The Bodyguard (1992)
Directed by Mick Jackson
A former Secret Service agent grudgingly takes an assignment to protect a pop idol who's threatened by a crazed fan. At first, the safety-obsessed bodyguard and the self-indulgent diva totally clash. But before long, all that tension sparks fireworks of another sort, and the love-averse tough guy is torn between duty and romance.
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7 films that influenced The Bodyguard
What critics say influenced The Bodyguard
I liked the reference in the movie to Kurosawa's samurai saga, "Yojimbo," a film about a warrior who hires himself out (as Costner's character does) and whose English title was literally "The Bodyguard."
Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston have a conversation about Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (whose title means "The Bodyguard") in the middle of Mick Jackson's hilarious camp artifact The Bodyguard, the one where Costner plays a barely-vocal lunk and Houston plays a singer-turned-actress with severe personality flaws.
Because there remains a paucity of interracial relationships in American film, much less those which reverse the economic caste issue, it's fair--and sad--to say that The Bodyguard is an important film--praise that is tempered, though, by the fact that under the same criteria, Whoopi Goldberg's Fatal Beauty is an important film, too.
Lawrence Kasdan, the filmmaker whose credits include the superb efforts The Big Chill and The Accidental Tourist, wrote the script for The Bodyguard back in 1975, during his off-hours from his job as an advertising copywriter.
Costner, who was probably more alive as the corpse in "The Big Chill" than he is here, learned about the script when he and Kasdan were making "Silverado," and for whatever reason decided not just to produce it with Kasdan and Jim Wilson, but to play a role that was originally intended for Steve McQueen.
Lawrence Kasdan wrote the movie in the early Seventies as a first-ever script that took a while to find a home; meanwhile, he went on to write a few other things you might know, like "The Empire Strikes Back," "Return of the Jedi," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Body Heat," "The Big Chill," "Silverado," "The Accidental Tourist," "Grand Canyon," and a couple of yawners, "Wyatt Earp" and "Dreamcatcher."
Lawrence Kasdan, the filmmaker whose credits include the superb efforts The Big Chill and The Accidental Tourist, wrote the script for The Bodyguard back in 1975, during his off-hours from his job as an advertising copywriter.
Lawrence Kasdan wrote the movie in the early Seventies as a first-ever script that took a while to find a home; meanwhile, he went on to write a few other things you might know, like "The Empire Strikes Back," "Return of the Jedi," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Body Heat," "The Big Chill," "Silverado," "The Accidental Tourist," "Grand Canyon," and a couple of yawners, "Wyatt Earp" and "Dreamcatcher."
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I liked the house the filmmakers used for Rachel's place, too, Beverly House in Beverly Hills, California, the location for dozens of other movies (including the famous horse's head mansion in "The Godfather").
The movie was written by Lawrence Kasdan (" Body Heat ," " Grand Canyon ") and directed by Mick Jackson , and contains a little of the Hollywood insider cynicism Kasdan suggested in the Steve Martin character in "Grand Canyon."
Kasdan's subsequent career has alternated between action pieces written for others (“ Return of the Jedi ,” aspects of “The Bodyguard”) and quirky, smart films directed by himself (“The Accidental Tourist,” “I Love You To Death,” and the brilliant, overlooked “Grand Canyon” in 1991).
Costner, who was probably more alive as the corpse in "The Big Chill" than he is here, learned about the script when he and Kasdan were making "Silverado," and for whatever reason decided not just to produce it with Kasdan and Jim Wilson, but to play a role that was originally intended for Steve McQueen.