The Blood Of Heroes
The Blood Of Heroes AKA The Salute of the Jugger (1989)
I’d never seen this one before, and have to say, I absolutely loved it from start to finish. It’s kinda Mad Max meets A Knights Tale, but in the form of an extremely barbaric dystopian sports movie with quite the cast including: Rutger Hauer (one of my favs), Vincent D’Onofrio, Delroy Lindo, and Joan Chen.
Shot on location in the desert the film follows an unlikely team of Juggers who go from dog-town to dog-town playing the brutal sport, which involves beating the hell out of each other until their Qwik sticks a skull on a spike. (Apparently it’s become an actual sport now, although I assume slightly more civilised otherwise wholly fuck where can I watch it)
Afterwards, everyone gets drunk and parties through-out the night in these dusty towns beyond the rim of civilisation. The film has surprising heart as the team bonds and ambition regrows within them, with Joan Chen’s Kidda being the somewhat fish out of water that introduces us to the mechanics of the world and relights a fire in former famed Jugger Sallow.
The cinematography is great, and the brutality of the sport is captured really well. Every player is battle worn with scars and injuries riddling their body. Most have parts missing or bones broken. Skin is hanging off all over the place and the needle and thread is practically a supporting character in a number of gory sew up scenes.
There’s plenty of world building as well. The sport is fully figured out with its own rules, and counting system, involving throwing stones––which I absolutely love. The underground Red City is fantastic, straight out some gritty Graphic Novel. I loved the vertical sleeping bunks and am definitely going to borrow that at some point in the future.
The social divide between rich and poor is one of the key themes within the movie and while they don’t go into great detail the little you do see is fascinating. Kidda’s obsession with the idea of silk fills in a lot of the gaps.
The movie looks badass, and everyone plays their role from the willing cast, the on-point camera work, Mad Max inspired costume design, and the gory special effects and stunts. It’s ‘A’ for effort all round, but this isn’t one of those movies that’s great because it tried, it’s great because it’s actually a seriously good movie.
I’m not sure how I haven’t heard of this one before given my love of Rutger Hauer 80’s flicks, but i’m glad i’ve finally found it. Definitely one i’ll be watching again, and one I can confidently say is a hidden gem.
