Well, I’ve just seen this film for the first time ever, and all I can say is, wow.
The character of Rambo is fascinating. Potentially lethal but still deserving of our sympathy. On that basis it’s possible to make a comparison here between him and Norman Bates (as played so beautifully by Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock’s original 1960 classic). That said, before anyone points the finger, I should clarify that unlike Bates, whose actions are somewhat random, Rambo’s abnormal behaviour is triggered entirely by the mistreatment he receives from the sheriff and the police. He’s a war veteran, he has grizzly memories of being attacked, tortured and threatened, and reacts to the police’s hostility in the only way he knows how. His fight and flight reflexes are operating to their fullest extent. It’s all about survival. Interestingly though, Rambo is not directly responsible for any deaths in the course of the film (well, no human deaths, there’s the dogs but it was kill or be killed there, and he kills a wild boar for food). He nearly kills the sheriff at the end, but his commanding officer steps in at the last moment and “talks him down” as it were.
That brings me onto the one thing that didn’t quite work for me. The speech at the end - while it’s very emotional and I do feel sympathy for the character, I felt Stallone could have been a little more coherent with his delivery of it. (Maybe it’s just Stallone’s natural way of talking, I don’t know, I haven’t seen anything else of his.)
The action sequences remained tense throughout. His escape from the mine is particularly engaging. You know he’s onto something but you’re not entirely sure what, until we see the ladder.
One thing that definitely gets 10/10 from me on this film is the music. Funny, from the first few bars of that opening theme, I recognised the sound of Jerry Goldsmith, a truly great film composer, responsible for no less than five Star Trek film scores, as well as the themes for TNG and Voyager. Coincidentally, another film he scored was Breakheart Pass - which also starred Richard Crenna.
Another coincidence I noticed was the year of the film, 1982, this film about a veteran of the Vietnam war came out in the same year as Billy Joel’s utterly stunning Vietnam song “Goodnight Saigon”. If you’ve never heard that song, listen. It’s brilliant.
Also a fun thing was the fact that is was around christmas time, as referenced by the decorations, but I don’t think there was a single allusion to it in the dialogue.
Overall? Yes, I enjoyed this film considerably. Not the sort of thing I’d watch time and time again, but it was definitely good. Draining, but good.
That is also a must watch along with some of its sequels. 
