Karate Kid and California Dreaming

For our 9th episode of the amazing Family Pictures Podcast we waxed on about the 1984 hit Karate Kid. Did you know Karate Kid was directed by Rocky‘s John Avildsen? Makes sense when you think about it given Karate Kid is just a re-make of Rocky set in California with karate replacing boxing. This is just one of the many deep insights you’ll get from this cutting-edge, truly innovate film podcast that will be sure to blow your mind and pay your mortgage, so like and subscribe for more!

One of the things I’m learning as MBS and I find our rhythm is how much film is about the power of place for me. The ways in which a film offers a portal into a place never gets old. Karate Kid captures a particular slice of California in the 80s which is a world I was obsessed with as Long Islander. To put things in a bit of context, I was a skateboarder and a wannabe surfer (my older brother was the real surfer) and if you were into these subcultures in 1984 then California was the center of the world. My older brother took a trip out to Southern California around this time and came back with stories from the promised land reporting scenes of Steve Steadham doing a backside boneless followed by Neil Blender doing a lein air at the Del Mar Skate Ranch—the stuff of Thrasher magazine legend for a 13 year old kid on the other side of the world.

The great Steve Steadham doing a backside boneless over a channel

But to be clear, if you want to see early 1980s skateboarding culture at its rawest then pop in a VHS tape of the Bones Brigade Video Show or Skate Visions —both also released in 1984.

In retrospect Karate Kid has a different take on the golden land of opportunity, it starts by showing a Newark kid forced to up and leave the East Coast to move to LA. Almost immediately Avildsen dispels the magic of Southern California. It was lost on 13 year-old me, but post-19 year-old me who moved to Long Beach in 1990 would relate deeply with each re-watching of the film. The spaces deeply resonate.

So like with my First Born post, although a little less over-the-top, I took some screenshots that capture these Southern California spaces that were both a draw for a 13 year-old me and a bit of a wake-up call for a 19 year-old me.

Daniel and his mom bungee cord the BMX to the roof of their station wagon, say goodbye to the neighborhood kids, and they’re heading west.

Re-watching Karate Kid, I forgot the first few minutes of the film feature Daniel and his mom leaving Newark to drive cross country.

Palms trees criss-crossed by power lines. Not the garden of eden Danny was promised.

One of the things that this film did well for 19 year-old me is highlight the intersection of urban sprawl and the natural wonders of this part of the world. While I could care less about this fact as a 13 year-old, low-rent apartment buildings in Souther California became a part of my life in 1990 when I finally moved there. The wake-up call Daniel and his mom faced when arriving at their apartment building was a bit closer to home.

Nesting rats, that’s what that means.

Also, the fact that rats nest in palm trees has never left my imagination since I was told to be careful of the ones filled with dead fronds. That fact was even nodded to in another family picture from this part of the world, namely the apocalyptic nightmare vision Miracle Mile (1988).

I spy a liquor store.

The strip malls behind Daniel’s new home are anchored by a liquor store, which is absolutely true to form for most southern California strips. What’s more, the apartment building they move into is similar to ones I lived in on both South Sepulveda Blvd and Palms Boulevard, save neither of them even pretended to having a pool.

The pool Mister Miyagi should have had Daniel clean as part of his training.

Inside the apartment is equally shabby, and I would argue the apartments I stayed in during the early 90s were a bit nicer, although we didn’t have that yellow laundry basket that I now covet.

The apartment seems to come with a yellow laundry basket, which I want.

The entertainment center in the La Russo’s new apartment is very similar to those we were able to secure for Reclaim Arcade’s living room 5 years ago or so.

That entertainment center against the wall is remarkably similar to the ones we found for Reclaim Arcade’s living room.

Here’s a look at the 80s living room furniture, good to know we were spot on!

Reclaim Arcade’s living room, notice those 80s entertainment centers that echo the one in Daniel’s Reseda apartment.

While there is surprisingly no skateboarding in Karate Kid, there is a brief shot of surfing you can see behind the kids who are playing soccer on the beach.

Can you see the surfer in between the California kids running on the beach?

The omnipresence of Minute Maid orange juice in the 80s might be a study to be done all of its own.

Notice the Minute Maid orange juice on the table, just like we saw in First Born.

Notice how palm trees are a synecdoche (did I use that correctly?) for the mythos of possibility in California that Daniel just isn’t buying given he keeps on getting his ass kicked.

Mom: “Fighting doesn’t solve anything.” Daniel: “Neither does palm trees.”

Another detail worth noting that makes the production design of this film that much more believable is once Daniel settles in a bit he dons a Wes Chandler jersey, who was a wide receiver for the Chargers—arguably the start of the West Coast offense.

Daniel sporting Wes Chandler’s Chargers jersey is a very nice touch.

Probably the space that captures my imagination most as both a 13, 19, and 53 year-old was the California style Family Fun Center Golf n’ Stuff.

Gold n’ Stuff Family Fun Center.

It had mini-golf, go karts, water slides, and one hell of an arcade, many elements First Born was sadly missing. This might be the reason why Karate Kid was so much more successful than First Born in the end.

A look at the Golf n’ Stuff park from afar, and the water slide is definitely an attraction.

While Daniel is doing some mea culpa we can see some kids just finishing their whirl down the water slides. This is not something you would have at a random arcade/mini golf park on the East Coast.

Water sliding is all the rage at Gold n’ Stuff, even if Daniel a jerk.

As we start to zero in on the games in the arcade, which is where today’s 53 year-old Jimmy goes, I totally dig on the arcade signs. Check out the the beautifully lit up Arcade sign in the image below, that’s an entrance to another world!

That lit up arcade entrance is pretty spectacular.

And the marquee highlighting they have ALL THE LATEST VIDEOS might make you think of a VHS rental store, but given the context we know what they mean. Something that underscores that pinball was waning in the face to the new world of video games.

Love the “Arcade: All the Latest Videos” sign.

The Venture arcade cabinet can be recognized by its marquee in the following screenshot. It’s visible just above Ali’s head. Also, I’m thinking this is right below the beautifully lit up arcade signage we saw above. I might add I have a mint version of Venture, and it was one of the most difficult games for me to get restored and working.

Can you spy an Exidy Venture?

Oh how I love thee, Pac-man, but the real show stealer here is the mechanical light-gun game Shoot Away from 1977. You shoot at clay pigeons on a stand-up screen that makes this definitely unique.

Side view of Ali playing Shoot Away.

Shoot Away would be a fun game to try and track down an original of or even reproduce using a few current technologies.

Full frontal view of Ali and her friend playing Shoot Away.

Daniel and Ali argue in front of a Moon Patrol and Ms. Pac-man, just thought you should know.

Moon Patrol and Ms. Pac-man would be staples at any arcade of note in 1984.

Another nice mechanical game would be the Ice Hockey bubble game that is paying homage to the 1980 Olympic’s game the “Miracle on Ice.” Those USSR jersey’s are awesome, and you can actually buy this game today brand new for an insane $5,500. WTF!

Bubble Hockey featuring the “Miracle on Ice.”

A wider shot of the bubble hockey game featuring the 1980 Olympic game when those events were amateur driven and actually seemed to mean something.

So the Golf n’ Stuff was the real deep-dive I wanted to take given how obsessed I was, am, and, most likely, will be with arcade games from the 1980s. It’s also special to 19 year-old me because my brother and I (the other one, not the surfer who hooked me on California) used to go to a similar arcade in Westminster, California (South of Long Beach) where we would hit the arcade and play Smash TV until they kicked us out.

Bird’s eye view of the All Valley Tournament that is reminiscent of the county wrestling tournament in the US.

Probably the best part of Karate Kid is the last 15-20 minutes where they feature the All Valley Championship tournament. Avildsen brilliantly gets like 7 or 8 matches into like 10 minutes, it was reminiscent of the tournament in Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976), but without the insane martial arts styles and brilliant gore—so less good.

The Eagle Claws Tournament: two contestants battle above sword blades stuck into the earth.

Anyway, the setup captured in the wide shot above was similar to the county wrestling tournaments I attended in the 80s to see who from Baldwin High School might move on to the States (definitely not me). My high school was a bit of a power house for wrestling in New York, and heading to the counties was definitely an event.

Best quote in the movie, but this was not spoken by Miyagi, but rather…

…Tommy from Cobra kai. Thanks for this gem, Tommy.

Fly Pelican!

For some reason whenever we would refer to the famous crane move Daniel performs to win the tournament we would yell “Fly pelican!” Why, I have no idea, but that’s what we did and it highlights how much this movie became part of our cultural imagination.

Anyway, that’s a lot of screenshots from a movie that captures a vision of the Valley served up to gawking East Coast kids that were California dreaming through the movies.