Plot
When a boy comes to a new school and gets harassed by a bully, he acquires the services of the school's most feared kid as a bodyguard.
Release Year: 1980
Rating: 6.8/10 (4,423 voted)
Director:
Tony Bill
Stars: Chris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin, Matt Dillon
Storyline Clifford Peache is the new kid in Lake View High School. Faced with all the stress that role entails he makes his situation worse by insulting Moody, the leader of a group of toughs who extort lunch money from kids. These punks pretend to be bodyguards for the kids to protect them from Linderman who, it is rumored, killed his brother in cold blood. Clifford befriends the sullen Linderman and hires him as his bodyguard. When Moody ups the ante, Linderman must decide whether fighting for what he believes in, with his haunted past and image, is justified.
Cast: Chris Makepeace
-
Clifford
Adam Baldwin
-
Linderman
Matt Dillon
-
Moody
Paul Quandt
-
Carson
Hank Salas
-
Mike
Joan Cusack
-
Shelley
Dean R. Miller
-
Hightower
Tim Reyna
-
Koontz
Richard Bradley
-
Dubrow
Denise Baske
-
Leilani
Vicky Nelson
-
Freddy
Tom Rielly
-
Reissman
Paul Charbonneau
-
Allen
Laura Salenger
-
Girl
Bert Hoddinott
-
Burt
Release Date: 26 September 1980
Filming Locations: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Opening Weekend: $178,641
(USA)
(13 July 1980)
(39 Screens)
Gross: $22,482,952
(USA)
Technical Specs
Runtime:|
USA:
Did You Know?
Trivia: Jennifer Beals' film debut (uncredited).
Goofs:
Continuity:
Juxtaposition of red-haired friend and Linderman.
Quotes: Ricky Linderman:
He was only 9. I practically raised him since he was 2. Drive you crazy! Tell him to sit down, he'd stand up. Tell him do his homework, he'd read a comic book. Couldn't eat food without spitting it at you. A real shoplifter too. Go through a store, half of it'd wind up in his pocket. He was a good kid. A real handful, though. Poor little guy... poor little guy.
User Review
My guardian angel
Rating: 8/10
Tony Bill's "My Bodyguard" seems to be a film that has been forgotten.
Thanks to the Fox cable channel, it turned up the other night. It
doesn't seem possible this movie is twenty five years old already. Not
having seen it when it was released, we took a chance and it paid off
handsomely.
The film addresses the bullying in schools, a nightmare for those
students that appear weak, or easy marks for these predators to make a
name for themselves among their peers, at the others expense.
Unfortunately, no one pays attention to the ones being abused and
Hollywood, in general, takes the bully's side in many occasions, at the
expense of the nerd, or the ones suffering the harassment.
"My Bodyguard" shows some of today's familiar faces as they looked in
those years. Some have gone to careers of their own, such as Matt
Dillon, Adam Baldwin, Joan Cusack, George Wendt, and the uncredited
Jennifer Beals, who has no speaking role.
When Clifford Peache, the son of a hotel manager in Chicago, changes
schools, he meets his worst nightmare: Melvin Moody. Melvin terrorizes
kids, especially those young and vulnerable. Clifford is the new target
for Melvin to bring down and humiliate if he doesn't agree to do
whatever he is told. Rick Linderman, the tall and strange guy in
Cliff's class is the perfect candidate to be engaged as a body guard
for all the kids being abused. In fact, Rick teaches Clifford a lesson
when at the end he has to face the mean Melvin, who proves to be a
coward, as all bullies are.
"My Bodyguard" is an entertaining film to watch thanks to the great
performance by Chris Makepeace, who makes a great Clifford. Ruth
Gordon, who plays Clifford's grandmother, has some comic moments.
Martin Mull is seen as Cliff's father and John Houseman appears briefly
as the man who is charmed by Grandma Peache.
Tony Bill shows he could deliver a movie that seems to be timeless.
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