by Rod Machen
For such an average movie, My Bodyguard has a lot going for it. A prime example of early eighties dramatic filmmaking, My Bodyguard exemplifies a realistic urban setting with extremely natural acting from a surprisingly loaded cast.
Loaded here is a big term, as many of the actors would go on to have sizable Hollywood careers, but in 1980, they were just getting started. The setting is pure big city, with Chicago taking the place of the old standby, New York. The whole is definitely more than the sum of its part with this film.
The story centers around Clifford (Chris Makepeace, fresh off of Meatballs), a good-natured, slightly goofy kid who starts off on the wrong foot at his new public school. Gone are the days of his old private academy, and dangers lurk around every corner. The main bully is played by an impossibly young Matt Dillon, whose character Moody extorts the other kids of their lunch money and beats them up in the bathroom. These are the tropes that Nelson from The Simpsons is made up of.
The X-factor in all of this is Linderman (Adam Baldwin), the school’s alleged psychopath. Not even Moody wants anything to do with him, and everyone steers clear except for a wide-eyed Clifford. He sees Linderman as the solution to his problem and convinces the hulking teen to protect him.
At this point, his plan goes off the rails, as Clifford can’t help but rub his newfound power in the faces of Moody and his buddies. The causes the bully to bring in a bigger bully, his own bodyguard, if you will, who shuffles the hierarchy of the food chain once again.
Seeing the big, scary guy (who’s really a teddy bear with a tragic past) picked on and abused is heart-wrenching, and even when the obligatory happy ending comes around, it’s just more violence on top of that which has already occurred. A true happy ending it’s not.
Still, there are redeeming aspects to a movie that probably qualifies as family fare in Reagan’s America. Clifford and Linderman do truly transcend their socio-economic realities to forge a real friendship. And all of the throwaway scenes at the high school are imbued with a realism that’s fascinating.
The entire ‘adult’ section of the movie is strange. Martin Mull as the father who runs a hotel that his family stays in seems wildly out of place in a mostly-serious movie. His mother (Harold and Maude’s Ruth Gordon) is the “wacky grandma” and seems drunk most of the time. By the time John Houseman (“They make money the old-fashioned way; they earn it!”) appears as her paramour, there’s no surprise left.
The youngsters shine, however, starting with’s silver-screen debut, as well as an uncredited appearance by Jennifer Beals. When Clifford’s nerdy friend Carson (Paul Quandt’s single lifetime role) extols his methods for surviving high school (avoid the bathrooms, and consequentially all liquids) and his outlook that the bullies will always win, he wins our heart.
My Bodyguard is a product of its time, and as a peek into the lives of Chicago youngsters, it does a good job. As a morality tale, the verdict is mixed. As the launching pad for several interesting careers, it comes through with flying colors.
