My Bodyguard movie review & film summary (1980) | Roger Ebert (2024)

There is a terrifying moment in adolescence when suddenly some of the kids are twice as big as the rest of the kids. It is terrifying for everybody: For the kids who are suddenly tall and gangling, and for the kids who are still small and are getting beat up all the time. My Bodyguard places that moment in a Chicago high school and gives us a kid who tries to think his way out of it.

The kid's name is Clifford. He has everything going againsthim. He's smart, he's new in the school, he's slightly built. As he's played byChris Makepeace, he is also one of the most engaging teen-age characters I'veseen in the movies in a long time. Too many movie teen-agers have beensex-crazed ("Little Darlings"), animalistic food-fighters ("Meatballs"), orhopelessly romanticized ("The Blue Lagoon"). Clifford is basically just yournormal, average kid.

He has just moved to Chicago with his family.His father (Martin Mull) is the new resident manager of the Ambassador EastHotel. His grandmother (Ruth Gordon) hangs out in the lobby and picks up oldmen in the bar. Life is great, backstage at a hotel (he gets his meals in thekitchen or some-times in the Pump Room). But it's not so great at school. Themovie sends Clifford to Lake View High School, where he's immediately shakendown for his lunch money.

The extortionist (Matt Dillon) is the kind ofkid we all remember from high school. He's handsome in an oily way, he's goingthrough a severe case of adolescent sadism, he's basically a coward. His threatis that unless Clifford pays protection money, he'll sic the dreaded Lindermanon him.

Linderman (Adam Baldwin) is a school legend, abig, hulking kid who allegedly killed his brother, raped a teacher, hit a cop,you name it. The movie's inspiration is to have Clifford think his way out ofhis dilemma neutralizing Linderman by hiring him as a bodyguard. This isgenius, and there's a wonderful scene where Clifford springs Linderman on therest of the kids.

Then the movie takes an interesting turn.Clifford and Linderman become friends, and we learn some of the unhappy factsof Linderman's life. It turns out Linderman isn't the Incredible Hulk after allhe's just another kid going through growing pains and some personal tragedy.This whole middle stretch is the best part of the movie, developing afriendship in a perceptive and gentle way that's almost shocking in comparisonwith the idiotic, violent teen-agers so many movies have given us.

The ending is predictable (it's a showdownbetween Linderman and another tough kid). And there are some distractions alongthe way from Clifford's family. Martin Mull makes an interesting hotel manager,whimsical and charming. But the movie gets off track when it follows RuthGordon through some of her adventures, including a romantic collision with ahotel executive played by John Houseman. These scenes just don't seem part ofthe same movie: The hotel stuff is sitcom, while the stuff in the high schoolis fresh and inventive.

That seems to apply to the performances, too.One of the strengths of “My Bodyguard” is in the casting of the younger performersChris Makepeace, Adam Baldwin, Matt Dillon. They look right for their parts,but, more to the point, they feel right. Dillon exudes creepiness, Makepeace isplausible while thinking on his feet, Linderman is convincingly vulnerable andconfused, and there's another kid, the solemn-faced, wide-eyed Paul Quandt, whosteals a couple of scenes with his absolute certainty that the worst is yet tocome.

“My Bodyguard” is a small treasure, a movieabout believable characters in an unusual situation. It doesn't pretend to beabsolutely realistic, and the dynamics of its big city high school aresimplified for the purposes of the story. But this movie is fun to watchbecause it touches memories that are shared by most of us, and because itsyoung characters are recognizable individuals, and not simplified cartoonfigures like so many movie teen-agers.