An Iconic Sylvester Stallone Role Was Originally Written For Clint Eastwood
When you think of Rambo you likely see a prime-era Sylvester Stallone standing shirtless and letting loose a barrage of bullets from his oversized machine gun. The character came to epitomize the uber-macho action heroes of the 1980s, making Stallone one of the biggest stars of the decade in the process. John J. Rambo became known for shooting his way through hordes of bad guys and blowing up pretty much everything else that got in his way. But he didn't start out that way. In fact, he didn't even intentionally kill anybody in his first outing: 1982's "First Blood."
Technically, Rambo's first outing was in the pages of David Morrell's 1972 novel of the same name, which was actually inspired by two harrowing true stories about war veterans. In both the novel and the film adaptation, John J. is a Vietnam vet who's struggling with PTSD after returning to a United States that doesn't seem all that happy to have him back. As such, the story featured almost as much social critique as it did action, which is just part of the reason "First Blood" is one of the best action movies ever made.
As the "Rambo" series went on, the bombast took center stage while the social critique receded entirely — which surely wasn't exactly what Morrell had in mind when he penned his novel back in the early 70s. But then, there were several things the author saw going differently when it came to bringing John J. Rambo to the big screen. For one, Rambo's creator saw someone very different than Stallone in the lead role. Morrell actually had country musician and actor Kris Kristofferson in mind to play the Vietnam vet. Ultimately, Sly went on to make the role his own, but it seems Kristofferson wasn't the only alternate Rambo actor that was circling the project prior to its debut.
Rambo could have been played by a veteran star
When writing "First Blood," David Morrell was inspired to comment on the social upheaval of the 1960s, particularly the riots and the student demonstrations against the Vietnam War. The book itself actually portrayed Rambo and Sheriff Will Teasle as equals, never once giving more credence to either's outlook and thereby representing both sides of American culture at the time. In the movie, however, Rambo is the hero and Brian Dennehy's Sheriff Teasle is very much the villain.
How that might have sat with a star like Clint Eastwood, who was actually considered to play Rambo in the early stages of the film's development, remains unclear. Eastwood has expressed opposition to a U.S. involvement in wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, so seeing a Vietnam vet's trauma dramatized in a sympathetic way before he outsmarts an entire police force in the good ol' US of A might have met with his approval. Alas, we'll never know what Eastwood's version of Rambo would have been.
The actor was reportedly one of the early choices to play the lead in "First Blood," after producer and vice president of worldwide production at Warner Bros., John Calley, bought the rights to "First Blood." Calley had either Eastwood or Robert De Niro in mind for the part, but neither star ever signed on to the project. After Calley couldn't make a go of his "First Blood" adaptation, the rights moved around until Carolco Pictures eventually managed to bring the film to fruition, with Orion Pictures distributing. But it was a long road to get to that point, and considering how difficult it was to get a "First Blood" movie made, it's no wonder that Eastwood was never all that involved in the project.
What would a Clint Eastwood Rambo look like?
Speaking at a Q&A in 2014 (via Empire), Sylvester Stallone described "First Blood' as "literally cursed." According to the actor, there were 17 different versions of the script, which, in fairness, he might have had something to do with since he initially thought "First Blood" would ruin his career and set about rewriting the screenplay himself. Sly went on to explain how multiple stars were attached to the project in one way or another before he came onboard, including Robert Redford, Paul Newman, James Caan, Burt Reynolds, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino. Stallone didn't mention Clint Eastwood, which might simply be down to the fact that casting the actor as Rambo was simply an idea in the mind of John Calley, and Eastwood was never a serious candidate to play the role.
Casting him as the tortured Vietnam vet capable of taking out an entire police force and outsmarting the National Guard might not have been the worst idea, though. The actor had spent the 70s establishing himself as an action star in his own right outside of the Western genre, most notably with the controversial 1971 action crime thriller "Dirty Harry," and two sequels, 1973's "Magnum Force" and 1976's "The Enforcer." By the time "First Blood" actually debuted in 1982, however, Eastwood was probably a little too old to play a returning Vietnam vet, especially since his Harry Callahan character was a superheroic figure that served as somewhat of a prototype for the invincible action stars of the 80s. In "First Blood," as Stallone put it during his Q&A, Rambo was "just a survivor," with the actor going on to say, "The lead character doesn't do grandstand speeches; he isn't clever or witty." Eastwood was at the stage where he needed to be that kind of larger than life hero, and Rambo didn't necessarily provide that opportunity — despite his preternatural survival skills.