Blind Fury (1989) TriStar/Action-Comedy RT: 86 minutes Rated R (violence, language, drug material) Director: Phillip Noyce Screenplay: Charles Robert Carner Music: J. Peter Robinson Cinematography: Don Burgess Release date: March 16, 1990 (US) Cast: Rutger Hauer, Terry O’Quinn (as Terrance O’Quinn), Lisa Blount, Brandon Call, Randall “Tex” Cobb, Noble Willingham, Meg Foster, Nick Cassavetes, Rick Overton, Charles Cooper, Sho Kosugi. Box Office: $2.6M (US)
Rating: ***
I do not understand why Blind Fury didn’t get a wider release. It only played at 353 theaters when it opened on March 16, 1990, the same weekend as the infamous Lambada movie dance-off- The Forbidden Dance (637 theaters) vs. Lambada (1117 theaters). It didn’t play at a single cinema here in Philadelphia. I was bummed because I really wanted to see it. The trailer was cool. Keep in mind that in 1990, you still had to go the cinema to see trailers; you couldn’t just look them up on YouTube like you can today. I saw the trailer a couple of times before its scheduled release date came and went. I had to wait until it came out on video later that summer.
Directed by Aussie filmmaker Phillip Noyce (Dead Calm, Patriot Games), Blind Fury stars Rutger Hauer (The Hitcher) as Nick Parker, a blind Vietnam vet who also happens to be an expert swordsman. He was blinded in a mortar explosion and probably would have died if he wasn’t rescued by local villagers. It’s there where he learned how to handle a sword without the aid of sight. His training mainly consists of slicing melons in mid-air. If he can do that to produce, imagine what he can do to bad guys.
Twenty years later, Nick makes his way to Florida where he hopes to find his old war buddy Frank (O’Quinn, The Stepfather). He finds the right house, but his friend doesn’t live there anymore. Instead, he meets Frank’s ex-wife Lynn (Foster, They Live) and young son Billy (Call, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane). He’s told that his old pal now lives in Reno. That’s about all the socializing they get to do before trouble comes knocking at the door in form of a hulking thug named Slag (Cobb, Raising Arizona) and a pair of corrupt cops. They work for crime boss MacCready (Willingham, The Last Boy Scout) who’s forcing Frank to manufacture drugs to pay off a huge gambling debt. The plan is to hold Frank’s family hostage in order to ensure his compliance. He didn’t count on Nick Parker.
Nick deals with the dirtbags, but not before Lynn is fatally shot. She makes him promise to take Billy to his father in Reno before dying. Now it’s up to him to watch over and protect Billy until they reach their destination. Slag, the only surviving baddie from the Florida attack, is on their tail the whole time. At one point, he and a squad of gun-toting redneck goons pursue Billy and Nick through a cornfield. Rather, they go after Billy while Nick goes after them. Any way you slice it, the outcome is a foregone conclusion.
I like Blind Fury a lot. It’s an action-comedy with plenty of both things, but it also has a heart. The part of the movie dealing with Nick and Billy is actually kind of sweet. Here’s a blind guy who’s presumably been on his own since returning home from Vietnam. He can take care of himself just fine, but deep down he misses that human connection we all need even if we think we don’t. Then we have Billy, a kid who’s been without a father for a while. Initially, he’s an insufferable little brat who thinks it’s funny to flip off a blind man, the same one he has to rely on after his mother is killed. The bond that develops between the two is nice. Nick comes to really care about the boy and vice versa. At the end when they have to part ways, Billy’s reaction resembles the final scene of Shane with him calling out to Nick after he loses sight of him. To his credit, Noyce never lets Blind Fury get too maudlin. He injects the right amount of sap.
WOW! What a cast! The late Hauer was always an amazing actor. He carries Blind Fury quite well, but it wouldn’t have been as great if not for an awesome supporting cast. The late Lisa Blount (Prince of Darkness) plays Annie, a casino cocktail waitress who’s romantically involved with Frank. She’s a big help to Nick. Cobb is one of my favorite character actors. He’s a rough and tough type with a sense of humor about himself. He’s perfect as the main henchman, one of those hard to kill types that keeping coming for the hero. Willingham is a great bad guy. Nick Cassavetes (The Wraith) and Rick Overton (Beverly Hills Cop) play a couple of dimwitted thugs hired to bring the boy to their boss. They’re funny. Sho Kosugi of Cannon’s Ninja Trilogy shows up near the end as an assassin brought in to deal with Nick. Their fight is AWESOME!
Loosely based on Zatoichi Challenged (about the blind swordsman Zatoichi), Blind Fury is a fun, cartoonish, martial arts actioner with a simple plot and nicely staged action scenes. The best part is a car chase through the streets of Reno. One of the vehicles is driven by….. yep, you guessed it, Nick. At one point, the driver of the car next to him asks, “Are you blind?” to which Nick replies, “Yeah. What’s your excuse?” Now that’s funny!
Blind Fury isn’t perfect. It’s a bit choppy and Noyce struggles to find the right balance of action, comedy and heartwarming drama. It’s too silly to be taken seriously as an action flick and too violent to be a flat-out comedy. Yet it somehow works out just right in the end. I had a blast revisiting this flick after more than 30 years. It’s fun and the fun doesn’t feel forced. That’s a big plus right there.
