Director John Avildsen knew a thing or two about underdogs: he collected the Best Director Oscar® for Rocky in 1976, a low-budget film that ended up with ten Academy Award nominations. In fact, he referred to his new project as "The KaRocky Kid." Teamed with uberproducer Jerry Weintraub, Avildsen was drawn to the emotional content of the storyline, remarking it was, "...the relationship of the boy with his surrogate father and the sweetness of his romance with the girl that were especially attractive to me." Screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen agreed: "The Karate Kid is basically a story of relationships. Of growing and maturing. It's the story of a kid learning alternatives." Kamen was himself a student of karate for twenty years, taken initially as a result of childhood bullying - circumstances that undoubtedly contributed to the emotional honesty and sincerity of the script. With his knowledge of karate, he helped to design some of the fight scenes with Pat Johnson, the film's martial arts choreographer. Johnson is a 9th degree black belt, the highest living level attainable, and was trained by none other than Chuck Norris.
Ralph Macchio began his career in television commercials, working his way up to a featured role on the series Eight Is Enough. Francis Ford Coppola gave his profile a boost by casting him in The Outsiders (1983), alongside Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, and Patrick Swayze. Despite the fact that he was 22 when production began, Macchio's boyish visage ensured that he would have no trouble portraying a 16-year old teen. When casting for Mr. Miyagi, the producers had a serious actor in mind; in fact, a casting policy of "no comedians" was instituted regarding the role. "Pat" Morita (using his Japanese name of Noriyuki in the billing) was exactly what they weren't looking for: a well-known circuit stand-up comedian who parlayed his talents into popular characters on Sanford and Son, MASH, and Happy Days. After a few effective readings, however, the film had its Mr. Miyagi. Morita had no significant martial arts experience, but his real contribution to the film was making Mr. Miyagi a flesh and blood character. Kamen's script did not provide much by way of a back story for Miyagi, so Morita worked with Avildsen to create one by integrating some of his childhood experiences in a WWII U.S. internment camp to flesh out the character's emotional composition and using the creation of family tragedy and military experience to provide motivation. Morita's impressive performance in the film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Both Macchio and Morita underwent extensive physical preparation for their roles, with several hours everyday of grueling training for months at a time -particularly remarkable for Morita, who suffered from spinal tuberculosis as a child and was told he would never walk!
Among The Karate Kid's supporting cast is Macchio's love interest, played by Elisabeth Shue. Her career also began in television commercials, and being cast as teen ingenue Ali was her big screen debut. She would go on to star in the cult hit Adventures in Babysitting (1987) and Cocktail (1988), but she was considered a lightweight actress until her lauded Oscar®-nominated performance opposite Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas (1995). Martin Kove played chief villain Kreese, a role originally cast with Chuck Norris. Norris declined the part due to some concerns about playing a sinister martial arts instructor, but stayed on the production to help source martial artists as consultants and stand-ins. Kove, who had a six-year role on television's Cagney and Lacey as Detective Isbecki, remarked about the notoriety of his Karate character, "Over the years, kids have come up to me in places like supermarkets, and hit me and said things like, 'You hurt Ralph [Macchio]!' It makes me feel like the Darth Vader of the contemporary cinematic world. As 'Sensei Jon Kreese,' I'm truly hated and I love it. I had no idea how much anxiety people would be releasing by hating this character."
Even the box office of The Karate Kid was an underdog triumph: the film was made for a pittance and grossed over 90 million. Many original members of the cast and crew, including Macchio, Morita, Avildsen, and Kamen, returned for The Karate Kid, Part II (1986) and The Karate Kid, Part III (1989). Morita even starred alongside future Oscar® winner Hilary Swank in The Next Karate Kid (1994). The original, however, remains the perennial favorite of 80s film fans, with many internet sites and blogs dedicated to the film or its actors. One in particular, fastrewind.com, is a veritable treasure trove of Karate Kid information and was an indispensable resource for this article. One of its greatest gems is the lowdown on the infamous "crane kick" move Miyagi teaches Daniel. One of Morita's stunt doubles, Darryl Vidal, invented the move during the shoot. In an interview on the site, he explains, "Pat Johnson told me what he wanted, and I basically said, ‘You mean something like this?' It is widely recognized, and I still hesitate when I tell my karate students that I made it up. But as you may have guessed, there is very little practical application to the technique."
Producer: R.J. Louis, Bud S. Smith, Jerry Weintraub
Director: John G. Avildsen
Screenplay: Robert Mark Kamen
Cinematography: James Crabe
Film Editing: John G. Avildsen, Walt Mulconery, Bud Smith
Art Direction: William J. Cassidy
Music: Bill Conti, Gang of Four
Cast: Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso), Pat Morita (Mr. Miyagi), Elisabeth Shue (Ali Mills), Martin Kove (Kreese), Randee Heller (Lucille Larusso), William Zabka (Johnny).
C-126m. Letterboxed.
by Eleanor Quin
