When I was a kid, I had a vision of Rambo in my head. It was the Rambo from “Rambo III,” sweaty, shirtless, telling people who were fighting the Taliban “I’m your worst nightmare.”

It was a Rambo who had a cartoon and action figures, neither of which my mom would let me watch/purchase. She was OK with GI Joe, but Rambo was tied to a real war, and not fighting a cartoonish team of villains. 

It was also a Rambo that was a million miles away from the character featured in “First Blood.”

Film 15: “First Blood”

My excuse for not seeing it: I’m not sure why I never watched “First Blood” as a kid, but I know it wouldn’t have interested me. To me, Rambo was an action hero, and “First Blood” isn’t an action movie. It’s a character study about a survivor of an unpopular war who had been abandoned by an ungrateful society. That doesn’t fit in so well with the Rambo who essentially became a parody.

I remember finding a copy of the novel “First Blood” by David Morrell at a garage sale as a kid and being surprised that what I assumed was a dumb action movie was based on a book. When I got older, a Jeopardy clue informed me that the name Rambo was inspired by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. Still, neither of those details intrigued me to see the first film.

Having watched it, “First Blood” is a pretty perfect single film. It’s like Stallone’s other big franchise starter, “Rocky,” in that if you’re more familiar with the larger mythology, the smaller scale of the first film will surprise you. Spoilers, but “Rocky” doesn’t end with Rocky becoming champ, and “First Blood” doesn’t end with big, blow-out action. It ends with a conversation about loss and grief.

John Rambo is a real character, scarred by a real war, having lived through the real experience of returning to a country that was at best indifferent to him, and at worst intolerant of Vietnam veterans. He’s not an action hero, he’s a weapon that was discarded and forgotten after it was used.

But Stallone can’t seem to let things rest. The Rocky franchise went from an underdog who went the distance to “What if he did become the champ?” I haven’t watched it, but the synopsis for the ridiculously-named “Rambo: First Blood Part II” reads like Stallone said “What if Rambo went back to Vietnam and won the war?” I’m not saying it’s a bad film; I’m certain it’s entertaining. But after “First Blood” I’m not really interested in seeing a character like John Rambo get back “in the shit.” I’d rather see him try to heal and move on with his life.

Random thoughts: This film has a lot of great character actors. Richard Crenna adds gravitas as Rambo’s former Colonel. There’s also Brian Dennehy from everything, as the cop who just won’t let John Rambo be, Bill McKinney from “Deliverance” (a film I feel like “First Blood” owes something to), Jack Starrett from “Blazing Saddles” (and an impressive run as a director of B-movies and Blaxploitation flicks), and, of course, a young David Caruso.

Movies it inspired me to check out: As noted above, I’m not interested in checking out the other Rambo films. Instead, I’ll suggest a film I had never heard of that I watched a few months back with Steve: “Southern Comfort.” It’s kind of an inverse of “First Blood,” with national guard members on a weekend exercise in the bayou who antagonize some Cajuns, only for it to go very wrong.

I had recently watched “Streets of Fire” not long before, and “Directed by Walter Hill” made me want to watch it instantly. Now there are a lot of Walter Hill movies I want to watch. His film “The Driver” is probably next up on my list to watch (but I don’t know if it will be a blog post).