A Friend to Die For

When Miramount High School cheerleader Kirsten Costas ran across the street from her front yard in Orinda, California in June 1984 having been fatally stabbed by her schoolmate Bernadette Protti and seeking help from her neighbor she probably had no idea that this review would be written. The way it happened was this: Randall Sullivan of ROLLING STONE Magazine wrote a moving article about the case (focusing largely on Bernadette Protti's dramatic confession to the police) that appeared in print about a year after the murder had occurred and was published with the title "Death of a Cheerleader". The story got such attention that Sullivan was hired to write a screenplay for a made-for-t.v. movie after Protti was paroled, depicting the events fictitiously. It was first aired on NBC as A FRIEND TO DIE FOR, but has also been aired on cable television, both under its original title and under the title of the article that inspired it. In the film, Tori Spelling loosely por- trays Costas as snobby Stacy Lockwood; Kellie Martin loosely portrays Protti as Angela Delveccio and Orinda is replaced with the fictional town of Santa Mira, California. The murder is depicted in the opening scene and the action then reverts to the life of Delveccio over the course of about a year. Although she firsts tries to cover up what she did, the depth and sincerity of the remorse that she eventually expresses are very moving. This film is worth watching several times.

I think Kellie Martin should have won an Emmy for this film. She plays Angela, a pretty but mousy-type attending a wealthy-area high school. She wants to fit in with the rich, snobby, popular crowd but is not like them herself. She comes from a large, devoutly Catholic family who "have what they need" but little else. Angela tries out for cheerleader and fails, for the Writers' Club and fails, even though she's a good writer, and this destroys her self-esteem. Add to that her wanting desperately to befriend the most popular girl in school Stacy (Tori Spelling), who is also the meanest and snobbiest, and being cruelly rejected as weird. You totally sympathize with Angela and see how she could have been driven to such a desperate act. Martin's riveting performance continues post-tragedy, as you see the guilt eating her up inside. This is truly an awesome made-for-TV movie. I highly recommend it.

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.

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.

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.