Bodyguard
There was once a time when a lot of film analysts were ready to anoint Kevin Costner as being the new John Wayne, a living piece of genuine Americana, and as the undisputed top movie star of the early 1990s, it seemed as if he could do no wrong, churning out one hit movie after another with most critics cheering him on all the way. In 1992, he took on a project that had been in development since the 1970s with Steve McQueen attached to star in it which even prompted Costner to adopt a McQueen style haircut for the role of Frank Farmer, former Secret Service Agent turned private contractor protecting those who can afford his services given his reputation as being the very best. Having spent much of his time guarding diplomats and important heads of state, he comes to find himself being given the offer to look after an extremely famous pop music star, finding himself suddenly thrust into a world which he is most unfamiliar with. With a solid premise like that, it became a funny thing to realize that the writing and dialogue was surprisingly turgid and flat, with whole scenes of conversation coming across as being borderline moronic. However, the big selling point of the movie was yet to come in the casting of real life superstar Whitney Houston making her screen debut as the inperiled pop star Rachel Marron, a process that saw nearly every diva like ingenue in the music industry try to vie and compete for the role (and Costner even got to take great pleasure in turning down Madonna after she had disrespected him on camera in her laughable documentary Truth Or Dare) before Houston became the natural choice despite the racial difference between her and Costner (which wasn’t surprising since Diana Ross had been the one set to costar with McQueen in the 70s). The film even ups the ante for the career of the Marron character in contrast to Houston’s, as Marron is not only a best selling recording artist, but also an acclaimed, Oscar nominated actress as well (with her constantly being said to be the easy favorite to win). Houston herself proved that she wasn’t about to win any real life acting awards here (and never would following her tragic 2012 death) and even had Costner actively coaching her on set in how to act, with mixed results as the first test screening forced the film to be reedited after audiences were seen howling with laughter at her acting attempts, forcing the retooling that was required in order to cover up her flaws. Nonetheless, despite the bad dialogue, Costner and Houston managed to establish a vibrant chemistry onscreen, probably due to the contrast between Costner’s working class persona and Houston’s all too real bitch diva reputation. It’s also interesting in seeing that the Marron character appears to be almost completely free of personal demons, with no indications of drug use whatsoever, instead being portrayed as a happy go lucky music superstar with a spontaneous free spirit to boot, an extremely stark difference from Houston who wrestled with drug addiction her whole life and whose fatal heart attack may very well have been brought on by her known predilection for cocaine. The story begins with Costner having saved another life from an assassination attempt (a man whose significance is never explained) coinciding with a lookalike doll being delivered to Houston’s dressing room which happens to be a bomb that blows up the place (without her in it) leading to Houston’s manager (Bill Cobbs) personally coming to Costner and making him an offer to come aboard and protect her from any more harm. He also lies to Costner, saying that Houston is anxious to employ his professional services to protect her when in reality she is unaware of any threats against her life because her people keep it from her in order to not have her worry (hmm…). While the film brings in Costner from the very first scene, there is actually a very subtle buildup by director Mick Jackson before Houston’s first major acting scene in the movie and she is even made out to be almost a distant figure for the first 30 minutes or so of the film before finally interacting regularly with her leading man. Costner practically walks into her mansion for the first time while showing little to no credentials (much to his disgust) and quickly meets most of the rest of Houston’s merry little entourage including her slimy publicist (Gary Kemp putting the noxious back in obnoxious), her failed musician sister turned “personal secretary” (Michele Lamar Richards) who still harbors resentment over not being the one who became a star, and her laughable so called “head of security” (Mike Starr) who seems to enjoy the partying aspect of show business while never seeming to notice any real possible threat to Houston’s life (despite him claiming that he’s doing this because he “loves her”) with this glorified BFF even thinking that he’s going to lay down the law to Costner only to get his ass handed to him (after which he does everything he’s told to do by Costner without question). The main threat here appears to be coming from an obsessed fan and very clever social misfit who has sent her several threatening letters, broke into her house and masturbated on her bed (again without Houston’s knowledge) and even obtained the phone number at her hotel room to call her and pretend to be her young son (calling her “mommy”) but it also becomes clear that somebody else is after her as well, someone who would appear to be a professional hitman looking to take her out for reasons unknown, a threat that is definitely not to be taken lightly by a guy like Costner or anybody else for that matter. Of course the whole thing is leading up to the fictional Oscar Awards ceremony hosted by Robert Wuhl (and where the distinctly goofy and unfunny Wuhl makes us glad that he never ever hosted The Oscars in real life) where Costner finally puts all the pieces together and makes his big stand to protect Houston once and for all. Of course the aforementioned chemistry between Costner and Houston was downright palpable, starting with their early conflicts over him trying to do his job while clashing with her propensity to do what she wants when she wants to do it to Houston asking him out on a date since obviously with her life in danger she can’t just go out with any old guy without Costner giving him the business to the startling (for her) revelation that yes indeed, he IS willing to give his own life in order to save hers because it’s part of “the job”, something that is told to her in a rather casual, matter of fact manner by Costner but is still one which comes across to her (and the millions of female fans that this movie has) as being perhaps the most romantic notion imaginable, leading to their sexual relationship and the fussing after the fact by Costner that he has somehow broken his “code” by getting too personally involved with his client, belying the fact that he has actually fallen in love with her (as she has with him) and now allowing his emotions to dictate his course of action in doing his job which normally he has always kept to a minimum. It goes without saying that sleeping with her does not eliminate the threat against her life and while this isn’t really an action movie at all, there are some suspenseful cat and mouse stalking scenes here and there and one concert scene definitely conveys the chaos and paranoia when one is surrounded by fans not knowing if any of them have any homicidal tendencies towards you. Remarkably, the movie successfully takes on the conceit that whenever Houston’s Marron is shown onscreen performing a song from her Oscar laden movie, the tone and context of the song actually reflects her character’s current state of mind at that point in the story, none moreso of course than I Will Always Love You, the real life smash hit that was originally a country music jingle by Dolly Parton and then became an immortal classic in Houston’s hands and probably the defining song of her entire career. Indeed, the soundtrack album for the film became the highest selling of all time for its kind, and despite the many instances onhand of poor writing, the basic, almost primal aspects of the story manage to carry it through to the end, helped immeasurably by Costner manfully carrying Houston through their romantic scenes together and Houston (who had been a big music star for almost a decade prior) using this as an opportunity to produce the best work of her career as a singer, albeit while playing a character very similar to who she actually was…
8/10