The Blood of Heroes

Infobox_Film
name = The Blood of Heroes


caption =
director = David Webb Peoples
producer =
writer = David Webb Peoples
starring = Rutger Hauer
Joan Chen
Delroy Lindo
music = Todd Boekelheide
cinematography = David Eggby
editing = Richard Francis-Bruce
distributor =
released = 1989 (Australia)
runtime = 90 min.
language = English
budget = AUD $10,000,000
imdb_id = 0094764

"The Blood of Heroes" is a 1989 Science fiction film made in Australia and directed by David Webb Peoples. The film is also known by the names "The Salute of the Jugger" and "Salute to the Jugger". The film has inspired the creation of the sport Jugger.

Plot

The time is a post-apocalyptic future, where the wars waged in the wake of mankind's success in the 20th century have left the world barren and the past forgotten. In this time, most live from hand to mouth in enclaves known as "market-towns" or "dog-towns", scrounging out a bare subsistence harvesting hardy crops, raising dogs as food, and trading in whatever remnant trinkets from the past still survive.

What little entertainment is available in these times comes primarily from a brutal sport known only as The Game, and the merriment that follows after the day's play. The Game involves two armed and armoured teams attempting to score by placing a decorated dog skull on the opposing team's goalpost. One unarmed player runs with the skull, protected by the team's other members. It is played by bands of roving teams known collectively as juggers, who challenge local town teams. They pass for what might be considered professional athletes, as they make their living through the tribute paid by the people of the town, should they defeat the local team. Their trophy is the dog skull from the town.

However, not all in this time live so sparsely. To this day, The Nine Cities, buried deep underground, are home to affluent and powerful members of an aristocracy. Additionally, each of The Nine Cities fields its own team of juggers in an organization known as The League, and its membership is maintained with a fresh stream of new players who can prove excellence in travelling "dog-town" games by their collection of trophy skulls.

Members of The League live in luxury almost equal to that of aristocrats. It is a common dream among roving juggers to be good enough to receive The League's attention and, with it, all of the luxuries afforded a League player.

One of these teams will get its chance at the prize.

This team consists of Sallow (Hauer), Dog-Boy, Mbulu (Lindo), Big Cimber, and Young Gar (Vincent D'Onofrio)

Sallow, the team leader, has played in the League of the Nine Cities (all underground now) before, but was cast out because of his indiscretions with the lady lover of an Overlord. He now finds himself troubled by his past, playing The Game for his earnings. Kidda (Chen), an ambitious, young peasant girl joins the team after a game in her dog town where she virtually destroys her opposing competition and she and Gar instill a new desire in Sallow to challenge the league and purge his past.

Little do they realise that this time they are competing for more than just honour and the spoils of victory, this time they are fighting for their very survival. The Game is played a lot harder and meaner in the Nine Cities.

Alternate cuts

The US theatrical version of the film is significantly shorter than the original version released overseas (which has subsequently been shown on US cable). At least ten minutes have been cut. The biggest difference is in the ending. In the American release, the credits roll shortly after the climax, even though picture continues to roll, showing certain conversations with music covering the dialogue. In the longer cut, there are denouement scenes.

The US DVD release of the film matches the US theatrical cut in being much shorter than the original film. Full versions were released on VHS in the early 1990s in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan. Various distributors began releasing the original cut on DVD in early 2001.

There has long been a campaign to find the mysterious 104 minute Japanese version of SOTJ, known jokingly as 'The Grail of the Jugger'. This has even lead to the belief that European and Australian 'extended' DVD releases are somehow incomplete and that a 'super-extended' version is out there to be found.However, there is a simple explanation for this mystery version. Runtimes for the different cuts of the film are noted on imdb.com as 90 min (USA) and 104 min (Japan). The runtime of the UK/Australian version is around 99 minutes. Still, it is identical to the Japanese version except that it runs 4% faster due to PAL Speedup.

External links

*imdb title|id=0094764|title=The Blood of Heroes