American Ninja

"The deadliest art of the Orient is now in the hands of an American."

1985 1h 35m EN

😐

6.0

MID

★6.0TMDB · 505

ActionAdventure

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Joe Armstrong, an orphaned drifter with little respect for much other than martial arts, finds himself on an American Army base in the Philippines after a judge gives him a choice of enlistment or prison. On one of his first missions driving a convoy, his platoon is attacked by a group of rebels who try to steal the weapons the platoon is transporting and kidnap the base colonel's daughter.

“The deadliest art of the Orient is now in the hands of an American.”

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Cast

Michael Dudikoff
Pvt. Joe Armstrong
Steve James
Cpl. Curtis Jackson
Judie Aronson
Patricia Hickock
Guich Koock
Col. William T. Hickock
John Fujioka
Shinyuki
Don Stewart
Victor Ortega
John LaMotta
MSgt. Rinaldo
Tadashi Yamashita
Black Star Ninja

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Sam Firstenberg
Writers: Paul De Mielche, James R. Silke, Gideon Amir
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America, Netherlands

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $10M — a 10.5× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

41 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Netherlands.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "American Ninja Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Sam Firstenberg, shot by Hanania Baer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michael Linn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Marcus Manton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sam Firstenberg directs. Hanania Baer behind the camera. Michael Linn scores. Marcus Manton cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America, Netherlands. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $10M — a 10.5× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
341 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4International production across 2 countries: United States of America, Netherlands.
5Part of the "American Ninja Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6Directed by Sam Firstenberg, shot by Hanania Baer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Michael Linn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Marcus Manton shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Michael Dudikoff and Steve James and Judie Aronson carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "The deadliest art of the Orient is now in the hands of an American.".
11IMDB entry: tt0088708 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Hanania Baer
Original score: Michael Linn
Editing: Marcus Manton
Production design: Adrian Gorton
Costume design: Audrey M. Bansmer
Makeup / hair: Tony Artieda
Stunt coordinator: Steven Lambert
Runtime: 95 min · 1h 35m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,000,000
Box office: $10,499,694
Return: 1050% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: American Ninja (1985)

Part of

American Ninja Collection

American soldier, obviously very skilled in martial arts, single-handedly takes on mercenaries.

Also by

Sam Firstenberg

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Community reviews

What people are saying

PolyWogg2019-02-24
★ 6/10
The Bottom Line A basic action movie from the '80s but it doesn't hold up. Plot An American soldier with special skills gets posted to an island base where someone keeps hijacking military convoys. When his convoy gets hit, he's cooperating right up until someone hits the Colonel's daughter, and then he intervenes. His memory of his childhood is mostly gone from an explosion on an island, but he has obviously had training. When the hijackers send Ninjas after him, it becomes obvious though that his skills are way more than just simple techniques. What I Liked Some of the basic fight scenes are fine, particularly between Joe and the Black Star Ninja. And the opening sequence is really well done. There's a scene where they shoot arrows at him, and he uses the handle on a shovel to deflect their trajectory...highly iconic and when I first saw it as a kid, I was hooked. What I Didn't Like I rewatched it recently, and it just doesn't hold up. As I said, some of the basic fight scenes are good, but the fight scenes with guns seems more like a Stephen J. Cannell TV show where a million bullets are fired but nothing ever hits its target. In addition, some of the stunt work is either done at low speed, shows that it isn't the actor doing the stunt (particularly a motorcycle jump), or in one case, requires a helicopter to hover in place for about 5 seconds for the stunt man to get ready to jump on the front.
misubisu2024-07-12
★ 8/10
The acting is terrible, the scripts and dialogue are terrible, the plot is [extremely] shallow. But, I love this movie... from the 1st time a watched it (a straight to VHS video tape). The fighting sequences are actually pretty well done, and believable. You'll get many laughs out of the non-sensical dialogue and some good entertainment out of the action and fighting scenes. A diamond in the rough, that's for sure.