Ruckus

Should be enshrined in a vault for future generations to enjoy.Best study of small town southern people I have ever watched on the screen.Every character in the movie has at least one counterpart in my home town.Should be watched over and over to really enjoy.

The lead, Dirk Benedict, is really cool. There is a lot of comedy in the way he makes monkeys of all of the country rednecks that try to take him out. There is nothing he doesn't know about how to defend and take care of himself. His relationship with the young and delectable Linda Blair is tender and cute.

The country songs, especially "One Day at a Time," complement the hokey, but cool and entertaining story perfectly. The supporting actors, including Ben Johnson and Richard Farsnworth, are great. I've watched the film dozens of time, first when it came out on cable in 1982, and then after 2000, when I bought the VHS tape. You'll really enjoy this film.

Two years before "First Blood", there's "Ruckus". A Vietnam veteran(Dirk Benedict who was fresh off from "Battlestar Galactica") arrives at a small town. He is trying to get back to civilization when the local rowdies decided to harass him. He uses his techniques from his military days to even the score. Dirk Benedict would years later play a lieutenant in the army TV show "The A-Team" where he is more of a slick than a soldier. Linda Blair plays a mother and widow of a Vietnam veteran who asked the veteran if he had known her husband. This movie is more of the comedic version of "First Blood". Not a satire. Just comedic. Yes, there's a lot of action, and a lot of slapstick. This movie is just plain funny. It has opened up a door to future entertainment. It was great fun. 3 out of 5 stars

I was too young when I first saw this movie to connect it to First Blood, knew they were similar but didn't realize until way later that this was likely born of the circulating First Blood script. Don't hold that against it though. While it does get much sillier and the repetition of the same song over and over is quite noticeable this movie is very much a product of its time and a great, fun flick from 1980. It's very much flawed but Dirk Benedict makes Kyle Hanson a very likeable protagonist. The villains are terrible, like rejects from a Smokey & The Bandit movie and the violence is more of the A-Team type with no one being injured beyond the likes of a schoolyard brawl but it is still a good time and I will always remember it as a childhood favorite. Check it out at least once and try to judge it on its own merit!

Dick Bendict is a loner who still has trouble getting over the horrors he faced in the Vietnam war. All he wants to do is be by himself and try to move on, but a group of hoodlums take it upon themselves to terrorize him after a beautiful widow (Linda Blair) takes an interest to him.

Well, you can give this credit as being the film that First Blood ripped off. It is entertaining and Richard Fransworth is excellent as always and Linda Blair turns in a rather appealing performance capturing the right balance between being lonely yet madly in love. This is one of her better vechiles, but other then Fransworth's and Blair's good turns there really isn't anything special or praticully distinguishable about this film.