The Bodyguard Free

[Roxanna Bornemann]

FILEHezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, center, escorted by his bodyguard Yasser Nemr Qranbish, right, addresses supporters reflected in the bulletproof glass during the annual rally to mark Al-Quds Day, Jerusalem Day, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 28, 2005. An Israeli strike in Syria Tuesday July 9, 2024 killed Qranbish, a former personal bodyguard of Hezbollah leader, an official with the Lebanese militant group said. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

This picture released by Hezbollah media relations office, shows a portrait of Yasser Nemr Qranbish, the former bodyguard of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in Syria by an Israeli strike, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (Hezbollah Media Relations Office via AP)

Hours earlier, an Israeli drone hit a car in Syria near the border with Lebanon, according to a war monitor and the Syrian pro-government radio Sham FM. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The Britain-based pro-opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two Hezbollah members in the car were killed in the strike, while a Syrian driver was critically wounded. There was no immediate comment from Syrian authorities or from the Israeli military.

Hezbollah later identified the militant as Yasser Nemr Qranbish, although it did not disclose the circumstances of his death as is standard practice for Hezbollah combatants who are not in leadership roles.

Later Tuesday, Hezbollah announced that in retaliation for the killing, it fired tens of Katyusha rockets targeting an Israeli military base in the Golan Heights. Israeli police said in a statement that a man and a woman were killed in the rocket barrage. The MADA rescue service said they were civilians.

Qranbish had been mainly active in Syria over the recent years and involved in weapons shipments for Hezbollah, said an official with an Iran-backed group, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the information.

Hezbollah launched attacks against Israel after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7 with the attack on southern Israel by the Palestinian militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip. Hamas is an ally of Hezbollah.

Since then, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed over 450 people, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also more than 80 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 17 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed since the war in Gaza began.

For years, Israel has launched frequent strikes on targets in Syria linked to Iran, its powerful regional backer, but rarely acknowledges them. The strikes have escalated over the past five months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza and ongoing clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.

There is a terrifying moment in adolescence when suddenly some of the kids are twice as big as the rest of the kids. It is terrifying for everybody: For the kids who are suddenly tall and gangling, and for the kids who are still small and are getting beat up all the time. My Bodyguard places that moment in a Chicago high school and gives us a kid who tries to think his way out of it.

The kid's name is Clifford. He has everything going againsthim. He's smart, he's new in the school, he's slightly built. As he's played byChris Makepeace, he is also one of the most engaging teen-age characters I'veseen in the movies in a long time. Too many movie teen-agers have beensex-crazed ("Little Darlings"), animalistic food-fighters ("Meatballs"), orhopelessly romanticized ("The Blue Lagoon"). Clifford is basically just yournormal, average kid.

He has just moved to Chicago with his family.His father (Martin Mull) is the new resident manager of the Ambassador EastHotel. His grandmother (Ruth Gordon) hangs out in the lobby and picks up oldmen in the bar. Life is great, backstage at a hotel (he gets his meals in thekitchen or some-times in the Pump Room). But it's not so great at school. Themovie sends Clifford to Lake View High School, where he's immediately shakendown for his lunch money.

The extortionist (Matt Dillon) is the kind ofkid we all remember from high school. He's handsome in an oily way, he's goingthrough a severe case of adolescent sadism, he's basically a coward. His threatis that unless Clifford pays protection money, he'll sic the dreaded Lindermanon him.

Linderman (Adam Baldwin) is a school legend, abig, hulking kid who allegedly killed his brother, raped a teacher, hit a cop,you name it. The movie's inspiration is to have Clifford think his way out ofhis dilemma neutralizing Linderman by hiring him as a bodyguard. This isgenius, and there's a wonderful scene where Clifford springs Linderman on therest of the kids.

Then the movie takes an interesting turn.Clifford and Linderman become friends, and we learn some of the unhappy factsof Linderman's life. It turns out Linderman isn't the Incredible Hulk after allhe's just another kid going through growing pains and some personal tragedy.This whole middle stretch is the best part of the movie, developing afriendship in a perceptive and gentle way that's almost shocking in comparisonwith the idiotic, violent teen-agers so many movies have given us.

The ending is predictable (it's a showdownbetween Linderman and another tough kid). And there are some distractions alongthe way from Clifford's family. Martin Mull makes an interesting hotel manager,whimsical and charming. But the movie gets off track when it follows RuthGordon through some of her adventures, including a romantic collision with ahotel executive played by John Houseman. These scenes just don't seem part ofthe same movie: The hotel stuff is sitcom, while the stuff in the high schoolis fresh and inventive.

I avoided him for weeks after until I found out I was pregnant. My mom encouraged me to stay with him and so did my pastor. With their pressure, I agreed to try to make it work. I moved in with him and he immediately started isolating me from everyone and restricting my money. He took away my car and forced me to quit my job.

Once we arrived, I was very rarely allowed to leave a 1010 room unless I was cooking or cleaning for them. I had no contact with my family. I was told to contact them once a week by email but he would rewrite my emails. His mother would allow him to abuse me right in front of her and even egg him on.

At one point I tried to leave and I walked 3 miles in July, 9 months pregnant with no money, just the clothes I could carry. I got to a gas station and a young girl helped me get to the train station. She did not know he was waiting for me inside to take me back. 2 weeks later, I gave birth to my beautiful daughter.

No one in my family knew I had given birth. She was so precious and tiny and I swore to protect her with my whole being the second she was born. I knew I had to get out. I collected every dime, nickel, and quarter I could find and bought myself a train ticket and left.

He followed of course and I spent the next three months trying to get away from him. He attacked me and raped me when I was 4 weeks postpartum. This resulted in yet another pregnancy. I chose to have an abortion but managed to hide it and tell him I lost the baby. At this point, I had nowhere to go.

He went to jail for 24 hours and was released on a release agreement. The agreement was he was to go straight to Washington. Instead, he hung around town unsupervised. I felt very unsafe. Living like this, looking over my shoulder, truly began wearing on me. Kadie suggested hiring a bodyguard, so I asked our silly friend Derek if he would do it. Little did I know, I would fall in love with him and he would save me!

This all happened so quick. I went from being a 22-year-old newly single mom leaving a very violent, evil situation to a newlywed in the matter of weeks. No one thought our marriage would last a week let alone 13 years. We have had our ups and downs, but in the end we always have each other.

This journey was one of the hardest things I have been through. but in the end it is what made me who I am today. It changed me in a way I never thought it could. It helped me see even in your darkest times, there is always a light. Derek, also known as Big Red, is a person I thought only existed in dreams. He is kind, loving, sweet, and giving. Not only to me and our family, but to every person he meets.

This topic is hidden or dismissed way too much. Most of the people in my current life did not even know our story or what I had been through because I had felt shunned if I spoke about it. That is a stigma that needs to be abolished.

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