The Bodyguard (1992)

Rated R for brutal '90s murder and sexuality.  I mean, let's throw some language and sexual assault and this movie really is going for a harder edge than you would think that this movie had.  Honestly, Silence of the Lambs came out the year before and I think that everyone wanted to add a little Jonathan Demme into their films, even if the genre of the film is romance.  R.

DIRECTOR:  Mick Jackson

Do you know how my brain works?  There are two reasons that I watched this movie.  (The first thing you should know about my brain is that it feels the need to justify something that doesn't need to be justified.  The second thing is that it may not always tell things linearly.) I watched this movie because I haven't seen it and other people had.  It's a modern classic amongst the masses and I probably could have gotten away with never watching this movie.  But since I pride myself on watching everything, I thought it was about time that I watched this movie.  The second reason I watched it is because I technically own it.  It was one of those movies that I got from MoviesAnywhere for linking my accounts and I hate that I own something that I haven't seen.  I mean, I wouldn't say this movie was anything special (I can't say "write home about" because I'm fulfilling most of the requirements for that phrase), but it wasn't terrible either.

1992 has a very specific aesthetic.  Like, The Bodyguard would almost come across as hilarious by today's standards.  But I can see Lawrence Kasdan just hammering away on a word processor or a typewriter (also, I have no idea what Lawrence Kasdan looks like, nor do I know his method of transcribing thoughts) and thinking "This is going to be as edgy as it gets."  I mean, I'm always going to associate him with Star Wars stuff and Raiders of the Lost Ark. And then there's Mick Jackson.  Listen, I had to click his IMdB page to see what other stuff that Mick Jackson had done.  But I can't get past the fact that a guy named "Mick Jackson" specifically directed The Bodyguard.  That is the perfect name for a guy directing this movie.  Evidence, you ask?  The movie starts off in a parking garage.  Frank Farmer, a man whose name encapsulates his character both by having an alliterative name and the fact that it reflects his simple nature, has just gunned down an assassin in a parking garage.  Fine.  Sure.  But a guy named Mick Jackson making this movie in 1992 wouldn't just shoot the scene in the same way that Frank Farmer shot that guy.  Nope.  He's gotta have a crane shot up to the roof of the parking garage and show all the steam coming out of the pipes shot with a blue filter.  Because in 1992 thrillers, everything has to have a slightly distopian look to it. 

Like, I can't get over how hard-edged this movie about opposites attracting gets.  I mean, they go to watch Yojimbo. I  mean, this is a story written by a dude about how women are all over the place and men are a firm foundation.  Yeah, this movie was absolutely written by a dude.  Still, I'm going to explore the concept that this movie is really trying to appeal to all demographics without really having a cohesive element to it. (I like dunking on movies sometimes and The Bodyguard has a lot.)  I don't really understand this as a romantic movie.  I don't see this as romantic at all.  Rachel keeps changing her personality to meet the needs of the plot.  Actually, this is such male fantasy elements that I don't know why people genuinely love this movie.

There's a Taming of the Shrew element to the movie as well.  Rachel is meant to be incredibly unlikable from the beginning. We see Frank Farmer, seemingly sad and stoic --mirroring Yojimbo --and we instantly sympathize with him.  Because he has all of that mail stacking up in front of his house and he always seems to be right, he's our guy.  If anything, he's a bit too perfect.  His big emotional journey is that he has to get over the fact that he attended his mother's funeral the day that Reagan got shot.  (Not killed.  Shot.  And Reagan was being guarded, just by someone else.)  Rachel comes across as a stereotype of every celebrity that ever existed, which is funny because it is just Whitney Houston poking fun of herself a bit.  But Rachel is lackadaisical about her security.  She surrounds herself by sycophants.  But most importantly, she's incredibly rude to someone she hired.  I know, Frank is Bill's call.  But that doesn't mean that she has to be rude.  Okay, let's make Rachel more sympathetic without losing her goals.  Her goals: live the same way that she has been without risking her life.  Okay, there's ways to talk about that. But she berates Frank and calls him a waste of time.  That's not really redeemable.

But then Frank saves her from being swarmed at a concert she shouldn't have been at.  Tony fails to get her out of there and Frank saves her.  Okay, this is where I have the problem.  See, Rachel has been watching Frank.  And do you know what one redeeming trait she finds? Frank has been watching videos of Rachel.  What kind of narcissist finds someone attractive because a suitor is studying her films?  That's weird.  That's not healthy.  It all calls back to Frank being perfect and Rachel being pretty.  Okay, let's pretend that Rachel really did fall in love with Frank between seeing him watch her videos and saving her in that club.  What would Frank see in her?  Rachel has been terrible to him the entire time.  Then, it also comes down to his employer making a move on him.  We know that Frank isn't in this for the money, despite the fact that he said he was.  (Again, the Reagan thing.) But if he was, $3,000 a week is a lot of money for anyone.  He doesn't exactly live the high life.  That is straight up workplace sexual harassment and there is no such thing as HR.  But me pointing these things out doesn't make it very romantic, does it?  

But what does Rachel see in Frank?  I mean, that date sucks.  Let me put that out there.  Rachel, the biggest celebrity in the world, is brought to a honky-tonk bar and she's just left alone?  They dance to sad cowboy music over a beer and she's like "Oh, my!"  It's not like Rachel talked about how she used to come to these kinds of places and thank God that Frank recognizes that in her.  Instead, Frank is just entertaining himself.  He's not meeting her halfway and seeing what she's into.  Nope. It's all about Frank here.  He takes her to see Yojimbo?  Listen, I'm a huge Kurosawa fan and even I think that's a bit selfish.  You know nothing about Rachel.  Also, it seems like Rachel knew nothing about Yojimbo before this moment.  She doesn't mention samurai movies once and you drag her to a movie that you've seen 50+ times?  Come on.  Warm her up a little.  Find out something about her and then consider taking her to Yojimbo.  OR take her to Yojimbo and then somewhere that she might like.  Instead, we get Frank's sad sack home where she's like, "Oh, a samurai sword. Let's sleep together!"  There's nothing there that's attractive.  Also, I really call shannanigans on the honky-tonk bar not recognizing Rachel and treating her like a normal person.  Is it because everyone's White and conservative that they wouldn't even recognize a fictionalized version of Whitney Houston?

I don't know.  I don't find anything redeemable about either one of them.  Frank is this male fantasy where he makes no mistakes, shy of sleeping with Rachel...which she initiated.  Rachel, for every step she makes towards being redeemable, she takes back almost immediately.  Honestly, she flipped out on stage and then she blamed Frank?  Okay, let me talk about that scene really quickly because I really have beef with that scene.  Rachel finds out that her sister had hired a hitman to kill her and it wasn't just an obsessed fan.  In the middle of nowhere, this hitman found them and hunted them.  Rachel's sister died because of this moment.  This is immediately after that.  It causes Rachel to act way more prudently (even though she keeps repeating that she's not going to let it change her life).  Why does she think that Frank put that fear in her?  You don't think that it could have been the hitman that full on killed your sister days before?  She literally survived an attack on her person and her son. (Also, she yelled at Frank for saving her kid off that boat?  Why can't the kid swim?  He's in a pool all day, every day.) 

I know.  I love tearing apart romance movies.  There's something structurally off about them that I just dig my claws into and it's not fair.  The worst part is that I kind of enjoyed it.  My dad hated Kevin Costner's acting and I think I do too.  But he does an okay job here.  It's very '90s.  I think that might be my biggest takeaway.  It is one of those movies that reminds me that so many films looked like that and I just accepted it.  But in terms of great films, I don't quite get it.  It's fine, I guess.