of the bunch as it sounded the least artificial, go figure.

Extras include a very cool 20-minute feature entitled Drawing First Blood. Through interviews with the cast and crew of today, we get a really cool look into the making of the film. It's a great little documentary and is essential viewing for fans of the film. There's also a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer as well as production notes, and your standard cast and crew bios. Lastly, there is a full-on audio commentary with Writer David Morrell. Commentaries with crew members always give you a different perspective on the filmmaking process and this one is no exception.

Overall, I'd have to say this is a solid presentation of one hell of an action film. Fans of the film should be fairly pleased by the presentation and extras and mostly pleased by the price point of the individual titles and the boxed set as well. Taking all of this into consideration, I'd say Artisan has done good on the DVD debut of First Blood.