''Blind Fury'' is a 1989 American

action comedy film Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of actio ...

directed by

Phillip Noyce Phillip Noyce (born 29 April 1950) is an Australian filmmaker. Since 1977, he has directed over 19 feature films in various genres, including historical drama (''Newsfront'', ''Rabbit-Proof Fence'', ''The Quiet American''); thrillers (''Dead Cal ...

and starring

Rutger Hauer Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century. Hauer's career began in 1969 with the title role in the Dutch television series ' ...

Brandon Call Brandon Spencer Lee Call (born November 17, 1976) is an American former television and film actor as a child and adolescent. He played Hobie Buchannon in the first year of ''Baywatch'', and J.T. Lambert over a period of seven seasons on the TV ...

Terry O'Quinn Terrance Quinn (born July 15, 1952), known professionally as Terry O'Quinn, is an American actor. He played John Locke on the TV series ''Lost'', the title role in '' The Stepfather'' and ''Stepfather II'', and Peter Watts in ''Millennium'', w ...

Lisa Blount Lisa Suzanne Blount (July 1, 1957 – October 27, 2010) was an American film and television actress, and Academy Award-winning producer. Early life Blount was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to Margaret Louise Martin and Glen Roscoe Blount, ...

Randall "Tex" Cobb Randall Craig "Tex" Cobb (born May 7, 1950) is an American actor, martial artist, and former professional boxer who competed in the heavyweight division. Widely considered to possess one of the greatest chins of all time, Cobb was a brawler who ...

, and

Noble Willingham Noble Henry Willingham, Jr. (August 31, 1931 – January 17, 2004) was an American television and film actor who appeared in more than thirty films and in many television shows, including a stint opposite Chuck Norris in ''Walker, Texas Ranger ...

. The screenplay by Charles Robert Carner is a loosely based, modernized

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...

of ''

Zatoichi Challenged is a 1967 Japanese '' chambara'' film directed by Kenji Misumi and starring Shintaro Katsu as the blind masseur Zatoichi. It was originally released by the Daiei Motion Picture Company (later acquired by Kadokawa Pictures). ''Zatoichi Challen ...

'', the 17th film in the Japanese ''

Zatoichi is a fictional character created by Japanese novelist Kan Shimozawa. He is an itinerant blind masseur and swordsman of Japan's late Edo period (1830s and 1840s). He first appeared in the 1948 essay , part of Shimozawa's ''Futokoro Techō'' serie ...

'' film series. The film follows Nick Parker (Hauer), a blind, sword-wielding

Vietnam War veteran A Vietnam veteran is a person who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War. The term has been used to describe veterans who served in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces, and ot ...

, who returns to the United States and befriends the son of an old friend. Parker decides to help the boy find his father, who has been kidnapped by a major

crime syndicate Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

Plot

While serving in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, American soldier Nick Parker was blinded by a mortar explosion. Rescued by local villagers, he recovered his health and, though he remains blind, was trained to master his other senses and be an expert swordsman. 20 years later, having returned to the United States, he visits old army buddy Frank Deveraux, only to find that Deveraux is missing. Parker meets Frank's son Billy and his mother Lynn, Frank's ex-wife. Minutes later, Frank's evil boss Claude MacCready's henchman Slag arrives with two corrupt police officers to kidnap Billy to use as leverage over Frank. Nick stops them; the officers are killed, Billy is knocked unconscious, but Slag mortally wounds Billy's mom before he escapes. With her last words, Lynn tells Nick to take Billy to his father in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. At a rest stop on the way to Reno, Parker tells Billy about his mother's death. Billy runs away from Nick and is grabbed by Slag and some henchmen. Slag escapes as Nick rescues Billy a second time, and Billy and Nick (now called Uncle Nick) become fond of one another. They reach Reno and find Frank's girlfriend Annie, who agrees to take them to Frank. After escaping yet another attempted kidnapping by MacCready's men, Annie suggests they hide out at the home of her friend Colleen. Annie takes Nick to MacCready's casino, where Frank is making MacCready's drugs. Annie returns to Colleen's to watch over Billy while Nick saves Frank. Nick and Frank are reunited; Frank takes the key ingredient in MacCready's drugs and destroys the lab. Avoiding casino security, Nick and Frank escape and head to Colleen's to reunite Billy with his dad; they find Colleen dead, Billy and Annie kidnapped, and a note instructing them to bring the drugs to MacCready's mountain penthouse in exchange for Billy and Annie. Knowing it is an ambush, Nick and Frank arm themselves with homemade napalm bombs. After killing all of MacCready's men, they find MacCready holding Billy and Annie at gunpoint. MacCready hired a Japanese assassin to kill Nick, but after an epic swordfight between the two, Nick wins by electrocuting the assassin in a hot tub. Slag shoots Nick in the shoulder and Nick throws his sword at Slag, impaling him. MacCready then tries to interfere only to be stopped by Frank. Billy escapes his rope and throws Nick's sword to him, but it lands in the hot tub. As Slag reaches for his gun, Nick grabs hold of the assassin's sword and slashes him, cutting him in half and causing him to fall out of a window. Frank is reunited with Billy and Annie, and they leave for San Francisco. Nick drops his ticket, choosing not to go. Billy follows Nick, telling him that he needs him. Nick says that while he is fond of Billy, he should go back to his father. Nick crosses the street and vanishes as a bus passes him. Saddened by Nick's departure, Billy throws a toy dinosaur off the bridge where Nick catches it. Billy calls out to Nick one last time and tells him that he'll miss him. As Frank catches up to Billy, they embrace. Nick smiles or sheds a tear, puts on his sunglasses while holding Billy's toy dinosaur with left arm in a sling, and walks off into the distance.

Cast

as Nick Parker *

as Frank Deveraux *

as Billy Deveraux *

as Claude MacCready *

as Annie Winchester *

as Slag *

Nick Cassavetes Nicholas David Rowland Cassavetes (born May 21, 1959) is an American actor, director, and writer. He has directed such films as ''She's So Lovely'' (1997), ''John Q.'' (2002), ''The Notebook'' (2004), '' Alpha Dog'' (2006), and '' My Sister's Kee ...

as Lyle Pike *

Rick Overton Richard Overton (born August 10, 1954) is an American screenwriter, actor and comedian. His writing credits include ''Dennis Miller Live'', and his acting credits include ''Beverly Hills Cop'', ''Groundhog Day'' and ''Mrs. Doubtfire''. Life and ...

as Tector Pike *

Meg Foster Margaret Foster is an American film and television actress. Some of her many roles were in the 1979 TV miniseries version of ''The Scarlet Letter'', and the films ''Ticket to Heaven'', ''The Osterman Weekend'', and '' They Live''. Early years F ...

as Lynn Deveraux * Shō Kosugi as The Assassin * Charles Cooper as Ed Cobb * Weasel Forshaw as Popcorn * Roy Morgan as Six Pack * Tim Mateer as Snow * Sharon Shackelford as Colleen * Woody Watson as Crooked Miami Cop * Alex Morris as Crooked Miami Cop * Mark Fickert as Bus Station Cop *

Jay Pennison Jay Leslie Pennison (born September 9, 1961 in Houma, Louisiana) is a former Professional sports, professional American football Center (American football), center who played in the United States Football League (USFL) and the National Football L ...

as Casino Bodyguard *

Tiger Chung Lee or Kim Duk ( ko, 김 덕/金徳) (born February 7, 1948) is a retired Zainichi-Korean professional wrestler, better known under his ring name . He was also known by the name Tiger Chung Lee in the World Wrestling Federation. Early life Masan ...

as Casino Bodyguard

Production

''Blind Fury'' marked the producing debut of actor

Tim Matheson Tim Matheson (born Timothy Lewis Matthieson; December 31, 1947) is an American actor and director. Some of his best-known acting roles include the title character of the 1960s animated ''Jonny Quest'' TV series, Eric "Otter" Stratton in the 197 ...

. Matheson produced the film having been a fan of the

film series. Matheson and producer

Daniel Grodnik Daniel Grodnik (born May 30, 1952) is an American film producer living in Los Angeles, California. In 1989, he and partner Tim Matheson took over ''National Lampoon'', becoming its chairman and CEO. Mr. Grodnik in is a member of the Producer's ...

spent seven years trying to find a distributor for the film. In 1986, the producers landed a deal with film distributor

Tri-Star Pictures TriStar Pictures, Inc. (spelled as Tri-Star until 1991) is an American film studio and production company that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, part of the multinational conglomerate Sony. It is a corporate sibling of Sony ...

. According to Grodnik, various writers and directors were attached to the project before Phillip Noyce was hired as the film's director. Hauer calls ''Blind Fury'' one of his "most difficult jobs" because of the combination of swordplay with playing a blind man; and Hauer spent a month training with

Lynn Manning Lynn Manning (April 30, 1955 – August 3, 2015) was an American Paralympian, playwright, poet and actor known for his autobiographical work that explores the complexities of life as a blind African-American man.Sandahl, Carrie "Manning, Lynn" pr ...

whose first words to him were "I don't get confused about what I see ...". Filming took place around the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

, where the cast and crew underwent humid weather conditions. Of the intense weather conditions, Matheson stated, "We shot in the Midwest and West, and it was incredibly hot. Everything was burning up. We ended up buying a three-foot pool for the cast and crew to wade through to cope with the heat." After

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

was completed, a sequel to the film was planned, but never materialized.

Reception

On their syndicated television program '' Siskel and Ebert and the Movies'', film critics

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

and

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...

gave the film "Two thumbs up". Reviewer Ian Jane of ''DVD Talk'' wrote, "Hauer does a commendable job in the lead and is reasonably convincing as a blind man. Like its Japanese predecessors, there is some humor interjected into the storyline that is handled well without becoming overbearing or taking over the action sequences." On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

''Blind Fury'' holds an approval rating of 56% based on 16 reviews, with a rating average of 4.9 out of 10.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1989 films 1989 martial arts films 1980s action comedy films American action comedy films American martial arts films American remakes of Japanese films Films about blind people Films directed by Phillip Noyce Films scored by J. Peter Robinson Films set in Reno, Nevada Interscope Communications films TriStar Pictures films Vietnam War films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films