Local history: ‘The Instructor,’ a 1980s action movie filmed in Akron, gets a new release

You can finally eject that warped VHS tape from Vestron Video.

“The Instructor,” a low-budget action movie made in Akron during the early 1980s, has hit the Blu-ray market like a karate kick to the throat.

Connecticut home video company Vinegar Syndrome restored the cult film from the director’s personal print and released it on disc for the first time.

The company touts the 94-minute martial arts movie as “a low-budget tour de force that will leave you absolutely stunned,” and promises it contains “some of the most jaw-dropping fight scenes ever filmed.”

“This one is truly unlike anything you’ve ever seen before!”

Akron native Don Bendell , 77, who served as producer, director, writer, co-star and stunt coordinator on “The Instructor,” is thrilled to see the new release of the only movie he ever made.

“Oh, gosh, I’m on cloud nine,” he said by phone from his 80-acre ranch in Colorado. “My wife and I watched it last night. We enjoyed it way more than the VHS copies from 40 years ago that Vestron Video did.”

Bendell, a black belt in karate and judo, has vivid memories of the production, which is probably best known for its high-speed chase in Akron featuring a Chevrolet Corvette, Pontiac Trans Am and police cruisers. Other big scenes involve a car jump through a semitrailer, a motorcycle pursuit at the Gorge Dam and karate fights around the city.

“It consumed my whole life,” he said.

Origin of ‘The Instructor’

Bendell grew up on North Hill, graduated from Tallmadge High School in 1966 and served as a Green Beret captain in Vietnam. After leaving the U.S. Army Special Forces in 1970, he ran a karate school in North Carolina and wrote articles for martial arts magazines.

He spent four or five years working on a script for “The Instructor” and founded the company American Eagle Productions.

“I moved back to Akron because I wanted to shoot the movie in my hometown,” Bendell said.

Bendell scouted locations in 1979 and lined up local investors for the film, which cost about $100,000 to make ($380,000 today). Nobody took a salary. Actors and crew members worked for a deferred payment, hoping to collect a salary if the movie made money.

Cleveland and Canton officials turned down Bendell’s requests to film in those cities, but Akron leaders rolled out the red carpet and even volunteered the services of local law enforcement.

“The Akron police did their own driving with their own cruisers and the city of Akron paid for it,” Bendell said. “They were so nice to me, it’s unreal. I was so proud to be from Akron.”

The plot concerns a rivalry between two martial arts schools. Most of the actors in the movie were black belts in real life, and Bendell took a small role, too. No one had made a motion picture before.

Akron native Bob Chaney, a Las Vegas karate instructor who met Bendell through his work on Black Belt Magazine, plays the heroic title character. Akron native Bob Saal, who coached the U.S. AAU karate team, portrays the villainous operator of the other school.

Bendell hired two Hollywood stuntmen, but he said they showed up drunk and acted rude to local people. On the first day of shooting, Bendell sat them down at a table and blasted them for their unprofessional behavior.

“I have a car outside waiting to take you to Akron-Canton Airport ,” he told them. “Get the hell out of here. I don’t want you on my set ever again.”

Bendell decided to coordinate the stunts himself.

Famous car chase in Akron

In September 1980, police closed off 2 miles of Main Street for a downtown chase. The film crew used a telephoto lens from the B.F. Goodrich skywalk to capture the action.

“We had a Corvette and a Trans Am and police cars going 110 miles an hour through downtown Akron, and we did take after take after take one Sunday afternoon,” Bendell said.

Stow resident Bill Jones, a mechanic with Rick Case Honda, jumped the Corvette through a cattle car on a tractor-trailer rig at Steelastic Corp. on Industrial Parkway.

Before the stunt, Bendell conferred with University of Akron physics professors, who gave him the best dimensions for a ramp and recommended that the Corvette reach the top at 45 mph in second gear. The vehicle plowed through the trailer, traveled 140 feet through the air, landed on all four wheels and broke in half — all as planned.

“I was really proud of Bill Jones because he had never jumped a car in his life,” Bendell said.

Patrolman John McAleese drove the cruiser during the chase. Off-duty officers Lynn Callahan and Hank Bertolini served as stuntmen, taking turns falling off a cliff onto a cushion at Gorge Metro Park .

Bendell remembers shooting a fight sequence in the Cuyahoga River at the Gorge dam.

“I was standing in waist-deep water,” he said. “We had a rope going across the river.”

If the two actors had slipped, they could’ve been swept downstream and seriously injured on the rocks.

“I was there to grab them,” he said.

Muhammad Ali cameo

“The Instructor” nearly featured a major cameo. Oh, what might have been.

Heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali , who became friends with Bendell after being interviewed for Black Belt Magazine and Karate Illustrated, signed a letter of intent to appear in the movie. After receiving bad reviews for his role in the NBC historical drama “Freedom Road,” though, he asked to be released.

“He was terrible,” Bendell said. “He had so many critics.”

Premiere at Civic Theatre

The world premiere of “The Instructor” occurred June 29, 1983, at the Akron Civic Theatre , where the movie played nightly for a week. The Canton Palace Theatre also screened it for a weekend.

Beacon Journal reviewer Bill O’Connor took note of the amateurish acting and “the sometimes painfully crude exchanges between characters,” but he praised the stunts and fight sequences.

“The action is convincing, and Bendell moves it well,” O’Connor wrote. “In addition, it is a bit of a jolt to watch the whole thing unraveling so close to home.”

Bendell, who moved to Canon City, Colorado, after the film wrapped, used the $8,000 in box office receipts to help attract a Hollywood distributor. However, the company’s executives demanded a new beginning with more action, saying the original version was too artistic.

He hated to do it, but he wrote a quick script, changed the first 20 minutes, put together a cast and crew, and shot for three days, trying to make wintertime Colorado look like summertime Ohio.

“That was a little challenge,” he said.

Ultimately, the now-defunct Vestron sold “The Instructor” on videotape in 164 countries, although Bendell said he didn’t make a dime.

“I’ve never seen a cent from it,” he said. “The first money I ever got from it: Vinegar Syndrome paid me a small amount for the rights to do the Blu-ray.”

How to buy ‘The Instructor’

The disc sells for $29.99 at https://vinegarsyndrome.com/. Video extras include a commentary track from Bendell, a 25-minute interview with the director, a double-sided poster and a booklet by film historian Rich Heldenfels.

“They did a great job on it,” Bendell said.

Local viewers will enjoy seeing video of Akron from more than 40 years ago. Scenes include Firestone Park, North Hill, Ellet, South Akron and Portage Lakes. Look for the Sohio, Click, Scott’s and O’Neil’s signs.

Bendell never made another movie, but he found success in publishing. He’s written 32 books with more than 3 million copies sold worldwide, earned four No. 1 bestsellers on Amazon and received a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011 for “Tracks of Hope,” a nonfiction story about working as a tracker in the Rocky Mountains.

His latest book, “Old Soldiers Never Die,” came out July 4.

A disabled veteran, Bendell has had quadruple bypass surgery and two heart attacks, which he blames on exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He describes himself as a “grateful recovering sober alcoholic for over a half-century.”

Bendell’s first marriage ended in divorce after 11 years. He was married for 33 years to his second wife, Shirley, a black belt who appeared in “The Instructor.” She passed away in 2014 at age 66 after a long illness.

He and Dr. Janet Bendell, a psychologist and Army veteran, got married in 2017 and enjoy life on their Colorado ranch.

“From the time I was a little boy, I always wanted to live out West and be a cowboy,” he said.

A father of six and grandfather of 14, Bendell doesn’t get back to Akron often, but he’ll never forget that one time when he made a movie in his hometown.

“It was quite an experience,” he said.

Mark J. Price can be reached at mprice@thebeaconjournal.com

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Local history: ‘The Instructor,’ a 1980s action movie filmed in Akron, gets a new release