Salute of the Jugger

It is The Wasted Futureâ„¢ and mankind is eeking out a meager existance from the scarred land, while the rich and powerful few live in underground cities. Entertainment in this day and age consists of a blood sport, where two teams of five, in piecemeal scrap armour and armed with makeshift weapons, engage in a contest to be the first to place a dog's skull upon their "goal-spike" before the 300 stones are counted out.

The men and women who play this deadly game are known as Juggers, and teams of them travel from village to village in the wastelands, competing against each other for food, money, and the chance to bed the local villagers. The qwik (goal scorer) of an experienced team of Juggers, lead by Sallow (Rutger Hauer), becomes injured during a match, and a local girl named Kidda (Joan Chen) joins the team to replace him.

Kidda dreams of journeying to the Nine Cities to enter the league of Juggers that compete to entertain the wealthy. Only the best Juggers are invited to the league, and no challenging team has ever lasted more than 26 stones.

Originally written by Peoples in the late 70s, he passed the screenplay on to Rutger Hauer while the two were working on Blade Runner, the screenplay for which, was also penned by Peoples. Hauer was very interested in the part, unfortunately due to other commitments, it wasn't until 1988 that two were able to reunite and begin production on one of the last post-apocalyptic wasteland films to draw a well known actor... at least until The Postman, but let's not speak of that.

Update: I've been reliably informed that the DVD release has a modified ending from the original, closing one or two minutes earlier than older, VHS releases.

"When I said I was afraid, I didn't meant that I wouldn't have played."

Presented in full-frame pan & scan, rather than it's original aspect ratio, the picture is surprisingly good for something that is usually regarded as B-grade trash. Images are clean and clear through out, blacks are strong and the contrast is quite good, with the desert scenes looking particularly bleak.

The only real problem was a glitch just after our team enters Red City, as the screen became very pixellated on my Pioneer. I was unable to replicate the fault on my Creative DVD-Rom drive however, so may be a player/disc related problem.

Audio is more in line with the status of the film, carrying only a two channel mix, rather than a full 5.1 remix. Although quite plain, there are no actual problems with the soundtrack - dialogue is clear, with no obvious synching issues, and the score does a good job at filling the limited soundstage.

A small collection of extras here, with some fairly interesting and detailed production notes describing the filming in Coober Peedy and Sydney. The cast and crew bios are quite detailed, and their filmographies look to be fairly complete. The only "standard" extra that's missing is a theatrical trailer - a pity, as I'm sure it would have been very cheesy.

This film is actually better than you may suspect. While the premise is fairly slim (we never actually find out why this sport is so popular, or how it started) the script is quite good, for what is essentially just another team-sport movie.

Having developed somewhat of a B-movie reputation, Salute of the Jugger will not be to everyone's tastes. Even though this disc may feel like you're watching a VHS version, with it's full-frame picture, and stereo soundtrack, taking a second look at that image quality will remind you how DVD is so much better.