First Blood 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

First Blood 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 9, 2018

John Rambo remains one of Sylvester Stallone’s most memorable characters, but it turns out that hindsight is not always 20/20, since most people probably think of Rambo as an unadulterated hero, while the initial Rambo film, First Blood, is considerably more shaded in its portrayal of an erstwhile Vietnam vet who is probably struggling with some pretty serious post traumatic stress disorder. In fact parts of First Blood are kind of strangely reminiscent of Walking Tall: The Trilogy, at least insofar as there’s a focal character with a somewhat troubled past who attempts to confront rampant corruption in the local constabulary. And in fact a lot of First Blood actually takes place stateside, again perhaps defying wobbly memories which may tend to place the entire Rambo trilogy overseas, with Rambo seeking revenge on a number of characters who in any other film might have been thought of as the ostensible “good guys”.

For those wanting to revisit the plot mechanics of First Blood, I refer you to my colleague Martin Liebman's First Blood Blu-ray review of the long ago first Blu-ray release. Note that Marty is obviously an unabashed fan of the film and gave it a straight up 5.0, while I'm a bit more of a curmudgeon and score the film at "only" a 4.5.

First Blood 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray. Also note that the 1080p Blu-ray in this package is not the same one that Marty reviewed, and I have scored the 1080p video as I reacted it to, rather than porting over Marty's score from the now long ago review of the first Blu- ray release.

First Blood is presented on 4K UHD courtesy of Lionsgate Films with a 2160p transfer in 2.35:1. Kind of interestingly and for the first time in my personal reviewing career of Lionsgate products, both the 1080p and 2160p discs have a boot up menu kind of similar to some Disney Blu-rays which ask for a language to be chosen before the Main Menu appears (in this case, the choice is between English and Spanish). The Studio Canal logo on both the 1080p and 2160p versions suggests to me that these were sourced from Studio Canal's restorations, which have been reported online to themselves be sourced from 4K scans of the original camera negative. I have to say this is one of the more pleasing Lionsgate 4K UHD releases culled from a film element that I've reviewed, with a healthy (and admittedly at times fairly thick) grain field which nonetheless resolves naturally throughout the presentation, with the possible exception of the credits sequence. In fact the whole credits sequence looks just a tad soft, but once things cut away from opticals, especially with the first close-ups, sharpness, detail levels and especially palette are all excellent looking. While some of the online data about the Studio Canal restorations mention Dolby Vision, my equipment showed "only" HDR grading, but that said, the upgrade in shadow detail throughout the film, especially the extremely dark last half hour or so, is instantly noticeable and often quite remarkable. All sorts of information in both the forest and underground scenes which can't even be made out all that clearly on the 1080p Blu-ray version included in this release are at least somewhat more evident in the 4K UHD presentation, and often more than merely somewhat. In fact, there is significant new detail available in several scenes featuring victims or showdowns in the forest sequences. Some of the forest scenes actually looked just a bit more gray to my eyes in the 4K UHD version than on the 1080p Blu-ray version, but generally speaking I didn't see a huge difference in palette between the two versions included in this release.

Note: I realized after I published this review I had forgotten to mention an anomaly I encountered. The first time I tried to play the disc, I encountered some freezing and/or stuttering from circa 47:43 to around 47:48. This actually began with the sound dropping first and then the image freezing. Interestingly, in rewinding, the disc smoothly passed over the information (in reverse, obviously) it wouldn't play "going forward". I tried stopping the disc and restarting and it did the same thing. I examined the underside and didn't see anything that might be causing the problem, but cleaned the disc anyway, and on rebooting it, it played fine that time. I'm mentioning this only in case someone else encounters anything similar.

First Blood 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 4K UHD presentation features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which for all intents and purposes sounds at least similar to the surround tracks Marty described in his First Blood Blu-ray review. The lossless audio supports a number of nice, energetic elements, including some boisterous LFE during expected moments involving things like explosions or gunfire, and with excellent placement of ambient environmental sounds throughout all of the outdoor scenes (which are plentiful). Special mention must be made of yet another absolutely glorious score from Jerry Goldsmith, one which seems to exploit more of a melancholic, bittersweet and even elegiac tone than a traditional "action adventure" or "war" film (contrast Goldsmith's work in this outing with what I'd term his much more heraldic approach in Patton). The music resides rather sumptuously in the surround channels here and always sounds clear and distortion free. As Marty mentioned, some noisy scenes can tend to slightly bury dialogue at times, but this is a solid and appealing track that features some nicely done surround activity.

First Blood 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

I joked in a now fairly long ago review of a Lionsgate 4K UHD release that I had surmised that an office lackey or two had a big dartboard in some hidden basement hovel where they would throw projectiles at titles to randomly decide what should be released next, and I have to say I've now decided those people have moved on to some exciting new job duties, namely deciding what kind of 1080p Blu-ray is included in the 4K UHD package. Twice Lionsgate has offered at least somewhat unusual 1080p Blu-ray versions of long ago product (in some cases deemed inferior product at that), while in this particular case it's a whole new Blu-ray that bears only a passing similarity to the one that Marty reviewed several years ago. Since the 1080p Blu-ray in this package contains manifestly different supplements than the disc Marty reviewed, I'm detailing them here. The 4K UHD disc contains the Two Commentary Tracks mentioned below and described further in Marty's original review:

• Rambo Takes the 80s Part 1 (1080p; 17:43) begins to cover the franchise's legacy, with a bunch of talking heads offering brief comments interspersed with film scenes.


• Making Of (480i; 22:34) is a fun archival piece with interviews, behind the scenes footage and film clips. This is the first of several supplements that seem to be at least partially French in origin, as evidenced by some of the descriptive titles in French.


• Alternative Ending (480i; 2:02)


• Outtake (480i; 00:54)


• Deleted Scene (480i; 2:28)


• The Restauration (1080p; 1:35) offers "avant" (before) and "apres" (after) comparisons.


• The Real Nam (480i; 26:56) is a surprisingly thoughtful and even provocative piece offering some history.


• Forging Heroes (480i; 9:53) gets into some information about Special Forces.


• How to Become Rambo Part 1 (1080i; 14:20) features Dr. Franco Columbo, Sylvester Stallone's body building coach. Have your exercise equipment ready.


• Original Trailer (480i; 2:11)


• Commentary from Sylvester Stallone can be found under the Setup Menu.


• Commentary from David Morrell can be found under the Setup Menu.

First Blood 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For those who perhaps only remember the slightly "revisionist" (in terms of the original Rambo character formulation) second and third Rambo films, it can be almost a bit of a shock to see the character so emotionally hobbled and acting out against (admittedly a little duplicitous) law enforcement in this first film. Perhaps surprisingly, First Blood has aged remarkably well and provides both adrenaline pumping thrills and some actual genuine human emotion along the way. Technical merits are first rate and there are some nice new supplements which have been added to the mix, at least on the 1080p Blu-ray included in this package. Highly recommended.