For this "Extra Credit" installment of the "Back To School Edition" of my Buried Treasure series, I am so proud to turn my attention to a film that I feel, has seemingly gone forgotten over the years. It was a critical and box office success at the time and it is also a film, I believe, paved the way for the higher quality teenage themed films to come. Released 30 years ago this month, I now pay tribute to "My Bodyguard," a film I cannot recommend highly enough for you to seek out.
"MY BODYGUARD" (1980)
Written by Alan Ormsby
Directed by Tony Bill
In September of 1980, I entered Middle School. Although the Middle School in question was connected to the Lower School of my past and the High School of my future, which made any transitions comparatively easier than those who venture to entirely new schools, excitement, anxiousness and trepidation did play a hefty role. It seemed obvious to me at the time that the sunshine days of childhood would soon play host to some darker clouds as academic pressures and expectations undoubtedly grew more serious. Socially, things felt even more tenuous as hormones, puberty and ever shifting circles of friendships certainly would cause more than their fair share of emotional confusion, baggage and heartache. But, there were times when we all of us seemed to band together and exhibited a positive communal spirit. And at the start of 6th grade, that communal spirit arrived through something as innocuous as a movie.
In the few short weeks before Middle School officially began, "My Bodyguard," the teenaged themed motion picture and Directorial debut of Tony Bill was released in theaters and by the time we reunited and convened in the school hallways, the film was the topic of conversation. Seemingly, everyone had seen it and felt compelled to talk about it. While this sensation lasted perhaps only a day or so to my recollection, the conversation was so passionate that it seemed as if the movie, with its primary theme of school bullying, had really shaken us up. Granted, our home of higher education was located inside the confines of a private school, which itself was housed upon the campus of the University of Chicago, thus making relative safety during our school days a non-issue. That said, "My Bodyguard" was so perceptive, so knowing and honest that the film, while enormously entertaining, hit all of us at nothing less than a primal level.
Chris Makepeace gives a hugely engaging and fully realized starring performance as Clifford, the new kid at a Chicago public high school. Clifford is immediately set apart from the remainder of his new classmates due to his affluent status, as he lives with his family (including rascally Grandmother Ruth Gordon) in a ritzy Chicago hotel managed by his Father (Martin Mull) and first arrives to school in a limousine. Aside from dealing with the expected pressures of assimilating within a new environment, Clifford quickly runs afoul of the menacing school bully Moody (a brilliantly fearsome Matt Dillon) and his gang. The school thugs extort money from victimized students in the Boys’ Room as “protection” from the silent and hulking Ricky Linderman (Adam Baldwin), a student long rumored to hold a violent past, including the cold-blooded murder of his younger brother.
Once Moody approaches Clifford for his lunch money payments, Clifford refuses, thus making himself the constant target for hallway, classroom and cafeteria humiliation and torment. Knowing fully well that he could not possibly defeat Moody physically, Clifford strikes upon an ingenious idea: to hire Linderman as his personal bodyguard. Yet, to accomplish this feat, he would have to engage with the immensely intimidating Linderman first.
After an initial meeting where Linderman declines Clifford’s request and proposal, Linderman eventually saves Clifford from a beating by Moody’s gang and ultimately agrees to Clifford’s original business proposition. From here, the story takes increasingly mature turns as we watch the tentative friendship between Clifford and Linderman grow, and levels of trust are gradually built between them. Their bonding solidifies over the reconstruction of a motorcycle, a source of healing for Linderman as he remains engulfed by grief over the death of his 9 year old brother from a year prior.
The friendship is placed to the test once Moody returns with his own “bodyguard,” placing Linderman in the position of having to live up to the pain of the violent rumors. And Clifford, now with a treasured friendship hanging in the balance, must find his own inner strength to cease hiding behind others and learn to fight for himself.
In addition to the visceral nature of the story and the excellent performances from the entire cast (including some great comedy from Paul Quandt as Clifford’s perpetually worried friend
and also Joan Cusack in her film debut), what makes “My Bodyguard” a film of such influence and importance is its down-to-Earth directness, honesty and unwillingness to create false drama within a story that contains so many hefty and instantly recognizable nuggets of school tension and paranoia. It never reduces its characters to cartoons or ever ceases to take their issues without the same seriousness and maturity that could be seen in any adult-themed film. Director Bill and his screenwriter Ormsby carve out realistic, every day teenage characters that, unlike so many of today’s films, don’t need to hide behind a wall of post-modern irony to inject a false sense of “cool.” Their flaws, wounds, fears, and hurts are all on open display, creating deep sympathy and making them all resonate fully as human beings.
At the film’s core, and through the relationship between Clifford and Linderman, the story allows the primary characters to ask of themselves what it means to be a good friend. “My Bodyguard” confidently and tenderly explores levels of trust and loyalty while also sifting through issues of guilt, remorse, courage, weakness, strength and redemption in a tangible, highly entertaining, crowd pleasing and decidedly non heavy handed fashion.
I wonder if a film like “My Bodyguard” could even be made today. In some ways, I am surprised that it hasn’t, with our current glut of sequels, remakes and re-boots, some of which to films that were already wonderful pieces of work that needed no improvement in the first place. But then again, have times changed so much for teenagers that a film like this and presented in the fashion Tony Bill designed can only be seen as an archaic artifact from a time when teenagers were relatively safer? It could be argued that if this film were made today, there wouldn’t be much of a movie as Clifford would probably use his affluence to obtain a gun and would then shoot Moody in the Boys Room!
Despite those thoughts, there is the non-debatable fact that we do have this buried treasure from the Fall of 1980. “My Bodyguard” is a film with a complete lack of hyperbole, prefabricated thrills and action and is ultimately a film that stresses and cherishes thought over violence, empathy over detached jadedness and pays strict attention to choices and the consequences that stem from those choices.
What a shame that this wonderful film, which has now reached its 30th anniversary this very month, has become a film that seems to have been forgotten. Sadly, for more recent generations, it is a film that is quite possibly unknown. The sight of “My Bodyguard” on cable television is an extreme rarity and the hard to find DVD has relegated the movie to the toothless and saccharine “Family Feature” status, thus ensuring that it will remain overlooked. For the uninitiated, I am here to tell you that “My Bodyguard” is no cheesy “Afterschool Special” that lacks sophistication. Quite the contrary, “My Bodyguard” is a jewel of a movie that gets every note just right and left me wanting for nothing more as well as plenty to ponder afterwards.
At the outset of this tribute, I recalled that this film possibly reached all of us new Middle School students at a primal level. As I ruminate over "My Bodyguard" and the reaction it caused throughout the school hallways as we collectively embraced it, I cannot help but to wonder what could be more primal to a child than the experience of feeling completely apart from every single one of your peers on a very awkwardly public stage? Or experiencing the fear of being singled out and victimized in front of your peers just for being no one else other than yourself?
“My Bodyguard” is in harmoniously in tune with those emotions and through its loving presentation, it was, and remains, a film to be cherished.
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