Our Smart Bitches Movie Matinee for July is the very famous The Bodyguard, starring Whitney Houston and that skyrocketed the song “I Will Always Love You” into pop culture history.
Here’s the plot synopsis:
Best-selling pop diva Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) has a stalker whose obsession has risen to the level of disturbing threats. At the urging of her manager (Gary Kemp), Rachel hires former secret service agent Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) as her bodyguard. Initially resented and treated with disdain for his hard-nosed security procedures, Farmer soon becomes an integral part of Rachel’s inner circle. As they spend more time together, client and protector become closer still.
Elyse also has fond memories of this movie:
I have a lot of nostalgia when it comes to The Bodyguard. It was one of my nineties sleepover staples (along with Dirty Dancing). I listened to the soundtrack over and over on my Walkman, to the point where I wore the tape out. I also blame this movie for my love of romantic suspense. When Frank (Kevin Costner) scoops Rachel (Whitney Houston) up in his arms and carries her offstage, my preteen heart swooned. I’m still a sucker for books where the hero is carrying the heroine off in his arms.
The Bodyguard isn’t available for streaming it seems, but you find it for around $3-4 to rent and $10-15 to buy digitally on iTunes, Google:Play, and Amazon, and the DVD can be found at your local library, or cheaply online in new and used condition from Amazon or Alibris.
We’ll be discussing the film on Sunday, July 23, and we hope you’ll join the conversation with us then!
“I’m still a sucker for books where the hero is carrying the hero off in his arms”
Do you have any titles?
Hero carrying the heroine:
The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer
Heroine carrying the hero: Shallow Hal.
/Sorry. I’ll see myself out.
There’s lots of romantic carrying (heroine by hero) in Jane Porter’s The Scottish Chiefs. Ivanhoe sees the eponymous hero being carried indirectly by one of the heroines (she has him carried off after he faints; it’s very exciting) and directly by his implicitly bisexual best friend, the book’s other hero. I love that book.
Also, iirc, there’s a dramatic swoon-carry in The Scarlet Pimpernel, but I might just be thinking of the movie version with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon (swoon.)
” I also blame this movie for my love of romantic suspense. When Frank (Kevin Costner) scoops Rachel (Whitney Houston) up in his arms and carries her offstage, my preteen heart swooned.”
OMG, same! I want to watch this movie RIGHT NOW.
I loved this movie as a teen! Sooo romantic. Loved it.
I loved this movie as a teen! Sooo romantic. Loved it.
Recs for the hero carrying the heroine? I liked it in The Vagabond Prince when the prince’s family has forbidden his girlfriend from setting foot on palace property so he PICKS HER UP and carries her up the stairs so she doesn’t ‘set foot’ in there! Swoon!
@Lucy: I second that swoon. As I recall, Orczy describes Percy as carrying Marguerite to safety in his arms along the beach, his ‘precious burden’.
I think I should re-read that. 🙂
@Willa: Fixed the typo!
I really hope this doesn’t get me kicked off the island, but I have never seen The Bodyguard. I’m looking forward to being inducted into the club.
I saw the movie once, on TV. It left an impression of darkness, violence and people drinking lots of alcohol. I didn’t enjoy it or find it particularly romantic, to be honest. 🙁
Can anyone recommend any movies where the hero is carried by the heroine? I’d … love to see that, actually.
I think I’ve probably seen this movie eleventy thousand times but I always stop and watch it if it’s on tv. It was one of my favorites as a teen and I still love it. I think The Bodyguard is probably also the reason I enjoy romantic suspense as much as I do.
I’ll be curious to read the discussion. I was older than Elyse when it came out (early 20s) and my memory is that there was zero chemistry between Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.
@Julia – Ever After!
It’s been running in rotation on hbo this month. Just flicked past it yesterday.
Heroine carrying the hero, in real life:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2402355/Picture-wife-carrying-marine-Jesse-Cottle-lost-legs-Taliban-IED-goes-viral.html
@cleo: include me in the nay-sayers. Costner has always been hit and miss (mostly miss) for me, Bull Durham being the major exception. And I never cared for Whitney Houston. She had a good voice… all the Houstons/Warwicks do. But over-produced and over-dramatic. The original of “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton is far better, imho.
@Cleo: I would have been around 30 at the time, and I agree. There was nothing there.
It’s streaming on HBOGo/Now roght now, I just watched it a few weeks ago.
So much nostalgia. I love them both so much. I also love how despite any lack of chemistry people note onscreen (which I disagree with, I just thought it was their characters, uptight security and guarded celebrity), Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner were good friends offscreen and he was a big champion for her getting the role. It was lovely. (And if you want to cry, the eulogy he gave at her funeral was truly beautiful.)
@Mary K and @Anna Richland: thank you!
Some years ago in Toronto I saw a short ballet piece in which the female ballet dancers hoisted their male counterparts in the air and flung them about with apparent ease. Seeing tropes detoured like that is always a lot of fun.
P.S. Detourned, not detoured! Damn autocorrect.
@DiscoDollyDeb:
Long ago in a different venue I made a rule: any post that causes me to laugh out loud gets an automatic upvote.
I’m one of those rare people who has never seen it. It’s on my to-watch list.
As for books where the hero carries the heroine, there’s Brazen by Susan Johnson. I remember Kit carrying Angela quite a lot. (Also that the sex scenes were hot, and thinking Whitney’s ‘Run To You’ and ‘I Have Nothing’ fit the story perfectly.)
^And if I’m also remembering correctly, Angela already has a child and is older than Kit in Brazen.
Just found this because I belatedly remembered that there was a discussion and I never read it.
This may have been brought up elsewhere but I read that this script was originally intended for Diana Ross and Steve McQueen in the early 70s when it would have been a far more dramatic concept. Yep–IMDB confirms it:
“This film was originally proposed in the mid-’70s, starring Diana Ross and Steve McQueen, but was rejected as “too controversial”. The film concept was to be attempted again in the late 1970s, with Ryan O’Neal and Diana Ross cast as the leads.”
Now off to read the discussion and see that you already knew this!