The Bodyguard is a 1992 American romantic thriller drama film directed by Mick Jackson, and written by Lawrence Kasdan, who produced it with Kevin Costner and Jim Wilson. Starring Costner, Whitney Houston (in her feature film acting debut), Gary Kemp, Bill Cobbs, and Ralph Waite, the film follows Frank Farmer, a former United States Secret Service agent turned bodyguard, who is hired to protect Rachel Marron, a famous actress and singer, from an unknown stalker. Despite initially disliking each other, Frank saves Rachel from close calls and the two unexpectedly forge a passionate bond.
Kasdan wrote the film in the mid-1970s, with the original intention to have it turned into a vehicle for Steve McQueen and Diana Ross before McQueen pulled out of negotiations and Ryan O'Neal took his place. However, after Ross backed off the project due to issues with the script, development was delayed until 1985 when Costner took interest in the script. Filming took place from November 1991 to March 1992, with a $25 million budget.
The Bodyguard was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on November 25, 1992, after premiering at the Mann's Chinese Theater two days earlier. Upon its release, the film received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics but was a commercial success, grossing $411 million worldwide, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 1992 and began Houston's successful foray into films. At the time, it was ranked the tenth highest-grossing film in box office history. The film was notable for its positive portrayal of an interracial couple without bringing attention to that aspect, breaking a major barrier in Hollywood at the time.
The film's accompanying soundtrack by Houston became the best-selling soundtrack album of all time, with sales of over 45 million copies worldwide, and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The lead single "I Will Always Love You" achieved unprecedented worldwide success, selling over 24 million copies worldwide, and is the best-selling single by a female artist of all time. The other singles "I Have Nothing" and "Run to You" received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
The film received seven nominations at the 13th Golden Raspberry Awards, including for Worst Picture, Worst Actor (for Costner) and Worst Actress (for Houston). In spite of the Razzies, Houston received best acting nominations at the People's Choice Awards, MTV Movie & TV Awards and the NAACP Image Awards. Billboard later listed Houston's performance in the film as the 27th best performance of a musician in a box-office film. The film has since been reevaluated by critics and described as a "romantic classic".
Plot
Rachel Marron, an Academy Award–nominated actress and music superstar, is receiving death threats from a stalker. After a bomb explodes in her dressing room, her manager Bill Devaney seeks out professional bodyguard Frank Farmer, a former Secret Service agent who served on the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan presidential details, to protect her.
Frank reluctantly accepts Devaney's offer but feels Rachel is a spoiled diva oblivious to the threats against her life. She soon accuses Frank of being paranoid, complaining that his extensive protection techniques are intrusive. However, he and Rachel grow closer when he rescues her from danger after a riot erupts at one of her concerts. Her existing bodyguard, Tony Scipelli, resents Frank's presence, leading to a physical altercation in Rachel's kitchen.
Though Frank tries to remain professional, he and Rachel sleep together. The next day, he breaks off the affair, realizing it compromises his ability to protect her. Hurt, she begins to defy Frank's security measures. Then, to make him jealous, Rachel flirts with his former Secret Service colleague, Greg Portman, whom she meets at a Miami party but then rebuffs due to Portman being aggressively assertive.
When her stalker threatens her with a phone call, Rachel finally recognizes the seriousness of the situation and her need to trust Frank completely. Frank, Rachel, her son Fletcher, her older sister Nicki and her driver Henry, then travel to a large lakefront cabin in the mountains, the home of Frank's father, Herb.
The next day, Frank rescues Fletcher from a small motorboat just before it explodes. After he secures the house for the night, a drunken Nicki, upset that Fletcher could have died, admits she had hired a hitman to kill Rachel during a fit of jealousy. However, the letters from the stalker had come before that. Nicki has already paid in full and does not know the killer's identity. Abruptly, the hitman breaks into the dark house and fatally shoots Nicki. Frank pursues the killer into the woods; he shoots at them, misses and the assailant escapes. He then learns that the stalker Dan had been apprehended earlier that day and was in custody when Nicki was killed.
A few days after Nicki's funeral, the Academy Awards ceremony occurs. Frank gives Rachel a panic button in the shape of a cross to immediately alert him to any trouble. Despite this, many backstage technical issues hamper Frank's efforts to monitor the proceedings closely. While presenting an award, Rachel freezes and runs offstage, angry at Frank for embarrassing her with overprotective measures.
Later, Rachel is announced as the winner for Best Actress. As she comes on stage to accept the award, Portman is revealed to be the hitman, masquerading as the bodyguard for the ceremony's host. Frank notices Portman pointing a gun disguised as a camera at Rachel and preparing for the fatal shot. He runs onstage, leaps in front of Rachel and takes the bullet meant for her. As chaos erupts amongst the audience, Portman targets Rachel again, only to be shot and killed by Frank. While Rachel urges Frank to remain conscious and calls for help, he slowly passes out.
Frank recovers from the shooting and bids farewell to Rachel at the airport, both knowing their relationship would never work out. After the plane starts to take off, Rachel suddenly orders the plane to stop, jumps out and runs to Frank for one last passionate kiss. Some time later, Rachel performs "I Will Always Love You" on a stage, while elsewhere Frank is at an annual dinner, keeping a vigilant eye on his next assignment. A minister is seen holding a cross similar to the one he gave Rachel.
Cast
Production Pre-production
Lawrence Kasdan was an advertising copywriter for the W. B. Doner agency in Detroit who wanted to get into filmmaking. By 1975, Kasdan had spent five years in the agency, later calling it "hellacious"; in the middle of his tenure in the agency, he began writing film scripts.
Kasdan wrote eight scripts between 1970 and 1975. His sixth finished script, The Bodyguard, based on a singer who falls in love with a bodyguard, was completed by 1975. Kasdan later said that he was inspired by the 1961 film, Yojimbo, to write the script and envisioned American actor Steve McQueen and American singer-actress Diana Ross as the characters of bodyguard Frank Farmer and singer Rachel Marron respectively for the film. "I was interested in what kind of a guy would do that kind of work: to be willing to lay down his life for a salary, for someone he may care nothing about―maybe even have negative feelings about," said Kasdan.
Kasdan said it was the first really good script he wrote: I loved all my early scripts and I expected everybody else to love them. It wasn't until I wrote The Bodyguard and sensed it was different that I realized I was writing an increased level of density. A good script has levels of action going on, unexpected turns. Movies are an economical form. Your script must communicate in the tersest possible way an emotional feeling, imply it in a mosaic of tiny scenes. An unknown screenwriter selling a speculative script must deliver a delight. An established writer gets a lot of rope. The producer reads his script and says, 'I don't feel any delight but he must know what he's doing.' A lot of times he doesn't, and you have a lousy movie.
Of the scripts Kasdan had sent, it was The Bodyguard where he succeeded in getting an agent, but it would take the agent two years to sell the script — according to Kasdan, the script was passed 67 times before it was eventually sold in 1977 to Warner Bros. Pictures head John Calley for $20,000. Calley brought in John Boorman to direct. Kasdan admired Boorman and went to Ireland with the director where they did a treatment for a new movie. "He completely changed it, but I still loved him," said Kasdan.
Early casting choices
When Kasdan initially wrote The Bodyguard, he had Steve McQueen and Diana Ross in mind as the stars of the film; following Warner Bros' purchase of the script, both actors were pursued. According to various reports, Ross would not accept the film unless she was given top billing over the more seasoned McQueen while the latter actor was interested initially but was starting to be beset by health issues that started to surface after developing a persistent cough in early 1978. According to some reports, McQueen eventually dropped out of negotiations due to the producers waiting too long to come to a deal and also due to his ongoing health issues, which worsened over time.
McQueen wouldn't lead in a box-office film again. He was later diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer linked to asbestos exposure, in December 1979 and which doctors concluded was inoperable. McQueen died from complications of that cancer roughly a year later in November 1980. By November 1978, Calley, Boorman and Kasdan had decided on American actor Ryan O'Neal to play the role of Frank after McQueen pulled out of negotiations while Ross stayed on as the leading female role. O'Neal had expressed interest in the role.
Around the same period, Ross and O'Neal were engaged in a romantic relationship, Ross' first since she divorced her first husband, Robert Ellis Silberstein. At the time, Ross was dealing with negative reviews and poor box office reception from her role in the critical and commercial bomb, The Wiz, from the previous month. Her two previous films, Lady Sings the Blues and Mahogany, had helped to establish her film career, with the former film winning her an nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Upon reading the script, Ross had a list of complaints to director Boorman. Chief among them were the usage of female nudity, the use of music, its violent subplot, coarse language, and the film's title. In August 1979, Ross pulled out of the movie which went back into development hell. Shortly afterwards, O'Neal announced that he and Ross had ended their romantic affair, which he blamed on Ross pulling out of The Bodyguard.
According to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, O'Neal said about Ross, "all of a sudden, she didn't want to play a woman guarded by a white bodyguard because Diana Ross doesn't wanna show her body, doesn't wanna do sex scenes on the screen, doesn't wanna sing and doesn't wanna be black... as you could see, we're no longer an item". O'Neal later stated that the reason the film was not produced was due to the Motown artist "playing off her reputation as a diva".
Development
Whitney Houston's association with The Bodyguard dates to the mid-1980s when production was briefly explored again. According to the December 20, 1986 edition of Billboard magazine, "press reports indicate that Houston will make her film debut opposite Clint Eastwood in The Bodyguard." Though the Houston-Eastwood casting was press speculation, Houston was said to have remained the preferred choice for the leading role.