The Blood of Heroes (1989)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

David Webb Peoples

Writer (WGA):

David Webb Peoples (written by)

Release Date:

23 February 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Sport

Tagline:

When juggers play there is only one way to live - THE HARD WAY! - [Australia Theatrical] [Title as Salute of the Jugger]

Plot:

A Mad Max-esque post apocalyptic world provides the backdrop for a brutal, futuristic game resembling football...

Plot Keywords:

Post Apocalyptic | Box Office Flop | Mahatma Gandhi | Skull | Outsider

Cast

Rutger Hauer	...	Sallow
Delroy Lindo	...	Mbulu
Anna Katarina	...	Big Cimber (as Anna Katerina)
Vincent D'Onofrio	...	Young Gar (as Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio)
Gandhi MacIntyre	...	Gandhi
Justin Monjo	...	Dog Boy
Aaron Martin	...	Samchin Boy
Joan Chen	...	Kidda
Casey Huang	...	Kidda's Father
Quang Dinh	...	Samchin Head Elder
John Doumtsis	...	Samchin Timekeeper
John Biro	...	Samchin Peasant #1
Brian Cawley	...	Samchin Peasant #2
Gino Terranova	...	Samchin Peasant #3
Cecilia Wong	...	Kidda's Mother

Runtime:

90 min | Japan:104 min

Country:

Australia | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Iceland:16 | Norway:18 | Australia:M | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:18 (nf)

Filming Locations:

Coober Pedy, South Australia, Australia

Company:

Handistom Investment

Quotes:

Sallow: Play hard, you'll forget the fear.

A forgotten masterpiece

"The juggers are coming!" is a shout that strikes both fear and excitement into the hearts of the villagers. These wretched people, living in the Mad Maxesque world of post-nuclear devastation will now have to defend the honor of their village by playing against a wandering band of Juggers.

This game is the centerpoint of the movie. It's a brutal match of American football and medieval warfare. Both teams will try to get a dog skull on a stake at the opposite ends of a small playing field. Only problem is that only a small, lightly padded player (the Qwik) can touch the skull, and all other players are armed with clubs, chains, mallets and bad attitudes.

Needless to say, the game can get brutal, broken bones and gouged eyes are common enough. But once the game is over, the real insights into the world this movie creates are made. There is no brutal rivalry outside the playing field, only a camaraderie that can stem from knowing what you both have been through. The winners are treated to a feast, no matter how poor the village, for the player's blood has brough some exitement into their otherwise dreary and hopeless lives.

I will not spoil the plot here, but needless to say, the young elements of the wandering band of Juggers, which is led by Sallow (Rutger Hauer), will not long be content to fight in backwater villages for little money and poor entertainment (a village of starving peasants can only provide so much).

On the technical side, this is not a brilliant movie, clearly made on a low budget, most of which was probably spent on actors. But movie itself is a great masterpiece, showing more and more of the "world" in which the Juggers live with every time you watch it. Small things will speak volumes and prove true the old saying: A picture speaks more than a thousand words.

Also the action scenes, while they do not contain the speedy cars and flashy wrecks of Mad Max, are still full of adrenalin and will leave thinking about why the game of Jugging is not played already.