Showing posts with label "The Bodyguard". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "The Bodyguard". Show all posts

Monday, February 20, 2012

Kevin Costner bids farewell to Whitney Houston



If you can watch this with dry eyes, you are made of sterner stuff than I am. My favorite line: Recalling what naysayers pointed out when he indicated that he wanted Houston as his co-star in The Bodyguard, Costner says, "I told everyone that I had taken notice that Whitney was black..."

His anecdote about Houston's screen test for Bodyguard is at once richly amusing and deeply affecting. And then Costner, mindful of his co-star's modesty and self-doubt, concludes: "So off you go, Whitney. Off you go. Escorted by an army of angels to your heavenly father. And when you sing before Him, don't you worry. You'll be good enough."

I've always thought Kevin Costner was a class act. Now I'm certain.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Whitney Houston & Kevin Costner: The first post-racial on-screen romance?


Something to think about, perhaps, as we contemplate Whitney Houston's many achievements: Did she and Kevin Costner share what future film historians will describe as the first post-racial on-screen romance? Back when I reviewed The Bodyguard in 1992, I noted: "[T]he moviemakers are refreshingly casual about the racial element in the relationship between Farmer [Costner's character] and Marron [Houston's character]. In fact, nobody in the entire movie ever mentions race." Trust me: Such nonchalance was not so common back in the day.