My Bodyguard

My Bodyguard (1980)

  • 85% of critics liked it
    (27 reviews)

  • 66% of users liked it
    (5,903 ratings)

This quietly compelling film explores the hardships and anxieties of high school with intelligence, sensitivity, warmth and humor. Chris Makepeace stars as a shy, bookish student who has recently moved to Chicago and begun a new school. There he finds himself the target of a group of punks led by… More

PG,
Directed By
Written By
Alan Ormsby
Genres
Drama, Kids & Family, Comedy
In Theaters
Jul 11, 1980 Wide

Critic Reviews

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    In his directorial debut, Tony Bill assembles a truly remarkable cast of youngsters with little or no previous acting experience.

  • Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

    A film of ingredients, rather than ideas realized and integrated: it panders on different, disjunctive levels.

  • Derek Adams, Time Out

    The message that accompanies the central theme -- Kids are basically Nice -- is that Brute Force Rules.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    This movie is fun to watch because it touches memories that are shared by most of us, and because its young characters are recognizable individuals, and not simplified cartoon figures like so many movie teen-agers.

  • Janet Maslin, New York Times

    A sweet little movie about characters who really seem to be people, and that sort of verisimilitude is rarer than it ought to be nowadays.

Read all 9 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Melvin W


    Clifford Peache: Will you be my bodyguard? I'll pay you fifty cents every day. I'll do your homework for you. I'm pretty smart.  My Bodyguard isn't a technically well made film by any stretch. It's a movie that doesn't really know what it is. A lot of… More

  • AJ V


    A great teen drama/comedy movie. The story is both quirky and realistic. I really liked this movie, it's fun.

  • James A


    After all these years I still liked it.

  • Lafe F


    We enjoyed this muchly as kids. It's a poignant movie like a super-version of an Afterschool special. I'm sure it would still go over well with kids today. I don't need to watch it again however.

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Cast

See more (28)