The Instructor

In the late 1970s, fans of martial arts movies were treated to such garbage Bruce Lee knock-offs with comical voice dubbing and hokey fight scenes. This regional kung-fu entry shot entirely in Akron, Ohio with a no-name cast, but features skilled local martial artists, really delivers with very nice action set pieces. Don Bendell, who had wrote, produced, directed, and co-starred really did a nice job with the film. He wrote the script originally in 1976 and filming started during the summer of 1980. It was shot on 16mm and was blown up to 35 when the movie was finally distributed worldwide to theaters in 1984. The theatrical version included a new opening scene to make it more action-packed, but the new open makes it more silly and over-the-top than kick-ass, but that was no fault of Bendell, because the distributor ordered that change.

Wow, where do I start... there is a character called Thumper, the lead actor has hair that looks like it's a nasty wig made out of Fun Furr, many scenes go nowhere and have nothing to do with the movie, the only ninja is retarded, and all of the lead characters are middle aged, have gold chains, hairy chests, bad hair, and expensive sports cars - referred to by my friend as "impotence mobiles."

The movie is poorly written and acted, which is what usually happens when the same person directs, produces, writes, and stars in a low budget film. The movie appears to follow the standard good martial arts instructor vs. evil martial arts instructor. Some of the more ridiculous scenes are: 1) Thumper winning a martial arts tournament, though we questioned his ability to do this as he was knocked out cold by one punch from a biker earlier in the film; 2) during the same tournament, the officials/referees who score the match and can override other judges scores, are the instructors of the competitors - talk about conflict of interest; 3) the female black belt, who when confronted by 4 thugs, let's them get fresh with her, then flails helplessly before finally starting to defend herself. Geez...

While I don't think it's the worst movie ever, it's definitely got to be seen to be believed. There are some unintentionally funny scenes, and many things make no sense. So be forewarned, and watch at your own risk.

You might suspect that the plot of this movie was written in the process of filming. It begins as a "punks versus vigilante" movie, but in the middle of the film, the plot changes abruptly when the vigilante turns to be an honest man with his honest girl and his honest gym and has to fight the corrupt "businessmen" who want to turn the gym down at any cost to build a mall or something. Then, the plot changes again, and we forget about the corrupt guys. The villain now is the friend of the leading man, who thinks he is a Ninja. The guy becomes "crazy evil" and wants at any cost to win a Martial Arts Contest. Seeing this movie is like having a nightmare with the television on.

Aside from concerns about artistic quality, The Instructor was quite fun. Bendell was creating, Chaney was acting, both were stepping outside their areas of expertise. Taken in context, the film was enjoyable. Having trained under Chaney, I understand the film. I may not quite understand why they made the film, but I'm glad they did. As for the film itself, it is classic: action, heroism, and the boy gets the girl in the end. A time-honored theme in a changing environment at the time. Of course, the memories most likely to stay with the viewer are the interminable running and the close-up hand action. Of them all, the hand-action was the least effective for the non-martial artist. Though a student of martial arts might enjoy the hand technique, the lay viewer would simply see flashing hands without understanding. As for the ninja who was not quite adept, he provided a lot of humor. I'd recommend the film for adult-like kids and kid-like adults.

If you like 80s low budget/homegrown action films this is essential. Its the perfect combination of baffling and hilarious. The film also maintains suspense through its action scenes by making you genuinely fear for the safety of the actors as they preform stupidly dangerous amateur stunts.

The film opens strong with a hilarious action scene that sets the tone for the rest of the film and even justifies sitting through the next 30 minutes which are fairly boring. But not to worry, your patients is rewarded with a final chase/fight scene that keeps finding new and creative ways to make you laugh and say to yourself "oh my god someone's gonna get hurt."