AMERICAN NINJA (1985)

Yeah, I know what you’re saying. AMERICAN NINJA? That old shit?

It’s old. I give you that. But I can honestly say that they don’t make them like this anymore. And that’s a shame.

AMERICAN NINJA (1985) is a classic 80’s actioner brought to us by the late and sometimes not-so-great Cannon Films. Cannon, as you know, was bought and ran into the ground by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. They specialized in low-budget action with the occasional foray into art-house cinema. Say what you want about Golan-Globus, but they did give us BARFLY (1987) and INVASION USA (1985).





You can’t even begin to talk about Cannon without mentioning the Chuck Norris films they bankrolled. Hell, they MADE Chuck Norris the icon he was. They also kept the DEATH WISH movies going as well keeping Charles Bronson on the screen up until the early 90’s. Can anyone forget the OVER THE TOP (1987) debacle with Sly? I can’t. I wouldn’t want to.

Wedged in all this Hollywood excess was AMERICAN NINJA, a 1985 low budget action pic filmed in the Philippines and starring Michael Dudikoff (BACHELOR PARTY, 1984) and Steve James (THE EXTERMINATOR, 1980).

Cannon even created a cottage industry for Dudikoff. How many people can say that?

So tell me about this AMERICAN NINJA, you say.

Joe Armstrong is a quiet loner who commits a crime and is given a choice: go to jail or join the army. This makes me wonder if the script they dusted off was from the 60’s. So of course Joe chooses the army. Now Joe isn’t your ordinary quiet loner. Joe is a ninja. He doesn’t even know he’s a ninja; the shit just comes naturally. You see, that’s because Joe has amnesia that he contracted from a blast that knocked him out when he was an orphan on an island being trained by a Japanese WWII soldier who lived on the island and didn’t even know the war was over.



It’s like the 60’s script was jacked up, a little bit of BLACK STALLION was attached and the story outfitted with a set of brand new ninja mania that was still in vogue at the time (Sho Kosugi’s PRAY FOR DEATH was the same year, mind you).



So now Joe is having his ninja awakening and running afoul of the military. He’s befriended by Steve James, who takes an asswhooping by Joe in front of the whole Army, and tries to convince him to stage martial arts exhibitions for money, as if they could get out of the Army whenever they want and travel around staging martial arts demonstrations like carnies.

Now it just so happens that there have been a lot of Army trucks being hijacked that have a lot of weapons on them. Instead of finding out what’s going on or Washington coming in and investigating, the brass sits around with their thumbs up their asses. This do-nothingness lets Joe poke his nose around to find out the truth about the hijackings. Any reasonable investigation or governmental action and there’d be no AMERICAN NINJA.

It’s easy to make fun of a movie like this. The writing is awful and none of it makes any sense. It’s overcast in the shot but the next cut it’s sunny. But it’s a true action movie, and goddamn if it doesn’t give you true action. It’s what’s missing from action movies nowadays. Real stunts by real people. And ninjas. Ever since John Woo, no more Americanized ninjas (who apparently like to dive out of the way a lot).





blow up, guns shoot shit up, model helicopters get bazooka-ed, and there’s hand-to-hand/sword-to-torso ninja combat all over. All of this is executed with exploitation craftmanship by Cannon action specialist Sam Firstenberg. Firstenberg not only helmed AMERICAN NINJA, he got to come back and make AMERICAN NINJA 2: THE CONFRONTATION (1987). He also made the Dudikoff/James vehicle AVENGING FORCE (1986). Firstenberg is a man’s man action director. There’s no pretense at all: set up the situation and film the destruction. An action film like I remember.





A lot of people can find a lot to laugh at within AMERICAN NINJA, but they can’t say it isn’t competent filmmaking. It’s aged well, and most people would be surprised at how well done the action scenes are and more so, how well it is all put together. The terrible plot and occasional overacting add to the fun and the exotic Filipino location and extras are wonderful to look at (sadly, no Vic Diaz). Plus smack dab in the middle is Judie Aronson, who played Wyatt’s lust object in WEIRD SCIENCE the same year. What a quinela, Judie! Way to go.



AMERICAN NINJA, while not obscure, more than likely will fade even more from view within the coming years. People remember it mostly from cable and remember it fondly but no one actively seeks it out. Dudikoff did some more Cannon actioners like PLATOON LEADER (1988) and RIVER OF DEATH (1989) and Steve James sadly passed away in 1993 after headlining in some of his own overlooked straight to video gems like STREET HUNTER (1990) and RIVERBEND (1990). Firstenberg was well versed in ninjas by this time, having already made REVENGE OF THE NINJA (1983) and NINJA III: THE DOMINATION (1984). In terms of smooth moves, he made the ninja-esque BREAKIN’ 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO (1984). He’s still workin’, thank the movie gods.

AMERICAN NINJA eventually made its way up to 5 with David Bradley taking over the titular role (Dudikoff costarred in 1990’s AMERICAN NINJA 4: THE ANNIHILATION) but none of them ever made the grade like the original. Ninjas became old hat and Cannon made AMERICAN KICKBOXER I (1991) and Firstenberg’s AMERICAN SAMURAI (1992) but by that time, poof, no more Cannon.



I’d like to think AMERICAN NINJA would become a cult classic, but the truth is, it may be too well-made for its own good to attain such status. Doesn’t matter. I think its tops and hopefully, you’ll take another look at it and agree.