Sylvester Stallone in First Blood
This week sees A Good Day To Die Hard to hit the big screen and John McClane returns to kick some more ass.
To celebrate the release of the fifth film in the Die Hard franchise we take a look at some of the best action heroes to ever grace the big screen... first up it is Rambo.
An actor is lucky if he manages to create one truly iconic characters in his career but Sylvester Stallone is in the very lucky position of having two.
Rocky and Rambo are the roles who which is he most remembered and it is the latter which is under the spotlight today.
It was back in back in 1982 when we were introduced to John Rambo for the first time as First Blood hit the big screen.
It may have been an out and out action fest if you saw it as a youngster but as you get older you realise that there were some large issues and themes tackled in this film.
One of those issues was the struggle solders had adjusting to civilian life after returning from Vietnam - a problem Rambo struggled with.
It was a very powerful performance from Stallone in what was a great psychological thriller.
First Blood is one of the greatest action films of all time and it was a movie that really did help re-define a genre.
The critical and commercial success secured a sequel and in 1985 Stallone was back in Rambo: First Blood Part II.
This second film picked up where the first left off and followed Rambo as he is set back to Vietnam to search for POW's
The second movie was more of an action film that the first and did fair as well with the critics when it was released - however it was a big box office hit.
The second film really saw the one man army action hero side come through - something that was carried through future films.
The character of Rambo really had captured the imagination of film audiences and he is as much loved today as he was back the early eighties.
While further films followed in 1988 and 2008 it is First Blood that remains the jewel in the crown of this franchise but Rambo is a much loved and enduring icon of action cinema
A Good Day To Die Hard is released 14th February
Tagged in Sylvester Stallone