The Blood of Heroes (1989) New Line/Sci-Fi-Action RT: 87 minutes (US version)/100 minutes (International version) Rated R (strong brutal violence, language, sexual content/references) Director: David Peoples Screenplay: David Peoples Music: Todd Boekelheide Cinematography: David Eggby Release date: February 23, 1990 (US) Cast: Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen, Vincent D’Onofrio (as “Vincent Phillip D’Onofrio”), Delroy Lindo, Anna Katarina, Gandhi MacIntyre, Justin Monjo, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Max Fairchild, Richard Norton, Lia Francisa. Box Office: $882,290 (US)
Rating: ***
Overseas, it’s called The Salute of the Jugger. Here in the good old USA, it’s known as The Blood of Heroes. I like that title better. It’s the title I saw it under in February 1990. I saw it on a self-made double bill (that’s right, I movie hopped!) with the Cannon comedy-horror Rockula starring Dean Cameron, better known as horror movie freak Chainsaw in Summer School (1987). The version I saw that Saturday afternoon was the shorter cut released in the US. It’s also the one I watched this past weekend. Today I watched the longer cut released in other parts of the world. It was my first time seeing this version. That’s the version I’ll be reviewing here.
The Blood of Heroes is written and directed by David Peoples. It’s his only feature film directorial effort. As a writer, he wrote the screenplay for Clint Eastwood’s western Unforgiven (1992). He co-wrote Blade Runner (1982), Ladyhawke (1985), Leviathan (1989) and 12 Monkeys (1995). He has a fairly impressive resume as you can see. He doesn’t do too badly with The Blood of Heroes, an Australian-made post-apocalyptic piece that’s like a cross between The Road Warrior (1981) and any given underdog sports movie.
In this dystopian future, the only form of entertainment is a brutal sport known as “The Game”. Think of it as a mix of football and lacrosse. The players are known as “Juggers”. The object is for the “Qwik” (sort of like a running back) to place a dog skull on the opposing team’s post. The first team to do so wins the match. It’s not as easy as it sounds. The players are allowed to use weapons (e.g. big chains, hooks, clubs with barbed wire) to protect their own Qwik or stop the other one from scoring. A game typically consists of three rounds, each one lasting 100 stone. The timekeeper throws stones against a metal gong at several-second intervals until he reaches 100.
Sallow (Hauer, Blade Runner) is the leader of a roving team of Juggers consisting of Young Gar (D’Onofrio, Full Metal Jacket), Mbulu (Lindo, Broken Arrow), Big Cimber (Katarina, Batman Returns), Dog-Boy (Monjo, No Escape) and Gandhi (MacIntyre, Dead End Drive-In). They travel on foot from “dog-town” to dog-town, playing matches against the home teams. It’s during one such match that their Qwik Dog-Boy is very badly injured. He’ll probably never play again. He tells his teammates to go ahead without him; he’s okay with being left to die in the barren wasteland that was once the Australian Outback.
Luckily, a replacement Qwik is at the ready. It’s Kidda (Chen, The Last Emperor), a girl from the dog-town they just left. She played the same position on her home team. She’s an ambitious one this Kidda. The dream is get noticed by “The League”, this sport’s version of the majors. They’re treated like royalty, almost on par with the aristocratic leaders of the underground cities (i.e. “The Nine Cities”) that serve as home to the most affluent members of this post-apocalyptic society. To be a League player is a great privilege. Sallow used to play for the League before they kicked him out for having an affair with the wife (Francisa) of one of the top guys in the upper echelon, one Lord Vile (Byrne, Toecutter from Mad Max). Needless to say, he’s not too anxious to see any of his former associates again.
Pride eventually gets the better of Sallow and he leads his team to Red City where he challenges their League team to a match. Lord Vile, recognizing his old enemy, accepts with the intention of putting an end to Sallow’s playing days. He puts his best player, a bald behemoth named Gonzo (Fairchild, Mad Max), on it. If I may resort to a cliché, they’re about to play the Game of their life.
When released in the US, The Blood of Heroes was cut by about thirteen minutes. So what was omitted? I noticed two additional scenes. In the first, Sallow and his people are stopped by “Enforcement Officers” who demand they pay a travelling tax, all the money they have on them. They get around in a car meaning that some form of petroleum exists in this primitive futuristic hellhole. The second is an extended ending which elaborates on the fate of the characters after the League match. There’s also some extra business about Gar needing to up his game after failing to adequately protect Dog-Boy during that first match. Extended scenes and added shots make up the rest of the longer running time. None of it really makes The Blood of Heroes any better or worse; it’s just makes it different in terms of tone. The American version is slightly less downbeat.
Peoples, with the help of production designer John Stoddart, costume designer Terry Ryan and cinematographer David Eggby, paints a bleak portrait of a future where the 20th century has been forgotten. Opening titles refer to it as a “Golden Age” with “miraculous technology”. Where has it all gone? Lost to the “cruel wars” of the 20th century, no doubt. The surface world is a dirty, dusty, sun-baked place populated by folks scratching out an existence with their bare hands. The underground towns aren’t much better. They’re dark (and I do mean DARK), dank places with leaking walls and no sunlight. It almost makes The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2) look like a utopia. I said almost.
Hauer, covered with scars and minus one eye, projects a strong sense of weariness caused by the rough life he’s led. He’s seen it all and done it all. He knows the score. He walks in on Kidda and Young Gar having a post-game screw and says, “Two Juggers can’t f*** after the game. It doesn’t work. Unless you like to rub wounds against wounds.” He also has a funny idea of what constitutes foreplay. He finds himself in bed with Kidda and they talk about scars. He says, “I like scars.” [Insert swoony sigh here] Just what every girl longs to hear. Dopey dialogue notwithstanding, Hauer still delivers a fine performance here. He was a true bad ass.
Chen, in a part originally written for an Amazonian-type actress, is the film’s true MVP. Kidda might be lacking in size, but she’s fast and feisty. She’s got balls (not literally, of course). Like many a Disney heroine, she wants more than the life she’s currently living. She longs to play for the League so she can experience the finer things in life like silk, a material she’s told feels “like wind on your cheek”. She breathes life into Sallow and his ragged band of non-merry Juggers, one of whom carries an armoire filled with medical supplies on his back.
Most of the dialogue in The Blood of Heroes is cheesy, but one line tops them all. Mara, who has a thing for tasting blood, says, “I don’t like brutality. I like heroics. I like the blood of heroes.” Don’t you love it when somebody says the name of the movie in the movie? I always have to suppress my urge to cheer when it happens. BTW, nobody ever says “the salute of the Jugger”. Gonzo, looking and sounding like the Aussie version of Tor Johnson (Plan 9 from Outer Space), gets off another great line when he pointedly tells Lord Vile in response to his “request” to put Sallow down, “I’ve broken Juggers in half, smashed their bones, left the ground behind me wet with brains. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to win. But I never hurt anyone for any reason other than sticking a dog’s skull on a stake.”
My only real complaint about The Blood of Heroes is that Hugh Keays-Byrne goes underused. Come on, he was the Toecutter in Mad Max! He was also in Stone (1974) The Man from Hong Kong (1975) and Mad Dog Morgan (1976). The man is an Ozploitation star! He should have been given more to do. Other than that, I like The Blood of Heroes. It’s pure 100% trash, but it knows it and owns it!
