A Friend to Die For

This movie shows the extremes people will go through just to fit in! A good movie for young people to see! Movies like this hopefully will teach that bullying is wrong and unacceptable! And if you are being bullied talk to someone! Make them listen. Bullying needs to stop it's so much worse now days with cyberbullying.

No, this is not the most unique film about bullying, alienation and violence in high schools today. But this film is acceptable when you note the hypocrisy of an American community when confronted with its demons. The prosecution admittedly pursued the death penalty in a case where it was not even applicable, to feed the PR flames and incite headlines across America.

If the underlying theme had been more developed, there was a much more important story to be conveyed here. Other than the obvious, Angela Delvecchio (Kellie Martin) as the odd girl out, desperately attempting to be popular (Unfortunately, her parents and teachers never told her this would cease to matter in 2 years anyway), with Tori Spelling as the "popular girl" for that year. They may have picked a more sympathetic victim other than Spelling.

There is a brief role for Terry O'Quinn, as the pretentious principal; babbling about Santa Maria excellence and perfection. We see his dismissal of Delvecchio (Martin) and how important his approval and praise was for her.

Andy Romano and Valerie Harper portray Angela Delvecchio's parents, and paint a realistic picture of the community's hypocrisy- everyone in America wants to succeed, have a bigger house, drive a foreign car, and this all ties in with being a popular cheerleader in Delvecchio's mind, at least.

Kellie Martin is a sympathetic character, and does quite well projecting Delvecchio's despair. Maybe they should produce a follow-up movie, to see if things have changed in that particular school. Other films have more accurately dissected teen violence: "Bully", "Elephant" and "Bang, bang, you're dead", for example. But this film still deserves credit for addressing some of the less popular notions in America today: that something is amiss, values are distorted, and kids are being affected by this.

I love "Death of a Cheerleader". I caught on TV shortly after it was made and really enjoyed it, but never video taped it and didn't see it again until very recently when I bought the DVD from Amazon.co.uk. I can't believe this movie got a DVD release (it's not even ever been on VHS!) but it deserves it because it's so good.

"Death of a Cheerleader" is about Angela, a high school student who's life goal is to 'be the best' in every possible way. She wants to become one of the 'cool' kids and join the 'in crowd'...she wants to become a member of the snotty, elite social club The Larks, she wants to be editor on the paper, she wants to be a cheerleader...she wants to be Stacy Lockwood. Stacy is everything Amanda isn't, rich, beautiful, popular...she's also a class A bitch and takes delight in constantly making cruel remarks to Monica, a goth girl who everything thinks is psycho and weird just because of how she looks.

Angela wants nothing more than to be Stacy's friend and tries to hang out with her crowd but they just snub her or make little jibes about her being poor...determind to become Stacy's friend, one night Angela tricks Stacy into going to a party with her, but once Stacy discovers neither Angela nor herself were properly invited, she changes her mind and yells at Angela to take her back home. In the end Stacy flips out and screams at Angela, telling her she's weird and a freak. Stacy walks off and finds her own way home, but later when she reaches her house Angela makes one last attempt, begging Stacy to be her friend. Stacy refuses and mocks and insults Angela. Angela, in a fit of rage, stabs Stacy to death with a knife.

Stacy dies, and there is a huge inquiry. Detectives question students, Larks, and all the people who knew Stacy. Everyone in school is pointing the blame towards Monica but eventually they learn who the real killer is and are completely shocked.

Over all, "Death of a Cheerleader" is a great movie. It has a strong script, and realisticly protrays how nasty school girls can be to each other without getting silly or going over the top. The acting from the two leading ladies, Kellie Martin (Angela) and Tori Spelling (Stacy) is amazing, they give brilliant performances. A must see movie!

Angela Delvecchiois is a young girl who comes from quite a poor family. When she moves to a rich town called Montevista with her family, she of course wants to be accepted and to become friends with everyone, including Stacy, the leader of the most prestigious clique at her new high school. Angela really admirers Stacy. After Stacy makes fun of a strange girl named Monica though, Angela defends her, which leaves Angela becoming Stacys target to pick on. Still wanting to become friends with Stacy, Angela makes up a story in order to meet Stacy. When they do meet, Angela tells Stacy that she really likes her and than asks Stacy to come to a party with her. Stacy refuses and tells Angela that she's going to tell everyone what a weirdo she is. In rage, Angela stabs Stacy with a kitchen knife and ends up killing her. The trial for Stacys death is of course very big, with no one knowing who the real killer of Stacys is and many people assuming it was Monica. All this at first, of course.

Tori Spelling and Kellie Martin play the lead roles here and they both do a great job, especially Spelling. Jenna Leigh Green also has a small role and is good too.

Death Of A Cheerleader/A Friend to Die For is a fact-based movie and it's really good. It just shows what people do just to fit in. I give the movie a 10/10.

As for the actual making of this movie-it is a typical run-of-the-mill TV movie, but it's entertaining and enjoyable. It manages to be gritty and intense and has some creative and effective camera shots.

The only exception I take is to the accuracy, being that it is based on a true story. I am friends with someone who knew Kirsten (the real life victim, I can't remember her last name at the moment) and Bernadette Brophy (the real life killer) through cheerleading camps they mutually attended, and he said that Kirsten was not at all the witch that she was portrayed to be in the film. She was nice to everyone and never picked on anyone. She and Bernadette had a fight and Bernadette killed her out of fear that Kirsten would smear her good name. I think it is unfair that the filmmakers would smear Kirsten's good name like they did. It must be so offensive and hurtful to her family and all who knew her. Kind of hard to enjoy this movie when you know that.