How the Movie "Blind Fury" Was Filmed: 13 Interesting Facts About the Movie (13 photos)

The film "Blind Fury" (1989), about a blinded warrior who slashes his enemies with a samurai sword, became a real hit among audiences, although at the time it was a box office flop.





1. Actor Tim Matheson dreamed of being more than an actor. Or to be more precise, he dreamed of becoming a producer. His friend Charles Robert Carner decided to help his friend's dream come true, so he introduced Matheson to the famous producer Daniel Grodnick.



Tim Matheson

Grodnik liked the actor's desire to become a producer, and told him that if he found interesting material for him, he would make him his co-producer. A couple of weeks later, Matheson showed Grodnik the Japanese film Fire in the Eyes of the Samurai (1967), about a blind swordsman, and suggested that the producer make something similar.





"Fire in the Eyes of the Samurai"

Grodnik admired this picture and agreed with Matheson to transfer this film to American realities.

2. There was an idea for a new film, but there were difficulties with the rest. In total, the production of the film took as long as 7 years. During the production process, everything changed from the writing of the script to the cast, director and studios that would shoot the film. In the end, the film was shot by the studio "Try Star", and Phillip Noyce sat in the director's chair. The script for the film was written by the same Charles Robert Carner who introduced Matheson and Grodnik.



Director Phillip Noyce himself said that the film "Blind Fury" became a lifeline for him, which he grabbed to escape from Australia to the United States, since in his opinion, cinematography was already dying in his homeland.

3. The producers saw only Rutger Hauer in the role of blind Nick Parker. They believed that no one could cope with this role better than him.



4. The car stunts were performed by as many as 15 professional stuntmen, who raced on real one-way streets of Reno. One of the accidents, by the way, was not planned. It happened completely by accident. But the cameraman managed to film this collision, and the director also decided to include it in the film.



That very shot

5. In order to better get into the role of a blind man, Rutger Hauer consulted with blind African-American judo master Linnie Manning.



Manning blindfolded the actor and led him through the streets of Los Angeles. According to Rutger Hauer, he was very scared at that moment, because after 10 minutes he didn’t even understand where he was

6. Stephen Lambert was hired specifically to teach him sword fighting techniques. He was the one who staged all the fight scenes in the film. In order for Rutger Hauer to be ready for filming, Stephen Lambert began training the actor from morning to evening. As a result, after 3 months, Lambert managed to make a real swordsman out of Hauer.

7. Most of the filming took place on the streets of Reno, Nevada. It was there that the director found an abandoned casino, which was restored specifically for filming the movie.



8. During the filming of the movie it was so hot that the actors and other members of the crew almost fell over from sunstroke. Then the producers decided to buy a separate pool, where all members of the crew could hide from the heat at any time and recuperate.



9. During the filming of a scene somewhere in the wilderness of Texas, 4 cars appeared out of nowhere, from which a crowd of women got out. As it turned out, they came here specifically to look at Rutger Hauer. And the actor himself could not deny himself the pleasure of taking pictures with the women who rushed to this wilderness for his sake.

10. Hauer said that he could not make it look blind in the frame. In order for it all to look more authentic, the actor had to defocus his gaze.



11. Actor Sho Kosugi appears in the film for a couple of minutes, but it took much longer to film the fight scene between his character and Hauer's character. Moreover, Sho Kosugi also gave Hauer advice on sword fighting, which was very useful to the actor.



12. When the filming of the film was already completed, the studio management unexpectedly changed. The new management did not want to deal with "Blind Fury", including promoting the film. Director Phillip Noyce came to the studio bosses to ask them to release the film, but they refused. Then he offered them a deal. The deal was that Noyce would only release the film in Australia, and if the local audience liked it, they would allow it to be released in the US and worldwide.



The bosses agreed to Noyce's proposal and the film was released in Australia. To the surprise of the management, the film became a real hit in Australia, so under the terms of the deal, they agreed to release the film in the US.

13. But the film "Blind Fury" was unable to repeat its Australian success. In total, with a budget of 10 million dollars, the film collected only 2.7 million in the worldwide box office, which is why the management refused to give money for the production of the second part.



As it turned out, viewers were not particularly keen to go see this film because it did not feature A-list stars such as Jean Claude Van Damme or Sylvester Stallone. However, after some time, viewers did appreciate the film.