Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

The Bodyguard (1992)

This is another movie I thought I had reviewed since it's been in my collection for years but when I checked - ooops!  I guess I was mistaken. 

I was glad to watch The Bodyguard again because it is a much better film than many give it credit for being.  Sure, it's formulaic and covers ground that has been covered before, but it does it so well and anybody who says that Kevin Costner has never turned in a good performance has never bothered to watch this movie. I do admit it does stay overlong and could be edited down to something a bit shorter to maintain viewer interest but the great Whitney Houston songs do deserve to be heard again.

The story was written years before by Lawrence Kasdan, who pictured Steve McQueen and Diana Ross in the key roles. But this never happened for various reasons. Kevin Costner found out about the book and read it and worked trying to get it made but it took until he was a star himself before it could be made. It went through some 67 scripts during the fifteen years that the script was shopped around including tentative casting of Ryan O'Neal and Diana Ross in another pairing.  Costner even cut his hair to look like Steve McQueen for the movie and you can see the Steve McQueen look in him if you are familiar with that actor.

The story in a nutshell is Costner is a bodyguard from the Secret Service who goes private and hires himself out to rich celebrities at $3,000 a week for personal protection.  Ms Houston is a big singing star who gets death threats, which her helpful staff keeps from her but they bring in Costner to head off any assassination attempts.  They lock horns at first but eventually she sees he offers a good thing when she becomes aware that she is more vulnerable than she realized.  They have a brief fling but then Costner withdraws because it's hard to love her and then take orders from her the next day. An attempt does come, finally, and I'll let you see the outcome for yourself.

The critical comments about the movie are usually motivated by jealousy, I believe, because the movie is a great view of a world that most of us have very little contact with - the ultra rich and the professional security that protects them 24 hours a day.  My idea is the Whitney Houston character (Rachel Marron) generates a lot of ill will from wannabes that can't stand that a singer can also play a part in a movie.   Of course, the interracial aspect of the romance has its own critics but they usually hide behind some other criticism because they can't take the publicity.  I take it as two people of the opposite sex with very different lifestyles finding each other in the midst of chaos and, finally, letting each other go because they really don't fit together like they should.

There is a lot of criticism advanced based on Kevin Costner's usual non-acting style but here that does not wash. He is perfect as that strong competent person, the bodyguard who is willing to trade his life to save his client. Costner also claims to have been essential to the selection of Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You as a replacement for the original What Becomes of the Broken Hearted which was featured in another movie just before this was released.  Whitney Houston, despite her personal problems that have emerged since this film was made does a fine job as the big star that has a bunch of yes men trying to anticipate her every whim.

The Warner Bros Special Edition DVD presents the 129 minute color movie in 1.85:1 theatrical format.  There is a music video, a 30 minute featurette "The Making of The Bodyguard" and the movie trailer included as extras.  


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie