''My Bodyguard'' is a 1980 American
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
comedy drama film
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
directed by
Tony Bill (his directorial debut), and written by
Alan Ormsby
Alan Ormsby (born December 14, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, make up artist, actor and author.
Film career
Ormsby began work in feature films with the Bob Clark-directed '' Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things'' (1972), which ...
. The film stars
Chris Makepeace
Christopher Makepeace (born April 22, 1964) is a Canadian former actor, known for his starring roles in the coming-of-age film ''My Bodyguard'' (1980) and comedy horror ''Vamp'' (1986), and supporting roles in the screwball comedy '' Meatballs'' ...
,
Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin (born February 27, 1962) is an American actor. He starred in ''Full Metal Jacket'' (1987) as Animal Mother, as well as in the television series '' Firefly'' and its continuation film '' Serenity'' as Jayne Cobb. His roles include St ...
(in his first film role),
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination.
Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a te ...
,
Martin Mull
Martin Eugene Mull (born August 18, 1943) is an American actor, comedian and musician who has appeared in many television and film roles. He is also a painter and recording artist. As an actor, he first became known in his role on ''Mary Hartman, ...
, and
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, screenwriter, and playwright. She began her career performing on Broadway at age 19. Known for her nasal voice and distinctive personality, Gordon gained internati ...
.
The film was the debut of both Baldwin and an uncredited
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and former teen model. She made her film debut in ''My Bodyguard'' (1980), before receiving critical acclaim for her role in ''Flashdance'' (1983), for which she won NAACP Image Awa ...
and was
Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack (; born October 11, 1962) is an American actress. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the comedy-drama ''Working Girl'' (1988) and the romantic comedy '' In & Out'' (1997) ...
's first major film.
Plot
Clifford Peache lives in an upscale
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
luxury hotel with his father, the hotel manager, and his grandmother. He is a new student at
Lake View High School, where he arrives each day in a hotel limousine.
Clifford quickly becomes a target of abuse from a gang of bullies, led by Melvin Moody. They regularly
extort
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...
money from students, allegedly to protect them from another student, Ricky Linderman. According to school legend, Linderman has killed several people, including his own little brother. Not believing the stories, Clifford consults a teacher who claims that the only violence she's aware of from Ricky's past occurred when his nine-year-old brother died accidentally while playing alone with a gun. Ricky was the first to find the body.
Despite the rumors, Clifford approaches Ricky and asks him to be his bodyguard. He refuses, but the boys become friends after Ricky saves him from a beating by Moody and his gang. He has emotional issues over the death of his brother, and although he's slow to trust Clifford, Ricky shows him a cherished motorcycle that he has been rebuilding. The friendship between them is strengthened as Clifford successfully helps Ricky search junkyards for a hard-to-find cylinder for the motorcycle's engine.
Through Clifford's friendship, Ricky comes out of his shell, proving to a few classmates that he's not the killer the school rumors allege. As Clifford, Ricky, and a few other friends from school eat lunch in
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, ...
, Moody and his gang approach. Moody has enlisted older bodybuilder Mike to be ''his'' bodyguard. He intimidates and physically abuses Ricky, who refuses to fight. Mike vandalizes his motorcycle before Moody pushes it into the lagoon. Ricky runs away, ashamed and angry.
Ricky later appears at Clifford's hotel, asking for money before leaving again. Clifford follows him and they argue before Ricky finally reveals that it was ''he'' who accidentally shot his brother while playing with their father's gun, and lied about finding his brother after the fact. As a result, he is overwhelmed with guilt and remorse, leaving Clifford behind as he takes a subway train into the night.
Moody and Mike return to the park to continue bullying the other children. Ricky is also there retrieving his motorcycle from the lagoon. Moody notices, demanding the motorcycle, which Ricky silently refuses. Moody summons Mike, the bodybuilder intimidates him, they engage in a long fistfight, which Ricky ultimately wins.
Moody and Clifford have split off into their own fistfight, when Moody tried to unfairly intervene in the fight between Ricky and Mike. Ricky urges Clifford to fight him while coaching him. Clifford initially fights incompetently, taunted by the overconfident bully, but finally lands several solid punches, the last of which knocks Moody down, breaking his nose. Moody sits on the ground, bleeding and whining, showing to be a coward. Ricky retrieves his motorcycle, and jokingly asks Clifford to be ''his'' bodyguard as they leave with their friends.
Production
The film was shot on location in Chicago with Lake View High School providing the setting for the film's fictional Fleer H.S. The hotel that Clifford lives in and which is managed by his father is the real life
Ambassador East
The Ambassador Chicago, known for many decades as the Ambassador East, is a historic hotel in Chicago, established in 1926. In their heyday, both the hotel and its iconic restaurant, The Pump Room, were frequented by celebrities.
Location
The h ...
(now known as the Ambassador Hotel) at 1301 North State Parkway.
Cast
*
Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin (born February 27, 1962) is an American actor. He starred in ''Full Metal Jacket'' (1987) as Animal Mother, as well as in the television series '' Firefly'' and its continuation film '' Serenity'' as Jayne Cobb. His roles include St ...
as Ricky Linderman
*
Chris Makepeace
Christopher Makepeace (born April 22, 1964) is a Canadian former actor, known for his starring roles in the coming-of-age film ''My Bodyguard'' (1980) and comedy horror ''Vamp'' (1986), and supporting roles in the screwball comedy '' Meatballs'' ...
as Clifford Peache
*
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including an Oscar and Grammy nomination.
Dillon made his feature film debut in '' Over the Edge'' (1979) and established himself as a te ...
as Melvin Moody
* Paul Quandt as Carson
* Richard Bradley as Dubrow
* Tim Reyna as Koontz
* Dean R. Miller as Hightower
*
Martin Mull
Martin Eugene Mull (born August 18, 1943) is an American actor, comedian and musician who has appeared in many television and film roles. He is also a painter and recording artist. As an actor, he first became known in his role on ''Mary Hartman, ...
as Mr. Peache
*
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, screenwriter, and playwright. She began her career performing on Broadway at age 19. Known for her nasal voice and distinctive personality, Gordon gained internati ...
as Gramma Peache
*
Richard Cusack as Principal Roth
*
Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack (; born October 11, 1962) is an American actress. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the comedy-drama ''Working Girl'' (1988) and the romantic comedy '' In & Out'' (1997) ...
as Shelley
* Hank Salas as Mike
*
Kathryn Grody
Kathryn Janis Grody is an American actress and writer.
Early life and education
Grody was born in Los Angeles, California. She studied acting at HB Studio in New York City.
Career
Grody wrote, and acted in, the autobiographical play ''Mom's Lif ...
as Ms. Jump
*
Patrick Billingsley
Patrick Paul Billingsley (May 3, 1925 – April 22, 2011) was an American mathematician and stage and screen actor, noted for his books in advanced probability theory and statistics. He was born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and gradua ...
as biology teacher
*
John Houseman
John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director ...
as Dobbs
*
Craig Richard Nelson
Craig Richard Nelson (born September 17, 1947) is an American actor in theater, film and television.
Life and career
Nelson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and grew up as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He studie ...
as Griffith
*
Tim Kazurinsky
Timothy James Kazurinsky (born March 3, 1950) is an American actor and screenwriter best known as a cast member and writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' and for his role as Carl Sweetchuck in the '' Police Academy'' films.
Early life
Kazurinsky wa ...
as workman
*
George Wendt
George Robert Wendt Jr. (born October 17, 1948) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Norm Peterson on the television sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993), which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy ...
as air conditioning engineer
*
Jennifer Beals
Jennifer Beals (born December 19, 1963) is an American actress and former teen model. She made her film debut in ''My Bodyguard'' (1980), before receiving critical acclaim for her role in ''Flashdance'' (1983), for which she won NAACP Image Awa ...
(uncredited) as Shelly's friend
Release and reception
''My Bodyguard'' opened on July 11, 1980, in
limited release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
, and
wide release In the American motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across the country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical re ...
on August 15, 1980. In its limited weekend, the film opened at #3 with $178,641 and went on to gross $22,482,953 in the United States.
The film was named as one of the top ten films of 1980 by
National Board of Review
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...
. It was also nominated by the
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO
* The Writers Guil ...
for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen, and in his analysis of the
53rd Academy Awards
The 53rd Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored 1980 in film, films released in 1980 and took place on March 31, 1981, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at ...
, Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' wrote that ''My Bodyguard'' was unfairly snubbed when it failed to receive an Oscar nomination for
Best Original Screenplay
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...
.
The film ranked No. 45 on ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
''s list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
The film received generally positive reviews; on
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 79% of 34 critics gave the film a positive review (with an average rating of 6.8/10) and the site's critics' consensus reading, "T. Bill debuts as an affectionate director, keenly aware of growing pains."
Home video release
The film was released on DVD on January 29, 2002 and also was released on Blu-ray on September 6, 2016.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:My Bodyguard
1980 films
1980s high school films
1980s teen comedy-drama films
20th Century Fox films
American comedy-drama films
American high school films
American teen comedy-drama films
Films about bullying
Films scored by Dave Grusin
Films set in Chicago
Films shot in Chicago
1980 directorial debut films
American children's comedy films
Films directed by Tony Bill
1980s English-language films
1980s American films