Blind Fury starts as blind Vietnam veteran Nick Parker (Rutger Hauer) decides to look up his old army buddy Frank Devereaux (Terry O'Quinn), unfortunately Frank isn't at home but his wife Lynn (Meg Foster) & young son Billy (Brandon Call) are so he stops & has a chat. Shortly after two cops arrive looking for Billy, Nick senses something is wrong then a big guy named Slag (Randall 'Tex' Cobb) turns up & things get violent. Despite being blind Nick is a master swordsman & takes the bad guy's down but Lynn is shot dead in the process, feeling responsible Nick sets out to find Frank & discover what sort of trouble he is in & protect Billy at the same time. However the bad guy's are only just starting & Nick finds himself in danger every step of the way...
Directed by Phillip Noyce Blind Fury is one of those cheesy 80's action comedy flicks which is almost impossible to dislike despite knowing that you should. The script by associate producer Charles Robert Carner is a very light hearted remake of the Japanese martial arts film Zatoichi Challenged (1967) & thankfully doesn't take itself too seriously which helps the already silly central story, I mean sequences when Nick who is totally blind dodges guy's with automatic machine guns, defeats other swordsmen who can see & drives a van in a high speed car chase by having the young boy Billy give him directions like 'left', 'right' & 'straight on' really do need the viewer to suspend their disbelief. However if you can & just take Blind Fury for what it is then there's plenty of fun to be had here, there's some cool fights, shoot-outs & even a cool car chase to keep you entertained across it's 90 odd minute duration. The character's are likable which helps, there is some funny dialogue & the film also has a Lethal Weapon (1987) feel to it with the whole clichéd mismatched partner plot where at first Nick & Billy dislike each other but as they get to know one another a mutual respect & strong friendship forms & despite being clichéd it actually works rather well in Blind Fury.
Director Noyce does a good job, he keeps the pace up & things moving along nicely with some well choreographed action scenes. Blind Fury is also notable for some laugh out loud hilarious scenes as well, the opening montage of the Vietnamese villagers training the blind Nick with a sword & a vegetable are almost as funny as the scene in which Nick is sitting against a tree & he hears a buzzing sound & after one swipe of his sword there is a shot of a cut in half bee falling to the ground! Just the whole idea of a blind man cutting a flying bee in half with a sword is just too funny for words & has to be seen to be believed. As does the bit when Nick cuts the eyebrows off a bad guy with his sword! Unfortunately it's sometimes hard to relate Nick with blindness as he does all sorts of things a blind man in reality would find impossible, he has sword fights with people & wins, he walks around buildings & places he's never been before & never bumps into or falls over things, he drives a van he'd never sat in before & there are many things he does which he would have to be able to see to do. Nick's blindness could have been used much more effectively than it was. The violence isn't too excessive, there's a severed hand & Nick cuts a bad guy in half at the end but there's not much else in the way of graphic violence.
Technically the film is good & has a solid 80's action feel to it, according to the IMDb Blind Fury was shot in Houston, Texas & in Reno, Nevada & strangely in Australia. It's well made & looks nice enough for what it is. The acting is alright, Rutger Hauer is Rutger Hauer I suppose which says it all while Noble Willingham puts in a bit of practise as the bad guy in preparation for his similar role in the Bruce Willis action flick The Last Boy Scout (1991) made a couple of years after Blind Fury.
Blind Fury turned out to be a much better action flick than I had anticipated it would be, there's some neat action, a decent story & some funny moments that passed 90 odd minutes pleasantly enough for me. A must for cheesy 80's action junkies like me!
Directed by Phillip Noyce Blind Fury is one of those cheesy 80's action comedy flicks which is almost impossible to dislike despite knowing that you should. The script by associate producer Charles Robert Carner is a very light hearted remake of the Japanese martial arts film Zatoichi Challenged (1967) & thankfully doesn't take itself too seriously which helps the already silly central story, I mean sequences when Nick who is totally blind dodges guy's with automatic machine guns, defeats other swordsmen who can see & drives a van in a high speed car chase by having the young boy Billy give him directions like 'left', 'right' & 'straight on' really do need the viewer to suspend their disbelief. However if you can & just take Blind Fury for what it is then there's plenty of fun to be had here, there's some cool fights, shoot-outs & even a cool car chase to keep you entertained across it's 90 odd minute duration. The character's are likable which helps, there is some funny dialogue & the film also has a Lethal Weapon (1987) feel to it with the whole clichéd mismatched partner plot where at first Nick & Billy dislike each other but as they get to know one another a mutual respect & strong friendship forms & despite being clichéd it actually works rather well in Blind Fury.
Director Noyce does a good job, he keeps the pace up & things moving along nicely with some well choreographed action scenes. Blind Fury is also notable for some laugh out loud hilarious scenes as well, the opening montage of the Vietnamese villagers training the blind Nick with a sword & a vegetable are almost as funny as the scene in which Nick is sitting against a tree & he hears a buzzing sound & after one swipe of his sword there is a shot of a cut in half bee falling to the ground! Just the whole idea of a blind man cutting a flying bee in half with a sword is just too funny for words & has to be seen to be believed. As does the bit when Nick cuts the eyebrows off a bad guy with his sword! Unfortunately it's sometimes hard to relate Nick with blindness as he does all sorts of things a blind man in reality would find impossible, he has sword fights with people & wins, he walks around buildings & places he's never been before & never bumps into or falls over things, he drives a van he'd never sat in before & there are many things he does which he would have to be able to see to do. Nick's blindness could have been used much more effectively than it was. The violence isn't too excessive, there's a severed hand & Nick cuts a bad guy in half at the end but there's not much else in the way of graphic violence.
Technically the film is good & has a solid 80's action feel to it, according to the IMDb Blind Fury was shot in Houston, Texas & in Reno, Nevada & strangely in Australia. It's well made & looks nice enough for what it is. The acting is alright, Rutger Hauer is Rutger Hauer I suppose which says it all while Noble Willingham puts in a bit of practise as the bad guy in preparation for his similar role in the Bruce Willis action flick The Last Boy Scout (1991) made a couple of years after Blind Fury.
Blind Fury turned out to be a much better action flick than I had anticipated it would be, there's some neat action, a decent story & some funny moments that passed 90 odd minutes pleasantly enough for me. A must for cheesy 80's action junkies like me!