Morrell, David (November 3, 2018). "David Morrell - Posts". Facebook . Retrieved November 3, 2018. I had an exciting day yesterday. Decided to vote early. Born in Canada, I became a U.S. citizen in 1993. Since then, I've never missed voting in any election--schoolboard, city, state, national. It truly excites me to be able to do so. Rambo, whose first name is not specified in the novel, was given the first name "John" for the film as a reference to the song " When Johnny Comes Marching Home". [9]

David Morrell published his novel First Blood in 1972, as a response to the Vietnam War and was inspired by some of his students returning from the war. The author’s work began in 1968.What? That's not why you're doing this? Admit you wanted all this to happen. You 'asked' for it – so you could show him what you knew, surprise him when he found you were the wrong guy to try and handle. You 'like' this" Now, without warning, they are enemies in a civilian combat that becomes a chase through the woods and mountains and caves above the town. As we follow them, we understand that once a man has been trained as a killer, perhaps he is changed forever. Most readers are likely coming to this novel after having seen the Sylvester Stallone “Rambo” movie many years previously. That’s certainly the case for me. While movies are always different from their source material, that is especially true in this case. Yes, we still have the basic former Green Beret fighting solo as an underdog against an army of forces against him. He’s been pushed around and told to get out-of-town even though he’s done nothing wrong other than have long hair and a beard. It’s hard for anybody to be bullied like that. But whereas the movie focused on a single hero character, the novel offers two: Rambo (no first name given in the book) and Wilfred Teasle, the local sheriff. Whether or not either one is a hero is open to debate. David Morrell (born April 24, 1943) is a Canadian-American author whose debut 1972 novel First Blood, later adapted as the 1982 film of the same name, went on to spawn the successful Rambo franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. [1] He has written 28 novels, and his work has been translated into 30 languages. [2] He also wrote the 2007–2008 Captain America comic book miniseries The Chosen. I guess in one way or another, this story is supposed to be about the denigration of our boys that came home from Vietnam. Perhaps we should have given them a parade or even said "we're proud of you, thank you." I guess Rambo never heard that. Well, pal, sorry for what I had to do; it was never personal. And, one more thing, thanks for all you did for us over there.

The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing (2008) ISBN 978-1-4022-1055-6 It is eventually revealed to Teasle that Rambo was a member of an elite Green Beret unit in Vietnam; he has extensive experience in guerrilla warfare and survival tactics and received the Medal of Honor. Since his discharge from the Army, he has been unable to hold down a job, thus forcing him to live as a drifter. Teasle, bitter over the deaths of his men but also finding himself sympathetic to Rambo's plight, insists on helping capture him even though his health is beginning to deteriorate from the injuries he suffered while pursuing Rambo. Rambo also finds himself torn between his instinct to keep fighting and his sense of self-preservation; he refuses to take the opportunity to escape because the rush of battle is simply too much for him to resist. Movie-Rambo is a quiet, mumbling depressed veteran who is hassled by evil, asshole cops who firehose him, beat him, and taunt him. In the book the cops, while stupid and a little critical of Rambo's long hair, are just doing their job. They don't beat him, he gets a shower instead of a firehose, Teasle gives Rambo two chances to get out of town. He allows Rambo to buy a hamburger, unlike in the movie. There's no hatred or sadism toward Rambo on Teasle's part until Rambo starts gutting his partner. After reading this, I decided to rewatch the movie version which I hadn't seen since it came out in the 1980s.Now. I want to point out something important here, something I think Morrell does here that works and that I think he did not have to do. Teasle is not a bad guy.

I'm not saying Teasle's an angel. But he's a cop who tries to protect his town and he's not someone who is an abusive asshole. A few difference between the literary Rambo and the cinematic Rambo. This Rambo isn't necessarily a nice man. There isn't really anything heroic about him. After all you don't look at a rifle and think that it's admirable do you? You might admire the skill that went into it's design and manufacturing and you might appreciate it's accuracy, but ultimately it's just a tool. That's how Rambo comes across to me. He's dangerous and very effective, but not heroic.He's no great loss. The cops are assholes and get what they deserve as well. So there are no tears shed for them either. So Rambo goes off into the woods, like he's some type of Hansel and fends off National Guardsman and police officers and civilians that are probably so loaded that they don't even really know what end of the rifle is supposed to be pointed away from them. The body count really starts to soar at this point. Oh, I should tell you that my name is Captain Sam Trautman, and I've been hired to hunt Rambo. For the most part, I'm happy watching these yokels get off-ed by one of the best. But there is only so much carnage that I'll allow, so when the sheriff and Rambo exchange some thoughts in the form of lead, hitting each other in the process, I felt I owed it to my employers to kill Rambo myself. Granted, I used a shotgun and shot him in the head, but that's what you're supposed to do when a wild dog is on the loose. I tried to tell the sheriff, but it seems he has an important appointment in Valhalla that he can't be late for. David’s novelizations for RAMBO (FIRST BLOOD PART II) and RAMBO III are available as e-books. They’re quite different from the films and include revealing introductions. See also David’s RAMBO AND ME: THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY. First off I don’t usually read action thriller type stories because they typically personify ex military geniuses or washed up cops battling their own ego’s… wow I just summed up the whole book… lol.made me decide to write a novel in which the Vietnam War literally came home to America. There hadn't been a war on American soil since the end of the Civil War in 1865. With America splitting apart because of Vietnam, maybe it was time for a novel that dramatized the philosophical division in our society, that shoved the brutality of the war right under our noses.

First of all, I’d like to start by saying I’ve never seen First Blood (1982) in my life, the movie which is supposed to be based on this book. Besides, I didn’t have any idea what I would find inside this story. I mean, I know it’s quite common that people read this novel after they have seen the film adaptation, but my case was a little different.It's gritty, it's gross. It reminds me in a way of Joe Abercrombie's writing. Like Abercrombie, Morrell can't seem to miss the opportunity to make something gross or disgusting. He relishes it. He never describes stuff with any kind of neutral or positive adjectives. Coffee is 'sour' or 'bitter.' Adenaline 'squirts' into someones stomach. Diarrhea is discussed more than once. The world is a bitter, hateful, disgusting place. Same as Abercrombie, although Abercrombie's writing skillz are a bit better than Morrell's IMO.