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- John Wick: Chapter 4 premiered to critical acclaim and box office success, and is one of the most recent big releases to prominently feature a blind movie character. It's made it a good time to look over the history of how blind people have been portrayed in movies, with the vast array of genres showing how effectively movies can portray and explore the condition, in the process providing representation and often empathy, too.
Movies can be powerful because of how they let viewers experience different points of view, providing insight into people who live different lives. It's one thing to understand a certain condition or lifestyle by simply reading or hearing about it, but the medium of film can make such a depiction more visceral and personal. As such, movies can become a powerful tool for inspiring understanding and spreading awareness.
This is certainly the case for on-screen depictions of blindness. There have been many movie characters who've been either partially or completely blind, with the following 10 being among the most notable. For viewers who aren't familiar with blindness in their personal lives, such on-screen depictions do offer a way to understand the condition, and as long as writers/actors are responsible and respectful, raising such awareness is ultimately a good thing.
Updated on March 29, 2023, by Jeremy Urquhart:
John Wick: Chapter 4 premiered to critical acclaim and box office success, and is one of the most recent big releases to prominently feature a blind movie character. It's made it a good time to look over the history of how blind people have been portrayed in movies, with the vast array of genres showing how effectively movies can portray and explore the condition, in the process providing representation and often empathy, too.
1 The Flower Girl – 'City Lights' (1931)
City Lights stands as one of Charlie Chaplin's very best movies, and was acclaimed enough to be featured on Sight and Sound's Greatest Films of All Time list. Like many Chaplin films, he wrote, directed, and starred in it, and it was also filmed as a silent movie, like all his pre-1940 feature films were.
The story follows Chaplin's character falling for a blind flower girl, and doing all he can to get her the money for an operation that will restore her sight. The relationship that develops between Chaplin's Tramp character and the unnamed flower girl proves heartwarming and endearing, and overall, City Lights makes for a textbook example of how to balance comedy, drama, and romance.
2 Matt Murdock – 'Daredevil' (2003)
While the more recent take on Daredevil - played by Charlie Cox - has proven more popular than the Ben Affleck take on the character, the less-than-stellar 2003 film is still worth mentioning. For better or worse, it was a way that the character could be introduced to many people who don't generally read comic books.
And as far as comic book characters go, Daredevil would have to be the most famous who's also blind. Not only can he fight with ruthless efficiency, but he's also a solid lawyer in his day job, practicing under his real name, Matt Murdock. Partly thanks to Cox's portrayal, he's become one of the most popular on-screen heroes in recent years, and will hopefully continue to shine in his upcoming Disney Plus Daredevil series.
3 Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade – 'Scent of a Woman' (1992)
A movie that features Al Pacino's one and only Oscar-winning performance, Scent of a Woman sees him playing a blind Vietnam War veteran who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a student who's hired to look after him. It's the kind of movie that really doesn't need to be over 2.5 hours long, but it's an entertaining watch, and the acting is pretty strong.
Pacino does commit to the role with the sort of ferocity and intensity he's famous (or maybe infamous) for. Perhaps less so now, but there has been a history of actors winning Oscars for playing characters who are dealing with difficult medical conditions. Whether Pacino earned his Oscar because of that, or because the Oscars felt a win for Pacino was overdue, we may never know for sure.
4 Eli – 'The Book of Eli' (2010)
Set in a bleak post-apocalyptic world, The Book of Eli centers on a lone wanderer named Eli, played by Denzel Washington. He has, in his possession, a book that he thinks holds a secret to saving the planet, and he makes it his mission to deliver it to somewhere that's safe.
Eli is a brutally efficient survivalist, so it comes as something of a plot twist when it's revealed he's actually blind. It adds to the character's mystique and prowess, given how he's been able to endure in a harsh world, even with his condition, and Washington is more than capable of playing the role convincingly.
5 Hu Ah-kuei – 'The Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms' (1978)
There are numerous great martial arts films produced by Shaw Brothers Studios, and The Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms is one of the best. Its plot kicks off when a sadistic martial arts master seriously wounds several less-experienced martial artists in various ways, with them then building a team to train and get their revenge.
It makes for a brutal opening act, because one man has his hearing and ability to talk removed, another loses his legs, and another - Hu Ah-kuei - is permanently blinded. Much of the middle of the film centers on their training, and then the final act is all about them getting their justified revenge. It's a brutal martial arts movie, but an extremely well-made one, with its fight sequences still holding up today.
6 The Blind Man – 'Don't Breathe' (2016)
The central antagonist in Don't Breathe is unnamed, and credited simply as "The Blind Man." His actions towards the film's end get very dark, but before then, some viewers may find themselves supporting him over the young people we're told are the protagonists.
This is because they break into the blind man's house, thinking it will be easy to steal from him, given he (obviously) can't see. It turns out he's actually ruthless and highly trained, fighting back against the would-be burglars, and turning the hunters into the hunted remarkably fast. For much of the movie, it seems fair enough that he should defend his property, to some extent... though of course the second half of the movie does alter things considerably.
7 Chirrut Îmwe – 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' (2016)
Rogue One has one of the most diverse and interesting casts in any Star Wars movie, which makes it a shame that they're all essentially doomed from the get-go, seeing as this is a prequel. Fans going in knew this was to be a movie about the dangerous mission to steal the Death Star plans, leading to its eventual destruction in the original film.
No matter how cool the characters were, there was no getting out alive. That goes for Chirrut Îmwe, too, a blind warrior-monk played by the great Donnie Yen. Before joining the Star Wars universe, he was perhaps best known to Western audiences for playing the main character in the Ip Man series, and in Rogue One, he brings the same cool-headed collectiveness to his character, ending up being one of the best parts of the movie.
8 Caine – 'John Wick: Chapter 4' (2023)
Several years on from Rogue One, Donnie Yen was featured in another big-budget Hollywood action film where he played a blind warrior. That film was John Wick: Chapter 4, and it continues the violent misadventures of the title character in a way that represents a high point for the John Wick series.
Yen's character is Caine, and he's an old associate of John Wick's who's hired to track John down and kill him. Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yen end up having a great dynamic together, and get to fight side by side and fight each other at different points in the film. Yen's skills as a martial arts actor are fully utilized here, making for plenty of great action scenes that often serve as highlights of the overall film.
9 Nick Parker – 'Blind Fury' (1989)
While Blind Fury isn't a particularly famous action movie, it is something of a cult film. It's a remarkably simple story, centering on a Vietnam War veteran who also happens to be a master swordsman, and his quest to help a fellow soldier rescue his son from the film's obligatory villains.
Rutger Hauer stars as the unlikely warrior at the film's center, Nick Parker. An iconic actor who often stole the show in supporting roles (Blade Runner perhaps being the best example), any starring role of his is worth celebrating. It may borrow a great deal from the long-running Zatoichi series, and not execute the premise of having a blind swordsman protagonist as effectively, but Blind Fury is still a fun enough action movie.
10 The Blind Swordsman – 'Ashes of Time' (1994)
Wong Kar-Wai has created quite an eclectic filmography during his career as a filmmaker. He specializes in stylistic, character-focused dramas, but will often couple this kind of story with other diverse genres, in the process directing comedies, romances, sci-fi movies, crime films, and, with Ashes of Time, a sprawling, action movie with a historical setting.
It's something of an episodic movie, with five separate stories all featuring the same main character, the warrior Ouyang Feng. He encounters numerous individuals throughout his travels, including Tony Leung Chiu-wai's character, an unnamed blind swordsman who works with Feng to defend a village from bandits.
11 Selma Ježková – 'Dancer in the Dark' (2000)
Dancer in the Dark has built up a reputation as one of the most emotionally taxing movies of all time, and it's earned it. It's a very downbeat musical/crime/drama about a woman who's gradually going blind, and will stop at nothing to earn enough money for her only son to get an operation that will prevent him from going blind.
Unfortunately, the world of Dancer in the Dark is a cruel and harsh one, and it has other plans for Selma, played expertly by Björk. She finds solace by retreating into music, with the movie's musical numbers being shot in a completely different fashion to the harshly realistic non-fantasy scenes. The central song, "I've Seen At All," addresses Selma coming to terms with her blindness, and assuring herself that she has seen all there is. It's a sequence that's beautiful and heartbreaking in equal measure, and allows the viewer a true understanding of how she feels about what's happening to her.
12 Zatoichi – 'The Tale of Zatoichi' (1962)
The Zatoichi series is one that's aged fantastically, with these action-packed movies focusing on a blind masseur who also loves gambling and is a skilled swordsman. The films deliver consistently great fight scenes with a fantastic title character at their center.
Zatoichi goes through a lot, with this 26-film series having plenty of humor, action, and tragedy, all balanced surprisingly well. The Tale of Zatoichi is the first movie in the series, and one of the best, serving as a great introduction to Zatoichi, who is probably one of the most iconic and well-developed blind characters in film history.
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13 Jennie – 'The Killer' (1989)
John Woo's greatest film might well be 1989's The Killer. It's a relentlessly paced, explosive, exciting, and surprisingly emotional action/thriller about one hitman named Ah Jong seeking redemption for a woman he accidentally injured during a job, and a police detective who's constantly in pursuit of Ah Jong, complicating things further.
The injured woman's name is Jennie, and she needs an operation on her eyes to stop her from going completely blind, since her eyesight was severely damaged by her accidentally being close to Ah Jong's gun when he fired it while on a job. Ah Jong goes back into action as a hitman to fund her operation out of remorse, even though he'd planned to retire. Typically for a John Woo film, it has plenty of tension and fantastically well-executed action, with the final epic shootout in the movie being particularly impressive.
14 Neo – 'The Matrix Revolutions' (2003)
For most of the original Matrix trilogy, the protagonist, Neo, isn't blind. It's only towards the end of the third movie, The Matrix Revolutions, that Neo is blinded during a fight, and spends a large portion of the trilogy's final film without eyesight.
Given his unique relationship with the Matrix itself and everything surrounding it, he can still make his way around the world, but being blind does put him at a disadvantage at a pivotal moment. When he was brought back to life in 2021's The Matrix Resurrections, though, he thankfully regained his sight, too.