"CBS Schoolbreak Special" But He Loves Me (1991)

User Rating:

3.4/10   

Director:

Strathford Hamilton

Writer:

Betty G. Birney (writer)

TV Series:

"CBS Schoolbreak Special" (1984)

Original Air Date:

6 March 1991 (Season 8, Episode 4)

Genre:

Drama | Family | Romance

Plot:

Teenage girl starts dating the most popular boy in school and for a while everything is wonderful, until he start being violent towards her. |

Plot Keywords:

Schoolbreak Special | After School Special | Family Relationships | Male Female Relationship

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Kelli Williams	...	Cassie O'Brian
Donovan Leitch	...	Charlie Tyler
Douglas Barr	...	Al McBride (as Doug Barr)
Season Hubley	...	Barbara McBride
Rick Dano	...	Mr. Montgomery
Troy Shire	...	Jeff
Marco Sanchez	...	Ben
Robin Tunney	...	Brooke
Chantal Rivera-Batisse
Karen Moore
Joey Simmrin	...	Kyle
Angella Kaye	...	Girl
Brandi Burkett

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Churchill Films

Lost Classic...

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

***Warning: This, Like, Contains a Spoiler, Like***

I remember watching this movie when I was like...12? Yes, back in Mark Twain Middle School, my Health Teacher was teaching us children about Abusive relationships, and through the normal cycle of articles, pamphlets, presentations, as well as instructional videos and after school specials, came this little made for TV movie. I believe it aired on CBS, (cause the copy my teacher had those old Kentucky Fried Chicken Commercials I remember...aw the memories of the early nineties. Well, back to the movie...)

"But He Loves me..." is the story of Cassie O'Brian, a typical shy young girl in high school, who is surprised to learn that Charlie, the most popular boy in school who she has a crush on crushes her back. They begin to date, although his Ex keeps lurking around them, and is always trying to warn Cassie to stay away from him. Cassie, through her friends peer pressure and misguided advice, decides to ignore his girlfriend, (Who listens to people with relationship experience with that significant other anyway, right?)however, He slowly begins to smack her around, and abuse her, leaving quite obvious marks, even though no one suspects anything, because she usually disguises the abuse by saying..."I Fell". Yeah, I would believe someone who comes in with new cuts and bruises everyday that miraculously started when they began dating that weird kid that it's all a result of being "clumsy". Although Cassie is slowly starting to live and breathe the old saying "Love that Kills", her friends (Stupid Friends, Who needs people to socialize with, gossip, and depend on for comfort anyway?) continuously tell her not to break up with him, after all, he's popular, cute(?!), uh....still abusive... but like totally cute. So, poor Cassie continues down this self destructive road. Eventually, it becomes obvious, (at least when he lays a smack-down on the poor gal in front of her baby brother). Cassie tries to break it off with loser, and for once, her friends take Cassie's Life or Death situation into consideration, but the movie climaxes in a (abusive) love scene on a beach at prom.

Let me walk you through it.

Cassie is out having a good time slut-ting it up with her friends at prom (Really she's just dancing and doing, well human teenage girl stuff), and then her boyfriend (well, *laughs* ex boyfriend at this point) shows up (yipee). He runs up to her, and she tries to escape him, by running out on him, but eventually, he hunts her down on the beach. That's when the crew uses the highest in Low Budget Eighties Cinematography, by doing something I have never seen in Any lifetime movie or Hallmark, or Cheesy After School Special Made for TV movie before. Instead of a fight scene with flesh being pounded into flesh, they "emphasize" how he beats her by using fading shots. For this scene, they literally fade between her reaction to the blows his giving her, which is mostly her lying on the ground, and consistently switch from side to side to emphasis pain, and to her boyfriend, well, fighting with...air. Eventually the story ends like every after school special ends, Cassie puts a restraining order on Charlie, and we are left with an actually pretty awesome ending to a cheesy movie, Charlie getting into the car with a blonde honey by his side, (to emphasis that he's just gonna abuse her too..you get it, shut up, I though it was deep)

The acting in this movie is COMPLETELY overdone, and although it manages to hold your interest well, the script is awful. This movie really reminds me of old episodes of "Degrassi Junior High" (I'm pretty sure they did an episode on this subject even better than this), expect everyone isn't twelve, and everyone here actually suffers from the dreaded, "90210" Syndrome, meaning, Everyone Plays a Teen, But looks well over Thirty, even though her friends are more convincing.

One of the things about this film that gets to me is how guilty it makes you feel, given the subject matter. Yes, it is a preachy little number, but what are you going to expect, Teen Witch? Nuh Huh, the problem with most of these movies is that they never really know how to handle this sort of subject without coming off as a joke, and thus, in the process, no one takes these types of movies seriously. "But he Loves me" is an unfortunate attempt at a serious subject, gone to s***.