By DANNY STEWART (BearManor Media; 2024)
Author Danny Stewart is quickly establishing himself as one of the preeminent chroniclers of underappreciated science fiction cinema from the eighties and nineties, and the world’s foremost authority on screenwriter David Webb Peoples. Stewart’s 2023 book SOLDIER: FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN offered an exhaustive take on the making and reception of the Peoples scripted SOLDIER (1998) and Stewart’s follow-up volume SALUTING THE BLOOD OF HEROES: BEHIND THE APOCALYPTIC FILM purports to do the same for THE BLOOD OF HEROES, a.k.a. SALUTE OF THE JUGGER, Peoples’ first and only outing as a director.
THE BLOOD OF HEROES/SALUTE OF THE JUGGER was a low budget Rutger Hauer vehicle released in 1989. About a brutal ball game played with a dog skull in a dystopian wasteland, the film is far from great, but nonetheless has its charms. I prefer it to Norman Jewison’s dreary and self-important ROLLERBALL (1975); that film partook of the same literary source material that inspired Peoples (William Harrison’s “Rollerball Murders” story), who unlike Jewison had fun with his interpretation.
Whereas SOLDIER: FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN took an extremely deep dive into its subject, SALUTING THE BLOOD OF HEROES treats THE BLOOD OF HEROES as a jumping-off point for a panoramic overview of apocalyptic cinema. This may be due to the fact that few of THE BLOOD OF HEROES’ surviving cast and crewmembers seem interested in talking about it, as is evident in an interview with Peoples, who’s quite dismissive toward the film and his own directorial abilities (“to be a director, you have to think like one, and I don’t”). This book, then, is best viewed as an anthology, with a range of subject matter—the apocalypse, Mary Shelley, THE RUNNING MAN (novel and film), Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, MAD MAX, James Cameron, Cormac McCarthy and Terry Gilliam—that I found irresistible.
In addition to Danny Stewart, there are contributions by John Kenneth Muir, who provides what must be counted as one of the finest analyses that exists of THE TERMINATOR (1984), and John Hansen, who offers his thoughts on the Peoples scripted 12 MONKEYS (1995). Also included is an interview with Dennis Maguire about his duties as first assistant director on THE POSTMAN (1997), a learned overview of post-apocalyptic fiction and film, and a description of the actual jugger game (which is apparently quite popular in Germany) that was inspired by THE BLOOD OF HEROES.
The book has proofreading issues (as when Francois Truffaut’s FAHRENHEIT 451 is claimed to have been “directed by Nicholas Reeves” and SALUTE OF THE JUGGER is rendered as “Salute the Jugger”), a common complaint when it comes to Bear Manor Media publications, but otherwise this registers as a hugely enjoyable and eclectic read. It may not tell you everything you need to know about THE BLOOD OF HEROES, but it does provide an excellent accounting of Hollywood’s post-apocalyptic firmament and the film’s place within it.