By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit that they deserve. In this installment: Israeli-American director Sam Firstenberg, who helmed Revenge Of The Ninja, American Ninja, Breakin’ 2, Riverbend and Avenging Force.
When a director works principally for one studio, producer or production company – particularly one with a very strong identity – it’s very easy for them to get lost in the vibrant, colourful mix. A director’s own creative flair will often merely be seen as part of the “house style” of their most frequent employer. We’ve looked at this “phenomenon” a few times already, namely in the under-celebrated personages of John Carl Buechler (who did most of his work for producer Charles Band and his Empire Pictures), Pete Docter (one of Pixar’s best), and the cavalcade of creators (George Armitage, Katt Shea, Frances Doel and so many more) given their start by B-movie impresario Roger Corman and his New World Pictures shingle.
One of the most instantly recognisable production companies of all times is Cannon Films, the 1980s-centric schlock-house built by cunning, frequently taste-deprived Israeli entrepreneurs and filmmakers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Though they didn’t start Cannon, the duo bought it in 1979, and then turned it into the famed cinematic legend that it is today through a steady release of action flicks, lurid thrillers, sexy come-ons, teen comedies, insane musicals (have you seen The Apple? If not, run, don’t walk!), wacky sci-fi extravaganzas, and a few prestige dramas. When you see the Cannon logo, it does not usually precede work of a deeply thoughtful nature, though it is often an indicator of fun to come. The history and output of Cannon is masterfully captured by Aussie director Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood) in his utterly essential 2014 doco Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films.
Though Death Wish maestro Michael Winner was perhaps the most important of Cannon’s frequent directors, the far less feted Sam Firstenberg also had a huge part to play in the company’s success, helming some of its most central hits, and helping to establish its hugely popular run of ninja-focused martial arts flicks in the 1980s. Shmulik, later Sam, Firstenberg was born in 1950 in Poland, but grew up just outside of Jerusalem in Israel, where he developed a near-obsessive love for cinema and storytelling from a very early age. After doing his three years of mandatory military service and studying electrical engineering, 21-year-old Firstenberg pursued his love of cinema in earnest and left film-deprived Israel for the more promising concrete fields of New York City.
The enterprising Firstenberg was soon at university, and then almost instantly began making short films and working as an assistant director, often with fellow Israeli Menahem Golan. Firstenberg made his debut in 1981 with One More Chance, a student thesis film that he made over three years on weekends with fellow students before finishing the project thanks to completion funding from Menahem Golan, who then distributed the film. A sensitive drama about an ex-con (played by John La Motta, the nephew of Raging Bull Jake La Motta and an eventual cast member on the sitcom ALF) navigating life outside prison, the film also featured Kirstie Alley in her motion picture debut. Quiet and contemplative, One More Chance didn’t exactly indicate the kind of films that Sam Firstenberg would soon make.
Menahem Golan was impressed by Firstenberg’s work ethic (the aspiring filmmaker had done all manner of menial on-set jobs for Cannon before working his way up to assistant director), and also by the filmmaking skills that he displayed on One More Chance, and opted to give Firstenberg his first major break by handing him the directorial reins on 1983’s Revenge Of The Ninja, the in-name-only sequel to 1981’s Enter The Ninja, which Golan had directed himself. “Menahem always gave chances to people who wanted to prove themselves,” Firstenberg told Money Into Light in 2017. “And he kept on giving me more and more chances.” Though not narratively connected, Firstenberg got imposing Enter The Ninja breakout martial arts badass Sho Kosugi for the principal role in Revenge Of The Ninja, and crafted a very tasty slab of dark-hued action in the process.
Though Revenge Of The Ninja is an absolute belter, it has nothing on Firstenberg’s 1984 follow-up Ninja III: The Domination, in which the ghost of a ninja possesses coolly named aerobics instructor Christie Ryder (Cannon fave Lucinda Dickey, who also starred in the company’s hip-hop dance classic Breakin’), and proceeds to wreak god-holy havoc. If that wasn’t crazy enough, the at-peril Christie gets a crew of unlikely allies in Jordan Bennett’s cop, James Hong’s Japanese exorcist and Sho Kosugi’s lethal ninja, who wants revenge on the evil spirit possessing Christie. It’s a mad, near-baroque melange of a film, twisting together action, horror, mysticism and the very 1980s fad of aerobics. Obviously prodded along by the dazed creative desires of Menahem Golan, Firstenberg really rises to the occasion with Ninja III: The Domination, and delivers a true original.
Sam Firstenberg’s flair for colour and dynamism went into overdrive on his next film, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, the splashy sequel to Breakin’, which was released just seven months (!!!) after the original. Fun and energetic, this musical represented something of a shift for Firstenberg, but his gift for movement and excitement was on full display, and he continued to solidify his position of Cannon go-to man. Firstenberg’s cache rose even more when he delivered the big hit American Ninja in 1985. With handsome and charismatic model, actor and martial artist Michael Dudikoff in the lead role, this complex tale of a US military man mixing it up with ninjas clicked with audiences and prompted a rock-solid sequel in 1987 with American Ninja: The Confrontation.
After an action-oriented detour into social commentary with 1989’s Riverbend and a return to Israel for 1990’s The Day We Met, Firstenberg really honed his eye for exploitative action cinema, and moved largely into the direct-to-DVD market. The now seemingly retired director has always kept it fast-paced and energetic with the hard-rumbling likes of Delta Force 3 (1991), American Samurai (1992), Cyborg Cop (1993), and Blood Warriors (1993), while also occasionally tossing up WTF moments like 1998’s McCinsey’s Island, which stars the very unlikely trio of (pictured right at the top) Robert Vaughn, Hulk Hogan and Grace Jones. Though Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus certainly built the beast that was Cannon, Sam Firstenberg most definitely laid more than a few bricks…
If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs Jack Sholder, Richard Gray, Giuseppe Andrews, Gus Trikonis, Greydon Clark, Frances Doel, Gordon Douglas, Billy Fine, Craig R. Baxley, Harvey Bernhard, Bert I. Gordon, James Fargo, Jeremy Kagan, Robby Benson, Robert Hiltzik, John Carl Buechler, Rick Carter, Paul Dehn, Bob Kelljan, Kevin Connor, Ralph Nelson, William A. Graham, Judith Rascoe, Michael Pressman, Peter Carter, Leo V. Gordon, Dalene Young, Gary Nelson, Fred Walton, James Frawley, Pete Docter, Max Baer Jr., James Clavell, Ronald F. Maxwell, Frank D. Gilroy, John Hough, Dick Richards, William Girdler, Rayland Jensen, Richard T. Heffron, Christopher Jones, Earl Owensby, James Bridges, Jeff Kanew, Robert Butler, Leigh Chapman, Joe Camp, John Patrick Shanley, William Peter Blatty, Peter Clifton, Peter R. Hunt, Shaun Grant, James B. Harris, Gerald Wilson, Patricia Birch, Buzz Kulik, Kris Kristofferson, Rick Rosenthal, Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah, Jerrold Freeman, William Dear, Anthony Harvey, Douglas Hickox, Karen Arthur, Larry Peerce, Tony Goldwyn, Brian G. Hutton, Shelley Duvall, Robert Towne, David Giler, William D. Wittliff, Tom DeSimone, Ulu Grosbard, Denis Sanders, Daryl Duke, Jack McCoy, James William Guercio, James Goldstone, Daniel Nettheim, Goran Stolevski, Jared & Jerusha Hess, William Richert, Michael Jenkins, Robert M. Young, Robert Thom, Graeme Clifford, Frank Howson, Oliver Hermanus, Jennings Lang, Matthew Saville, Sophie Hyde, John Curran, Jesse Peretz, Anthony Hayes, Stuart Blumberg, Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.
