The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman (1983)

Truly Dreadful Film

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A piece of trash from Indonesia, this incredibly strange film charts the strange friendship of a blind swordsman (who actually uses a wooden pole more than a sword, but THE WARRIOR AND THE BLIND POLEMAN wouldn't have sounded as good a title) and a strange little guy who has big hair. The latter is apparently "Barry" (or Berry) Prima, an Indonesian cross between Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jackie Chan with a Rambo hairstyle. He starred in about a dozen Indonesian obscurities during the '80s, carving his own forgotten spell of movie stardom before disappearing back to wherever he had come from.This is a film which gets weirder and weirder as it goes along. Most of it is just incredible non-stop action which has been inspired by the Chinese martial arts, with people flying all over the place and exaggerated sound effects all over. There is one stage, late in the film, where the paces flags for about twenty minutes as we watch the activities of a group of Indonesian amazon women - I figure they forgot the storyline at this point, or had some space to fill. It's certainly pretty boring, but events culminate in an enjoyably cheesy battle packed with explosions, where apparently they just decided to blow up the few sets that they had built with sticks of dynamite. Elsewhere we have a severed human head that turns into that of a goat, invisible people fighting, levitation, magic bolts that burn people, a snake pit into which a man is dropped, a woman getting impaled by a handful of rings (I didn't understand that one either), lots of invisible force fields (cheap, you see) and bad women that explode in mid-flight. It's one of those films that you watch and then wonder if it was just a bad nightmare after all.The budget is poor and it shows throughout, with the special effects cheaply-done and limited (although they still manage to be fun). The film is not without gore but it's not for the gorehounds to watch, except maybe in desperation. The acting is non-existent, the poor dubbing saps credibility from the proceedings. However, the sheer scale of so-bad-it's-good entertainment counts for a lot here and it's so bad that it becomes oddly watchable and even a little fun, especially in spotting all the weirdness that comes from a film made by a society totally opposite to that of the west. A tacked on announcement (weirdly repeated twice for some reason) promises that the Warrior will return in THE WARRIOR AND THE NINJA - and I for one will be sure to keep an eye out for that film, as if it's anything like this then I'll be sure to enjoy it!

Major let down after the first warrior film, this is an action filled, but a bit dumb movie.This movie begins with a small village attacked by the Dutch. The attackers a routed by Jaka Sembung. This causes the Dutch to try and find the best man to kill Jaka by having a tournament. Si Buta, the blind swordsman (and star of his own comic and movie series) is the winner. Promised a large reward Si Buta finds and kills Jaka, however the Dutch try to get the reward back and send a small group of men to kill the blind man and take the reward. Where it goes from there is the movie and I wouldn't want to ruin any of the surprises.As I said before this is a disappointment after the first film. The action is really cartoonish and over the top while the make up and effects are just okay (and kind of fun in a low budget way). The real problem is that the plot is wildly unwieldy. There are simply too many "main" characters; we have Jaka, Si Buta, the Dutch and Maki to contend with. Maki is an "evil" woman who sold her soul for immortality and has the hots for Si Buta. She also lords over a group of villages and how the Dutch treats her kingdom determines some of her actions in the film (and has enough material in it for a movie of its own).Its too much story being carried by too many "minor characters" (ie. the ones not in the title).Honestly its not a bad movie as these things go, but compared to The Warrior (aka Jaka Sembung) is a major let down. (I do reserve the right to reevaluate the film after the memory of the first film- which I saw last night-fades).6 out of 10.

Ah ha ha...Barry Prima, Advent Bangun, Nyi Roro Kidul - this movie has all the best (or the worst) of Indonesian martial arts actors/actresses in the late 70s and early 80s. It seems that these 3 are in all action/martial arts movies at that time - whether alone in their own movies (being the hero/heroine/villain) or in this case - all 3 in the same movie - WOW.Mostly gore-infested, who could forget that scene where 3 heads fly off in unison? Or that strange woman who suddenly feels horny at the most unbelieveable moment? Or that severed head that's still alive? Has to be seen to be believed.