Movie review: ‘The Octagon’

FloridaGator80

I’ve written before about a movie offering up a “slice of ’70s cheese,” but you’ll find that “The Octagon” with Chuck Norris is more than just a slice … it’s pretty much the whole pie. Here’s a somewhat iconic martial arts film that came out in 1980, but its production values reek and there isn’t much of a plot. However, “The Octagon” does have Chuck kicking major butt … but only after he puts himself into play to fight those supporting a ninja training school for terrorists. “The Octagon” makes the rounds of movie networks, so this one is easy for you to find.

‘The Octagon’
(1980; 103 minutes; rated R; directed by Eric Karson and starring Chuck Norris, Lee Van Cleef and Karen Carlson)

NOT A GOOD MOVIE, BUT IT HAS CHUCK NORRIS!

(NOTE: I updated this review on March 20, 2026, to note the passing of Chuck Norris.)

It was 1980 and post-Bruce Lee and martial arts were still going strong in cinema. Chuck Norris had become the signature black-belt star in the martial arts world with a couple of flicks in the two years prior, but “The Octagon” would be a big boost to his stature as a star and has some great fight scenes.

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“The Octagon” has a flimsy excuse for a storyline – good guys fighting terrorists and the “ninja” camp that trains them in the deadly arts of the not-very-extinct ninja warriors of Japan. Of course, Norris has a back story with the leader of the training camp, who was his best friend in childhood but became his arch-enemy after a contest in which the other guy cheated.

Enter other characters for “The Octagon” … from “A.J.” with his explosion of hair to big screen bad-guy legend Lee Van Cleef (he’s a “good guy” in this one) to a bunch of nonentities who are being trained ninja-style for their terrorist organizations. But soon, they find that the ninja trainers are worse than themselves (or at least worse at acting).

Whew!

BTW … the “octagon” is the shape of the training camp’s main facility where fighters have to prove their prowess. It’s not really explained too well (nothing much in this one is), but you get drawn into the philosophical screen that the “octagon” presents. Still, “The Octagon” became a signature for martial arts fighting and somewhat of a cult fav film along with Norris’ “Good Guys Wear Black.”

In what passes for the story of “The Octagon,” Norris and Art Hindle as “A.J.” are preparing for a karate exhibition. However, Hindle has become embroiled in an anti-terrorist mission and wants to draw Norris into it. However, the overall theme is the ninja and how these mysterious Japanese assassins have found their way to modern times.

Keep following me here … Norris, who has many whispered conversations with himself throughout the movie to explain many things you don’t care about, immediately sees the “ninja” angle and therefore stays away from the anti-terrorist stuff. Or, something like that. Whew, yet again.

I guess that I’ll have to examine the work, if you can call it that, of the most influential actors …

  • Norris is your headliner playing “Scott James” here and he’s had a surprisingly light number of acting credits (44) since his first in 1968. He tries, but doesn’t do a good job, of communicating his intuition and the zen behind his personal philosophy. Still, Chuck kicks serious butt once he gets it in gear, but it’s a pretty wooden performance. Norris had a couple of successful films before “The Octagon,” including “Good Guys Wear Black” and “A Force of One.” He would go on to similar film success with “Forced Vengeance” and “Lone Wolf McQuade” with David Carradine. Chuck is probably most recognized from his nearly 200 episodes on TV as “Walker, Texas Ranger.” He was in “The Expendables 2” and more recently an episode of the TV series “Hawaii Five-O.” Chuck will never be considered a great acting talent, but he is watchable and I liked his short stint in the martial arts film “Sidekicks” (click here for my review). Norris died in March 2026 in Hawaii at 86, just nine days after his birthday of March 10.
  • Hindle is a very prolific supporting actor with 180+ credits since his first in 1971 (including one of my favorite comedies “Porky’s” – click here for my review). With his impressive coiffure, Hindle is the overly energetic sidekick to Norris, who wants Chuck to get into the battle against terrorists. Hindle exudes energy in this one, but doesn’t do anything with his character. He’s done better work, but this one where it doesn’t matter. Hindle has worked on dozens of TV series and is in one of the under-appreciated horror flicks: “Black Christmas” from 1974.
  • As a movie bad guy or tough guy, there have been few tougher or badder than Van Cleef, who plays mercenary and anti-terrorist expert “McCarn.” Hindle is working with Van Cleef, who knows Norris, but can’t get Chuck to get into the game. Van Cleef gives the best performance of all the actors, but he doesn’t have much, if anything, to work with and just comes off as too serious and too wooden. It’s not anywhere near his efforts in films such as “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” a couple with Clint Eastwood (“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “For a Few Dollars More”) and John Carpenter’s “Escape from New York” with Kurt Russell – click here for my review. Van Cleef died of a heart attack at 64 in 1989.
  • Although Carol Bagdasarian as “Aura” isn’t the female lead, she manages to elevate her character (OK, just from the ground to the second floor) where other actors do not manage such a feat. Bagdasarian’s character finds herself in a crisis of confidence and she jumps from the terrorist side to Chuck’s side with ease. Bagdasarian, who has a sliver of a resume of 14 acting credits with the last in 1986, isn’t notable, but she manages to earn your attention – and that’s high praise in this one. She was on TV shows such as “Lou Grant,” “Mannix” (she played five different characters on five different episodes) and “Ironside” as well as a soap opera. Bagdasarian’s first acting credit in a film was in 1973.

Everyone else in this one appears to have failed an audition for dinner theater to get on screen. Whew, yet and yet again! “The Octagon” isn’t exactly a sterling example of the acting profession, but you need to watch it to fully appreciate the depth of its thespian incompetence … and you need to watch it because of Norris and the fighting.

As an afterthought, some of the characters’ names are somewhat amusing from “Hatband” to “Quinine” to “Meat” to “Greek” to “Doggo.” Oh, BTW … “Hatband” is played by Norris’ brother Aaron.

Completely unsurprising is that director Eric Karson isn’t very good. “The Octagon” was his movie debut as a director and he would only direct only three other films and the rest of his slim CV of eight credits as a director would be shorts or a documentary. Karson hasn’t had an acting or directing credit since 2010.

Because of the lack of acting, this is one of my shortest reviews (by word count) for my blog. Sorry about that!

“The Octagon” was the 33rd ranked film at the U.S. box office in 1980 with $19 million, according to The Numbers statistical website. Of course, the No. 1 film was “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” with $181.3 million (other websites put it over $200 million). Here are the other films from 1980 that I’ve reviewed:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Norris reportedly rehearsed the film’s climatic fight scene … in his back yard.
  • The film’s final body count is credited at 40. That’s not much of a body count by today’s standard, because it wouldn’t even crack the current Top 100 in which the No. 100 film has a body count of 64 (“Predator” – click here for my review) and the top of the list is in the hundreds.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “13 years after this film was made and released, the word ‘Octagon’ later became in 1993 the name of a caged enclosure used by mixed martial arts matches and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.”
  • The actor who plays Norris’ character in his teenaged years is Mike Norris, as in Chuck’s son.
  • Filmmakers wanted an expensive car for the “rich” female lead, but didn’t want to spend money. So, the director loaned his Jaguar – and it was damaged in one scene!
  • At the end of production, producers found it was cheaper to burn down the “octagon” complex instead of demolishing it and carting off the debris.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “First major Ninja picture of the 1980s popular ninja movie cycle which was first released in the 1980 year before Enter the Ninja (1981) in 1981. The 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice (1967) and Sam Peckinpah‘s 1977 film The Killer Elite (1975) had both previously featured ninja characters.”

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