The Instructor (1981) User Reviews

If you enjoy handmade, homemade filmmaking, especially along the more "WTF" end of things, why NOT check out The Instructor?

[tarbosh22000 · 5/10 · 18 May 2023]

A man known only as "The Instructor" (Chaney) is, naturally, a Karate instructor in Akron, Ohio. He and his buddy Thumper Rhodes (Bendell) love going on long jogs together, and beating up punks in the local trainyard with garbage can lids. When the town ne'er-do-well Bud Hart (Saal) takes an extreme dislike to Mr. Instructor and Thumper, many Martial Arts battles ensue with his gang of goons, both in an out of the ring. This especially escalates when some of Hart's guys attack Dee (Scharnott), a disciple at the Karate school. Meanwhile, there's a pudgy, bearded white guy named Mr. Fender who is dressed in a ninja outfit and fancies stalking around the neighborhood. What the HECK is going on here? We may never know...

As if the above confusion wasn't enough, throughout most of your viewing of The Instructor, you may continually ask yourself "What IS this?" - and the answer appears to be that it's a local low-budget labor of love. If you enjoy such regional and/or no budget and/or nutso offerings such as The Skid Kid (1991), Furious (1984), Kindergarten "Ninja" (1994), Iron Thunder (1988), or Twin Dragon Encounter (1986), you may get something out of The Instructor.

Either it was Bob Chaney's dream to become an Instructor, or it was The Instructor's dream to become a moviemaker, but we're not sure which. Thumper a.) looks like Frank Zappa, and b.) is named Thumper. Fight scenes break out and have a funky soundtrack behind them, making this whole odd outing seem more 70's than 80's. The sound quality seems to be from the 1920's. If not earlier. Everything is muffled, dull, and almost unhearable, which is a shame because Mr. Fender the wacky ninja gets an internal monologue. We don't hear the thoughts of anyone else, but we're blessed to hear his inner mental workings. Well, if you can hear them, that is.

Naturally, the fighters are all on the older side, so you get some classic Middle Aged Punks. The end section features an extended car chase. You can tell they were trying. While the movie has pronounced pacing, plotting, acting, editing, and sound issues, that's not really the point. They got off their butts and actually made a movie, which should inspire a positive "anyone can do it" feeling. The fact that it was released on VHS by Vestron only serves to reinforce that, especially with its very cool box art. The fact that it's not especially indicative of the movie itself is also beside the point.

If you enjoy handmade, homemade filmmaking, especially along the more "WTF" end of things, why NOT check out The Instructor?

A Real Con Job!

[filmit2001 · 26 October 2011]

Truth Out! Don Bendell didn't direct this film but he wrote it, at least as far as I know. The truth is nobody directed it. Here's the story; I was a Cleveland film producer/cinematographer when I was approached by Bendell a Used Car salesman at the time & a karate freak, to shoot The Instructor. Being a slow time, as it was mostly in Cleveland, I glanced at the script and agreed to do it. A side note, I hate Karate movies except perhaps for the Karate Kid. Anyway after agreeing on the $$$ which were peanuts, the whole budget was $100 K or there about, it was shot on Agfa 16mm, I went down to Akron for a meeting with cast & crew. These, mostly conned volunteers with stars in their eyes except for a few credible people like an Akron U Drama teacher, & Don Chaney who was a real nice guy.

Bendell was a real classic used car salesman I'll give him that because he conned the whole town & even the Akron Police Dept. into trashing cop cars for this joke which you will note if you could sit through this POS! Well I knew from day one that Bendell who had never even been on a film shoot in his life was clueless which only made my job more difficult but as I said I'd nothing better to do then. Anyway to make a long story short, I worked my ass off trying to make something out of the project, at least visually, until Bendell started to try playing Director when we were about 7/8 done with shooting, at which point I quit. You see making film is a pretty tough job & when you have some clown who after 3 weeks on location thinks he's figured out how to put pieces & actor together to make sense, tries to take command for his lame ego, things go all to hell! Anyway after I left, they hired my assistant Ron Hughes to finish the project with his Bolex. You'll note a total different style of lighting happen in the film at about that point. Ron was into the dark "noir" dramatic style of lighting.

What I found really funny and sad on this film was that most of the people involved in this project, relationships & marriages went down the tubes, even Bendells. It was just like you read about film people in Hollywood. Wonder where they got it from??

The Worst Movie Ever Made

[Andredidymedome · 1/10 · 26 October 2001]

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.

Filmed in my hometown

[susannakron · 2/10 · 9 January 2009]

This movie was filmed in my hometown and I was acquainted with many of the "actors" in minor rolls. Most of them were students at the local karate school and even at the time it was filmed we all knew what a stinker it was. It was interesting however to see it being made. Most of the places it was filmed at no longer exist, such as the nightclub, the pizza shop, etc. The "world premiere" was held at The Akron Civic Theatre and we all laughed hysterically at how inane it was. I personally believe it's the worst movie ever made but it brings back many fond memories for me. Watch this movie with a word of advice...enjoy it for what it is..a very low budget, poorly made , karate flick.

other people do not know, what they are talking about...

[girlafraid-2 · 10/10 · 9 November 2006]

Obviously people here do not "understand" cinema. This is one of the most luminous pieces of celluloid (I mean VHS) master pieces to have ever graced my grocery store shopping cart. The 99 cents I spent on this movie was too cheap a price to pay. I payed 99 cents for poor martial arts action from a middle aged goon whose love of his students get's the better of his judgment. So that's like 90 cents for action, 5 cents for drama, 3 cents for making sense, and that leaves one cent left for Thumper. With names like, "Thumper" how can you go wrong. The opening sequence is wonderful and deliciously shot poorly. The chase scene was incredulously long and very anti-climactic. It involved, cars, bikes, and chainsaws, running through the woods and streams. Don't forget all of the poorly executed stunts. This movies charms it's way into your heart via the phrase "I don't see no anchor tied to your ass boy!" and all of the obligatory "crotch" grabbing sequences. I mean, The Instructor grabs so many testicles in the first fight alone! How can that not be awesome. He dodges bullets, fights goons with swords, and through poor editing seamlessly kicks a guy off a motorcycle (that's probably the best scene, aside from the ninja picking his nose). It is well worth a watch. It made me laugh harder than any other honest attempt to make a martial arts film, ever, from a guy that looks like the Instructor. Through it's poor acting and editing it makes me yearn for the days of America Ninja 4, when Micheal Dudekoff was way too "good" to be in any subsequent sequels since American Ninja 2. Oh, the glory of '83. Instructor, I say "Thank You!" for Instructing....me....how to....um....laugh...or something. that's a ten baby, for Jawsome!

Wonderful, in context

[cpartlowlaw · 7/10 · 26 August 2006]

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.

Really bad would be an understatement

[kolchak25 · 4 January 2003]

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.

A Homegrown Martial Arts Masterpiece

[abbazabakyleman-98834 · 10/10 · 13 March 2019]

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.

So bad it's good

[thedudewithoutabrain · 10/10 · 31 December 2022]

For the entire movie I'm pretty sure I have not learned a single characters name except for some dude called cookie. And 90% of all the scenes in this movie did not fit in with any plot. Actually I'm pretty sure there was no plot. The only thing kinda resembling a plot was when the hairy guy bashes someone with a trophy and the Mario looking guy chases someone who he thinks is the one who bashed the dudes head. It's very confusing and the chase is WAY too long. However there are so many things wrong I can't help but laugh at them. And it's worth watching because it's so bad. Also when I looked up this movie and found out what it was SUPPOSED to be about I was so confused.