My Bodyguard
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''My Bodyguard'' is a 1980 American
family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
comedy drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.
directed by Tony Bill (his directorial debut), and written by Alan Ormsby. The film stars Chris Makepeace,
Adam Baldwin Adam Baldwin (born February 27, 1962) is an American actor. He made his film debut in '' My Bodyguard'' (1980). He later appeared in ''Full Metal Jacket'' (1987) as Animal Mother, and in the television series ''Firefly'' and its continuation f ...
(in his first film role),
Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Independent Spirit Awards alongside nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, ...
,
Martin Mull Martin Eugene Mull (, August 18, 1943 – June 27, 2024) was an American actor, musician, and painter. He became known on '' Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,'' its spin-off '' Fernwood 2 Night,'' and '' America 2 Night.'' Other notable roles included ...
, and
Ruth Gordon Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, playwright and screenwriter. 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 and was
Joan Cusack Joan Mary Cusack ( ; born October 11, 1962) is an American actress and comedian. 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 ...
's first major film.


Plot

Clifford Peache lives in an upscale
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
luxury hotel with his father, the hotel manager, and his grandmother. He is a new student at Fleer H.S., 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 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. Their friendship is strengthened when 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 from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...
, 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. Later, Moody is back at the park to continue bullying Clifford and his friends. Ricky is also there retrieving his motorcycle from the lagoon. Moody notices, demanding the motorcycle, which Ricky silently refuses. Moody summons Mike, who starts to push and intimidate Ricky again. The two then engage in a long fistfight, which Ricky ultimately wins, knocking Mike out. Moody and Clifford then split off into their own fistfight, after 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 Moody, but finally lands several solid punches, the last of which knocks Moody down, breaking his nose. Moody sits on the ground, humiliated, bleeding and complaining, revealing himself 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 Gold Coast, 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. It formerly ...
(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 made his film debut in '' My Bodyguard'' (1980). He later appeared in ''Full Metal Jacket'' (1987) as Animal Mother, and in the television series ''Firefly'' and its continuation f ...
as Ricky Linderman * Chris Makepeace as Clifford Peache *
Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Independent Spirit Awards alongside nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, ...
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 (, August 18, 1943 – June 27, 2024) was an American actor, musician, and painter. He became known on '' Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,'' its spin-off '' Fernwood 2 Night,'' and '' America 2 Night.'' Other notable roles included ...
as Mr. Larry Peache *
Ruth Gordon Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985) was an American actress, playwright and screenwriter. 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 and comedian. 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 ...
as Shelley * Hank Salas as Mike * Kathryn Grody as Ms. Jump * Patrick Billingsley as biology teacher *
John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanians, Romanian-born British Americans, British-American theatre and film producer, actor, director, and teacher. He became known for his highly publ ...
as Dobbs *
Craig Richard Nelson Craig Richard Nelson (September 17, 1947 – March 3, 2025) was 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 Sa ...
as Griffith *
Tim Kazurinsky Timothy James Kazurinsky (born March 3, 1950) is an American actor, comedian 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 Kazu ...
as workman *
George Wendt George Robert Wendt Jr. (October 17, 1948 – May 20, 2025) was an American actor. Wendt was best known for playing Norm Peterson on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' from 1982 to 1993, which earned him six consecutive nominations for the Primetime Em ...
as air conditioning engineer * Jennifer Beals (uncredited) as Shelley's friend * Bruce Jarchow as hotel limo driver Roberto


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 cinemas 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 motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across a country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical release in ...
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 the first major harbinger of the film awards season that ...
. It was also nominated by the
Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is the name of two American labor unions representing writers in film, television, radio, and online media: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is headquartered in New York City and is affiliated wit ...
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 films released in 1980 and took place on March 31, 1981, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, beginning at 7:00 p ...
, Gary Arnold of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' 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 (also known as an Oscar) 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 ...
. The film ranked No. 45 on ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
''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 and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...
, 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 media

The film was released on DVD on January 29, 2002, and also was released on Blu-ray on September 6, 2016.


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:My Bodyguard 1980 films 1980 comedy-drama films 1980s buddy comedy-drama films 1980 directorial debut films 1980s American films 1980s English-language films 1980s high school films 1980s teen comedy-drama films 20th Century Fox films American buddy comedy-drama films American high school films American teen comedy-drama films Films about bodyguards Films about bullying Films directed by Tony Bill Films scored by Dave Grusin Films set in Chicago Films shot in Chicago English-language comedy-drama films English-language buddy comedy-drama films