The Karate Kid – How bad was Johnny, really?

It’s all about the kids

As I have shared before, one of the joys of parenting, in my opinion, is exposing my children to movies from my childhood and watching to see if they are filled with the same joy and wonder that I experienced as a child.  It’s self-serving and silly, but mostly harmless in the end (I hope).  But with a majority of my own life lessons coming from films, can you blame me?

At this point in my life, if you were to ask for me to give you my favorite movie, it would have to be The Karate Kid.  It was released in 1984, spawned two sequels (three if you believe the rumors that Hilary Swank starred in anything before Boys Don’t Cry).  It has also minted a handful of pop culture currencies that have been spent all over the world.  ”Wax on, wax off” anyone?

Truth be told, I don’t adore the film for the overarching themes of resilience, multi-generational friendship,  or overcoming difficult odds with the help of a mentor.  I mean, those are all good and fine.  But it’s the subtleties of the story, characters, music, images, and contradictions that really endear me to this movie.

Who is the bad guy?

Without a doubt, my favorite contradiction is the purportedly evil bully, Johnny Lawrence, ex-boyfriend of Ali, and student leader of the Cobra Kai.  When you ask people to identify the “bad guy” from The Karate Kid, most people will effortlessly come up with “Johnny” in response.  After all, he is Ali’s ex-boyfriend.  He’s the one who shows Daniel “no mercy” on the beach.  He’s the one whom Daniel faces off with in the climactic crane-kick scene.  He’s got to be the bad guy, right?

Let’s look at it more closely.  These may be details that you pick up on after the 20th viewing, or the 200th, I’m not sure.  Either way, they aren’t quickly apparent on your first viewing of the film.

Who’s for a warm one?

At 11:11 into the movie, a group of teenage boys pulls up on their dirt bikes and one of them shouts out a jubilant cry of “That was awesome!” This is our introduction to Johnny and his oh so cool black headband engaged and ready for action.  A bunch of guys riding around on their last day of freedom for a while, the last day of summer.  Everyone is having a good time, so now that we are far enough from our parents’ houses…. let’s drink some beer!

One of the boys (Tommy) calls out: “Who’s for a warm one?” (putting the can in Johnny’s chest) “Here you go.”

Johnny declines.

One of his friends mocks Johnny’s resistance and asks “Who are you kidding Johnny?  You’re still the ace degenerate!”

“No, ex-degenerate man.  8AM tomorrow, I’m a senior.  I’ve got one year to make it all work, and that’s what I’m gonna do… make it work.  All of it!”

Undeterred in his quest to mix things up tonight, Tommy points out Johhny’s ex-girlfriend playing a cute game of soccer on the beach with some new kid.  She’s having a good time.  She’s doesn’t seem nearly as broken up about the break up as he has been feeling.  When one of the boys tries to confirm that they did break up, Tommy replies “She did, he didn’t.”  Johnny still has some unanswered questions.  He decides that he wants to talk about them now.

Helmet on, conflict metaphor invoked.

Let’s Talk

When Johnny rides down to Ali, Daniel is away, shagging an errant kick.

Johnny asks Ali if they can talk.

She refuses.

He asks again.

She tells him to take his Cobra Kai friends and “get outta here!”

She turns on her boombox to show that she is not in the mood to talk.

Johnny grabs it and incredulously says “Yeah, and that’s gonna solve everything!”

Finally, Johnny negotiates a deal where he will give her back her boombox if they can go talk.

Ali agrees.

When Ali gets her boombox back, she defiantly cranks up the radio so she won’t have to hear anything Johnny says.

Johnny takes the radio and slams it on the ground.

You probably remember how it all goes from here.  Daniel steps in, Johnny tells him to stay away, Daniel ignores him, Johnny opens up a can of whoop-ass on him.

What about you?

If you were in Johnny’s shoes, would you have acted differently?  How much can you blame him for what went down with Daniel?  What do you think?

Sure, once he reached his tipping point, throwing the boombox on the ground was clearly crossing the line.  But before that moment, can you empathize with Johnny at all?

More on Johnny later….