DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Revisiting The Bodyguard
© NaimaLett.com/blog
© Warner Brothers, The Bodyguard
It was written for Diana Ross and Steve McQueen.
It became Whitney Houston’s onscreen debut and was produced by its star Kevin Costner.
Made for $25 million, it made $411 million worldwide.
Not to mention the wave of #1 songs it produced including Whitney’s version of “I Will Always Love You” (above) which shattered all records at the time and topped the Billboard 100 for 14 weeks.
The Bodyguard
I saw The Bodyguard on AMC last night. I couldn’t resist.
My first plan was to have fun identifying the scenes filmed at Greystone Mansion. But then, I got drawn into the story again. Whitney was believable playing herself. Two-time Academy Award winner Costner was classic Costner. The story was well written by Academy Award nominee Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars V & VI), and considered a good screenplay.
But, Why?
“But, why?” I asked myself midway through the movie.
Why did we consider this a good story… to the tune of $411 million, ranking #7 in 1992, only after the likes of Aladdin, Home Alone 2 and Batman Returns?
It’s a simple plot: Female in danger. Hero to the rescue.
We could insert any female leading lady here: Halle, Julia, Marilyn, Elizabeth – somebody’s bound to be rescued and carried away in arms, a limousine, an airplane, something.
Fantasy?
That’s the fantasy women want and men love to fulfill, right?
I’m joking, but I actually think the film resonates deeper than that. It goes back to the redemptive element that I talked about in Avatar, Titanic & The Avengers.
Hollywood’s biggest selling box office films of all time have been redemptive stories:
Avatar, $2.782 billion – Sam sacrifices for Neytiri and the Na’vi people.
Titanic, $2.185 billion – Jack gives his life making sure Rose will live.
The Avengers, $1.511 billion – Iron Man intercepts the nuclear missile aimed at NYC and flies it into the space portal, knowing the likelihood that he won’t make it back.
We could go on and on. Skyfall, Transformers, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Dark Knight Rises, The Lion King… the Box Office Top 20 looks like the Who’s Who of Sacrificing One’s Life for Others.
The Bodyguard is no different.
Sacrifice
At one point, Kevin’s Frank and Whitney’s Rachel have the foreshadowing conversation that the prerequisite of a real bodyguard is the willingness to die for another.
As stated in my previous blog, I believe that we instinctively resonate with these stories because we yearn for redemption. We yearn to know that someone loves us so much that they’d give their very lives for us. Hollywood didn’t make this up. We’re only re-telling the Great Redemption story of God through blue aliens, sinking boats and dysfunctional superheroes and making money off of it.
Jesus tells His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” John 15:13. Then He lays down His life for all of us, friends and enemies, that if we believe, we can be reconciled back to God. That’s love.
That same love is demonstrated through us as we sacrifice for our families, friends, co-workers, strangers. And we recognize that love when we see it played out onscreen in films like The Bodyguard (though technically, a bodyguard is paid for his/her services to protect a person’s life… just saying).
Today
How ’bout we find a way to show love today through the sacrifices we make for others?
Maybe we let a driver pass in front of us on our busy highways?
Maybe we do something for our loved one that would mean a whole lot to them without asking anything in return?
It may not be throwing ourselves in front of a bullet at the Academy Awards, or stopping a plane to get off and run back and kiss the person we love, but hey, it’s a start.
Remember the video above, Fam?
Enjoy,
Naima
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