The Post-Apocalyptic Sports Cult Classic You’ve Never Seen

Did you know there’s a fairly lavish, post-apocalyptic action movie out there—written and directed by the writer of Blade Runner and Unforgiven—that stars Rutger Hauer? Unless you’re a hardcore fan, you might not. The film, which is called either The Blood of Heroes or Salute of the Jugger depending on where you hail from, came and went without much of a peep. Yet, it’s a unique attempt at mashing up action, westerns, sports movies, and even arthouse into one unwieldy but fascinating film.

The Enigma of Rutger Hauer

Of all the actors to have had a big career in the 1980s, Rutger Hauer is one of the most unusual. First blasting onto the scene thanks to his early work with Paul Verhoeven, the Dutch leading man very nearly became an A-list movie star in the States, but just missed the mark. He almost “happened” in the same way as Michael Biehn or Michael Paré; if he had zigged instead of zagged, he would have been a household name.

Hauer made it closer than most. He impressed as the villain in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Nighthawks before landing his most famous role: the sympathetic replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner. Despite playing the antagonist, he brought so much depth to the performance that he earned raves, arguably outshining star Harrison Ford, who was deliberately portrayed as somewhat inhuman.

The problem was that none of Hauer’s roles as a leading man made any money:

• The Flops: Sam Peckinpah’s The Osterman Weekend and Verhoeven’s Flesh and Blood both failed to find an audience.
• The Cult Hits: Ladyhawke featured him as an excellent heroic knight, but only found its footing later. His attempt at action-hero stardom in Wanted: Dead or Alive fizzled, and while he ruled in Blind Fury, its success was largely limited to the home video market.
• The Irony: His most successful film of the era by a long shot was The Hitcher, which cast him as one of the most evil villains of all time, effectively sealing his fate as a character actor rather than a traditional leading man.

The World of the Jugger

Filmed right after Blind Fury, The Blood of Heroes was Hauer’s last fairly big movie as a lead. Shot in Australia, it plays like a movie set directly within the Mad Max universe. The world has been wrecked by a series of wars, leaving society fractured into hardscrabble market towns while the elites live far underground.

The only relief for the populace comes from watching “The Game”—a brutal sport where two armored teams score points by placing a dog’s skull on the opposing team’s goal post.

Hauer plays Sallow, the captain of a wandering “jugger” team. Sallow was once in the prestigious underground League but was cast out. Now, he travels with a roaming band that features an incredible, surprising cast:

• Delroy Lindo as the veteran Mbulu.
• Joan Chen as Kidda, a fierce new player. Chen was widely viewed as a global sex symbol at the time after The Last Emperor, but here she dirtied up and thrived in a rough-and-tumble role.
• Vincent D’Onofrio as Gar. Fresh off Full Metal Jacket, a young, ripped D’Onofrio was briefly positioned as a heartthrob (famously playing the Thor-like mechanic in Adventures in Babysitting) before finding his true calling as a character actor as he aged.

Behind the Camera: A Lone Directorial Effort

The film was directed by David Webb Peoples, marking his one and only film in the director’s chair. Having previously teamed with Hauer as a co-writer on Blade Runner, Peoples’ screenwriting career would later get a massive second wind when he penned Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece, Unforgiven.

To some extent, The Blood of Heroes is highly reminiscent of Norman Jewison’s Rollerball—minus the heavy satire. It portrays the grim reality of a deadly sport where players are modern-day gladiators entertaining those above their station. While it follows a familiar sports movie formula of a downtrodden team making it to the big time, it remains thoughtful and elegiac. It was clearly meant to be taken as a serious work, rather than the hollow action movie it was marketed as when it was dumped on U.S. home video.

Box Office Failure and the 4K Resurrection

The film was beautifully shot by David Eggby (the cinematographer behind the original Mad Max), and it truly feels like a bridge between The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. It cost over $10 million—a tidy sum for an independent film at the time—but sadly grossed less than a million dollars in the U.S.

The Cult Cuts: The film was severely butchered by its American distributor, King’s Road, which hacked 15 minutes out of the runtime and left it with a strangely abrupt ending. Overseas, the uncut director’s version—released under its original title, Salute of the Jugger—received a much warmer reception.

For decades, the film was incredibly difficult to find in North America, surviving only via outdated, pan-and-scan DVD transfers of the inferior U.S. cut. Fortunately, Umbrella Entertainment recently stepped in with a lavish 4K restoration. The release presents both cuts in their original aspect ratio with a brand-new color grade by the DP, and even includes a longer, rare workprint cut.

A Strange Real-World Legacy

Curiously, the fictional sport invented for the film has taken on a life of its own. In the 1990s, fans in Europe began playing Jugger in real life. The sport has since crossed the Atlantic and picked up serious steam on American college campuses, with official leagues popping up across the country.

There is even an excellent documentary about the phenomenon called I Am Jugger available to watch on YouTube. It is a wonderfully strange, fascinating legacy for a forgotten movie to leave behind—but then again, you never really know what’s going to strike a chord with people.