Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Death of a Cheerleader (1994, TV movie)

7/15/2013

Death of a Cheerleader (1994, TV movie) - A true-crime TV debate movie

♥♥♥♥

+ Best True-crime Movie of the Year + Best TV movie of the Year

Promotion for William A. Graham's A Friend to Die For

Judging from the title and DVD-cover, I thought I was in for a cheap Hollywood-slasher, but Death of a Cheerleader has nothing to do with horror whatsoever. It is a true-crime teenage drama made for TV, and was the highest rated TV movie of 1994.

One unlikeable teen girl who thinks everything depends on her getting popular, and another unlikeable teen girl, who is exceedingly popular at the expense of her lesser fortunate high school mates, clash fatally.

Kellie Martin (Smooch (2011), TV movie) does very well in the former part, and by the end of the film she actually got me to sympathize with her desperate, single-minded character. Tori Spelling (Scary Movie 2 (2001)) also does well in the latter part as the cheerleader bully and murder victim.
As an often TV movie-making director, William A. Graham (Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991)) knew the possibilities and restraints of the format, and he does well within the confines of these here. The film is written by Dan Bronson (Talk to Me (1996), TV movie), based on an article by Randall Sullivan, who chose to make Cheerleader an almost moralistic tale, as the third act revolves around the murder trial: In which it is implied that the guilty part was the community and American society at large, - for being too obsessed with (the impossibility of) everyone being number one, possession-obsessed materialism and little tolerance for critique. That argument, however, is duly balanced, making it a potentially debate-invoking, thought-provoking film. It's a nice achievement.

What lends even more credit to Cheerleader is the fact that it is a seemingly very accurate account of the real life teen girl murder of Kirsten Costas in Orinda, California in 1984. Read more about the case and the film's account of it here.

Here's a clip from the film with Spelling

Cost: Unknown
Box office: None - TV movie
= TV movie hit
[Death of a Cheerleader was first shown 26 September on NBC and runs 87 minutes. It was shot in California. Spelling was reportedly paid 100k $ for her performance in the film. The real-life killer, Bernadette Protti, was released at age 23 after just 7 years in jail in 1992, and moved to Hawaii, where her family had relocated. The film was the highest-rated TV movie on American TV of 1994 and must thus count as a TV movie hit. Graham returned with Betrayed: A Story of Three Women (1995, TV movie). Martin returned in If Someone Had Known (1995, TV movie), Spelling in Awake to Danger (1995, TV movie). 1,230 IMDb users have given Death of a Cheerleader an average rating of 6.2/10.]

What do you think of Death of a Cheerleader?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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7/15/2013

Death of a Cheerleader (1994, TV movie) - A true-crime TV debate movie

1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

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