Blade (1998)

Director:

Stephen Norrington

Writer (WGA):

David S. Goyer (written by)

Release Date:

21 August 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

The power of an immortal. The soul of a human. The heart of a hero.

Plot:

A half-vampire, half-mortal man becomes a protector of the mortal race, while slaying evil vampires.

Plot Keywords:

Vampire vs Vampire | Microscope | Blood Bath | Marvel Entertainment | Blown To Pieces

Awards:

4 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Wesley Snipes	...	Blade / Eric Brooks / 'The Daywalker'
Stephen Dorff	...	Deacon Frost
Kris Kristofferson	...	Abraham Whistler
N'Bushe Wright	...	Dr. Karen Jenson
Donal Logue	...	Quinn
Udo Kier	...	Vampire Elder Dragonetti
Arly Jover	...	Mercury
Traci Lords	...	Racquel
Kevin Patrick Walls	...	Officer Krieger
Tim Guinee	...	Dr. Curtis Webb
Sanaa Lathan	...	Vanessa Brooks
Eric Edwards	...	Pearl
Donna Wong	...	Nurse
Carmen Thomas	...	Senior Resident
Shannon Lee	...	Resident

Also Known As:

Blade, the Vampire Slayer (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong, pervasive vampire violence and gore, language, and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

120 min | Germany:110 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | Portugal:M/16 | Philippines:R-18 | Brazil:14 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Belgium:KNT | Canada:18A | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Germany:16 (cut) | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:18 | Japan:PG-12 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #35159) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Amen Ra Films

Trivia:

The scene where Karen and Deacon are talking about the cure for vampirism initially ran a bit longer and answered the question of how the vampires would feed if everybody was turned into a vampire. They would keep some humans alive in giant blood bags to harvest them. The bags can still be seen in a doorway during the scene, and later played an integral part of the plot in Blade: Trinity (2004)

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Towards the end of the movie, when Blade is trying to retrieve his sword from a wall, a cast member can be seen clearly in the background, jumping up and down, apparently preparing to enter the ensuing fight scene.

Quotes:

Blade: You see the valets over there? They're vampires. So's the doorman... and the whore on the corner.
Dr. Karen Jenson: How can you tell?
Blade: By the way they move. The way they smell.

Movie Connections:

Edited into The Blood Pact: The Making of 'Blade II' (2002) (V)

Soundtrack:

Soleil

A palatable offering of Snipes and dice

Blade is everything Spawn wanted to be and wasn't. While Spawn was a loud, obnoxious, incoherent mess that should have stayed in Hell with its erstwhile hero, Blade is a relatively subdued (it's nice to actually hear the soundtrack), stylish, well-directed movie that actually tries to build empathy and pathos into the characters. While both are adaptations from comic-books, only one is a page-turner.

Blade, or Eric as his mom calls him, but which superhero would command respect with the name Eric, is half-man, half-vampire, made so by his mother, who survived a vampire attack long enough to give birth to him. This gives Blade a certain edge in his understandable grudge against vampires, "all of our strengths and none of our weaknesses" as his main vampire nemesis attests. The aforementioned nemesis is Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) who wants to unleash a vampire apocalypse on the world, decrying the Mafia-type approach that has served vampires so well up to this point - "humans are our food, not our allies," he explains. Blade is aided by his mentor/weapons specialist Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and a female hematologist he rescued, Karen. Her expertise lends her to both create anti-vampire blood, and a possible cure for Blade that would make him fully human again. Although one gets the sense that Blade's fate isn't entirely tragic. He relishes kicking vampire butt.

The movie Blade succeeds for two reasons. It's technically polished, with good acting, excellent directing and production design, and awesome special effects - the way the vampires turn to skeletons and blow away like dried parchment when they die is way cool. There are three accomplished action sequences, the opening party scene which Blade inconveniently crashes, a brush with death on a subway, and the final conflict, with some special effects I can say, as a movie seasoned veteran, I've never seen before. The second reason is that Blade understands the inherent pull of the vampire myth. Vampirism represents a life given to sin, essentially. They are sensual creatures, dependent on flesh and blood for survival, shirking the light, and yet eternal, like evil fleshly lusts the Bible warns about. Vampires are not tragic, like Interview with a Vampire would have you believe, but fun, cool, and sexy. That's their power. Is not sin sexy? why would it be tempting otherwise? Vampires are cool because they live in sin without paying its consequences - death. But for that reason, they are the enemy and must die. For sin is, in the final analysis, bad. This essential good/evil conflict must be there for this type of story to work. Spawn had neither this nor the technical excellence Blade has, which is why it sucks so bad. Blade reminded me of another good vampire movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula, by Francis Ford Coppola. They would make good companion pieces on video.