The Salute of the Jugger

I certainly didn't have high expectations as I rented this movie. I hadn't heard of it before so I figured it would be some B-version of Mad Max. The reason it caught my eye was that it featured Rutger Hauer in the leading role. His acting skills is limited but his charisma gives his characters a weight that many better actors can't provide.

David Webb Peoples have done more writing than directing. He is behind movies such as "Blade Runner" , "Twelve Monkeys" and "Soldier", all of them similar to "Salute of the Jugger".

It's easy to tell that this movie have a low budget. Most of it takes place out in an apocalyptic desert kind of landscape. The rest in an underground colosseum. No panoramic shots. There are no special effects whatsoever, and that enforces the sense of gritty, futuristic realism that sets this movie apart from many others in the same genre.

You never get to know any of the characters well, but they all have a certain depth thanks to the good acting performances. Luckily this movie has no humoristic sidekick character. That's a relief. Most of these movies have one or several of those.

This movie is no masterpiece, but it's a well-played movie that kept me entertained for the time it lasted. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. With some character development and a bigger budget it could have been a true classic, and it deserves more recognition.

If you haven't seen this movie already I suggest you do it.

It was a while ago when I first saw this movie and watched it again recently. People might complain that it doesn't have enough dialogue, plot is not intricate enough, there aren't any special effects for a Sci-fi movie, and it is too low budget to be considered a good movie. But I'll say people who say such things, they don't really know how to appreciate a good movie or understand what a good movie is, because they are too used to modern day rubbish jam packed with special effects, explosions, unnecessary twists and horrible scripts.

I think everything is done just right in the movie and I especially love the way they give no sentimentality to the backdrop to the movie. No discussion of the past as to why the world they do jugging is the way it is and everyone in this world just get on with their lives in this gritty desolate world without any lamenting thoughts to the past.

I won't go into much detail, but all I'll say is just watch the movie and you'll be glad that you did. By the way, it seems like there are two versions which I didn't realise until I read the comments here and seems like the shorter version cuts out the ending. Since I thought the ending was very fitting I do recommend you watch the longer version, it just won't have the same impact without the proper ending.

"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.

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.