A blind Vietnam vet, trained as a swordfighter, comes to America and helps to rescue the son of a fellow soldier.
Nick Parker (Rutger Hauer), a war veteran from Vietnam, is left for dead after surviving a mortar attack that leaves him blind. He learns to develop his other senses with the help of local villagers who take him in. Not only does he overcompensate his other senses still available to him, but he also becomes a master swordsman. After deciding to return to the states to find his old war friend, he finds out his friend is involved in illegal drug manufacturing. With his friend’s family in danger of his actions, Nick must protect them all and bring down the drug syndicate.
“Blind Fury” first hit screens in March of 1990 and has since garnered a small cult following. Taking the exploitation of eastern traditions like that of the ’70s Kung Fu and adding the cheeky humor that began to lend itself to the genre, “Blind Fury” delivers sub-par action with a predictable plot. Of course, the film borrows from the acceptable social norms of its time with humor at the expense of a disabled person (despite his overdeveloped senses and combat skills). In a contemporary setting, the jokes fall flat and outright mean. Despite these modern failings, the film does deliver on the nostalgia of an old action film in some familiar ways. You get your cheesy one-liner or your comedic fight sequence that displays Nick’s fighting prowess. “Blind Fury” follows a fallible yet accurate template for an American adaptation of traditional Japanese samurai films.
The story loses pace and jumps from scene to scene in a very incoherent manner. Even the fighting is set up for predictable comebacks from boss level henchmen while other lower-level henchmen are easily executed. Still, there is a charm that has earned a solid cult following. There is a comic storytelling-like quality that lends itself to the style of the film more so than traditional cinema. The scenes feel more like storyboards than a coherent story. “Blind Fury” was initially accepted with open arms but as films and film criticism has evolved, so has the reception of this movie. Some films just click with a niche group, such as this one, that has continued to be revisited by nostalgic fans of this type of action. An apparent classic definitely not worth a revisit.
Now available on Retro VHS Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment
