Die Jugger: Kampf der Besten

Is a B grade movie in looks, feel and budget but an A grade film in terms of story and characters.

Its a really engaging tale that captures your interest with characters you can invest with.

The 'world' that the movie is set in feels reminiscent to Mad Max 2 or perhaps 3.

Looks aren't everything, this film offers a lot to the viewer :)

It's difficult to adequately describe this amazing movie A truly remarkable film. It tells a simple story in a beautiful and brutal way. The writing stays out of the way and allows the story to be told with out getting gunked up with a lot of preachy dialogue. The performances by Hauer, D'Onofrio, and Chen are intense when they have to be and minimalistic when they ought to be. But the true genius of this movie is the production design. The details are what leap out at me. The little things. Everything seems right and nothing is out of place. The constant brutality is underscored by the moments of beauty and heroics. SEE THIS MOVIE

On the surface, `The Blood of Heroes' comes across as a poor man's `Road Warrior' -- somewhere in the far-flung future, survivors of a nuclear apocalypse are doing their best to survive and thrive. In `Blood of Heroes', though, these survivors at least have some form of entertainment -- a sport calling `Jugging', which can best be described as a cross between football, lacrosse, and a gladiator death match, serves as popular entertainment. One of the teams of `Juggers' that travels from city to city is lead by Sallow (Rutger Hauer) a former world-class champion looking for one last shot at glory.

Essentially, `The Blood of Heroes' is a cross between a sports film and `The Road Warrior', but that's okay, since it manages to lift the best elements from its source and blends them into something fun, if not necessarily original. Rutger Hauer puts in a cool performance as Sallow, a man who acts like he doesn't care about anything -- even though he desperately wants to taste greatness again, even if it's only for a brief moment.

The `Jugger' matches are great, mainly because they're quick, bloody and brutal. Characters limp after matches, wounds get infected and take forever to heal . . . ironically enough, while the film is cartoonish in many ways, there's a certain gritty realism at its heart. Nothing comes for free, and anything that Sallow and his ragtag team of `Juggers' want, well, there's always a price.

`The Blood of Heroes' is full of action and full of fun, even if some of the dialogue is slightly cheesy and some of the scenes are bad, tired cliches. If you're a sci-fi/action fan, you'll definitely like it -- and if you're a Rutger Hauer aficionado, you'll probably love it.

Grade: B

I recently rewatched this movie for the first time in ages, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it held up remarkably well to my older eyes. So many gritty post-apocalyptic hero type flicks that I liked when I was younger turn out upon a more sober "adult" viewing to be amateurish and juvenile. But this movie has real depth, and drew me back in from the opening scene. It fully deserves any cult status it may have achieved, and I went ahead and ordered the DVD (which is finally out) for my collection.

The film is set against the backdrop of a fully realized post-apocalyptic society that actually makes sense (and the "game" the movie is built around is well conceived and executed too). Unlike in many futuristic movies, there is no need for grand exposition explaining why everybody in the film is acting so bizarrely -- in this movie, you understand the people, their desperation, and the certain grim courage of those who dare to dream of more. The movie also has the courage to take itself seriously, while still retaining a light enough touch to throw in spots of humor throughout.

The cast here is several cuts above normal for this sort of thing, with a number of recognizable faces (Chen, D'Onofrio, Hauer, Lindo) making believable and sympathetic characters out of what easily could have been cartoonish cutouts in a lesser film. Chen and Hauer play the two main characters. For Chen, I think it can be argued this is her finest performance, deftly combining vulnerability with courage, innocence with savagery. And for Hauer, an actor who has in more recent times has become a parody of himself, I think this may have represented his last truly effective performance. The stories of these two characters are not stories of grandiose save-the-world heroes, but more down to Earth stories of courage, redemption, and most importantly hope in a world with little of it. The characters aren't pure, they're not pompous, they're just normal people trying to make the best of a tough life. And I think that makes rooting for them all the easier. Its not so important they win -- its important that the find the strength to strive rather than give up. Simple tenacity and the courage to never give up is far more inspiring than the vast majority of the superheroes in the modern comic book adaptation fad. It really is remarkable to find such deft handling of themes like these in an offbeat movie from a genre filled with Grade B quickies.

P.S. I have never seen the longer version, and actually don't really have an interest to. The shorter "Blood of Heroes" is appealing precisely because it manages to scrounge out hope and weary courage from the grim backdrop in a believable fashion.

What a hidden gem of a cinematic effort! I cannot believe that this film didn't receive the notoriety it deserved back in '88! The backdrop is the standard post-apocalyptic mess that humanity has left itself in after "who knows what." The juggers travel town-to-town in search of food and entertainment, in return for providing matches against the local teams.

The script is well executed and one is led to believe this sport would have a wide following in the aftermath, almost like a team sport of UFC of the future. The characters are superb and Hauer and Chen really give them life. Rutger needs to go back to this flick and see what he has lost! I really cared about this band of juggers and it seemed like everyone in the ensemble was on the same page. The Blood Of Heroes is a tremendous miss in the anals of great sci-fi films. Please go rent it.