The Buddy Holly Story
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Movie Reviews of The Buddy Holly Story
Movie Review: Gary Busey's Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is without a doubt the crowning achievement in Busey's career. Losing out to Jon Voight for Best Actor 1978 was a shame. Gary Busey doesn't just portray Buddy Holly; he brings him back to life.
During the opening moments at the roller rink Buddy tells his band mates (Don Stroud & Charles Martin Smith) "...lets do Ollie Vee".
What happens next is a live performance (no lip-syncing or over-dubbing) of Holly's heart pounding barn stomp that will have you on your feet and dancing around the room. I simply cannot watch it only once. Absolutely mesmerizing. This is one of the most inspirational 3 minutes in film ever.
While the script gets a bit flimsy with the facts, it's really unimportant overall to the story of his brief flame of a life.
This film celebrates the passion and determination that possessed Buddy Holly and it comes alive in the hands of a clearly inspired and devoted Busey.
Memorable scenes include the Crickets improvisational creation of "Peggy Sue" while driving to Memphis, when Stroud's (composite) character Jesse alters Buddy's tempo from slow ballad to the snappy rocker we all know and love. While the "Madman Mancuso-cops through the station door" scene is a bit over the top, the closing moments are truly inspired filmmaking. With Buddy winding up his performance (again Busey's voice recorded live) of "True Love Ways" at the Surf Ballroom, the film editor freezes on his close up and holds it in an almost imperceptible zoom while a simple paragraph of text reminds us of what happened later that night in Clear Lake Iowa, and the credits roll.
This is in my opinion the best ending of any film I ever seen.
Maybe Busey isn't in the same class as Laurence Olivier, Robert De Niro, & Warren Beatty (the other 3 nominees that year) but this film is magic, and it will always be.
Movie Review: Buddy will Not Fade Away!
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my fondest childhood memories is of watching The Buddy Holly Story with my parents. It's one of the first movies I can remember that we taped when my mom bought our first VCR in the mid 80's. The quality of the recording wasn't great, but at least it was always there to enjoy over and over again. The core story was intriguing to me, even at such an early age, and I absolutely was in love with Buddy's music (as well as a little number by Sam Cooke called "You Send Me"!). I knew who Elvis was, and appreciated and liked him very much (still do!), but to me Buddy will always be the true King Of Rock N' Roll. It's all due to the glorious portrayal of Buddy by Gary Busey, the loose but genius direction of Steve Rash, and the raw energetic musical performances by Busey, Don Stroud, and Charles Martin Smith (keep strafing those trains, Ray Bob!). I recently bought The Buddy Holly Story on DVD, and my appreciation of all these same nuances of the film hold true even now. I particularly enjoyed the feature length commentary by Busey and Rash. It helped answer a lot of questions I had about the changes from real life to fiction (for example, the Crickets' real names were signed over to another studio, and that's why they were changed to Jesse and Ray Bob), and it was very touching to hear them discuss their own love for Buddy and how they made this movie to honor him and restore him to the public conscious. I cannot recommend the DVD enough, and of course the film itself. If you've never seen The Buddy Holly Story and are an adult, you'll be too late to have the same experience I had, but I don't doubt for a second that you'll fall for the movie as hard as I did no matter what your age is! :)Movie Review: THIS MOVIE IS GREAT EVEN IF IT PARTS ARE INACCURATE!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ok, so Hollywood took some liberties here. Many complaints about this movie deal with the fact that there are many inaccuracies about Holly's life. Maybe so, but Gary Busey (in a well deserved Oscar Nominated role) captures the essence of Holly so effectively, it doesn't matter!!!!! Kudos also to Don Stroud and the marvelous Charles Martin Smith who portray the Crickets with equal finesse. So their names were changed for the movie from Jerry Allison and Joe Mauldin! Big Deal! As for the fact that Holly's parents sued the producers of the movie for inaccurately portraying them is absurd as well. Heck, they weren't on the screen more than 3 minutes...first in the church scene, then the Sunday dinner scene! How could one capture accuracy in 3 minutes?? Did this take away from Holly's legend? I DON'T THINK SO. Did it take away from his genius?? Never!! The music score (which won an Oscar) is outstanding and Busey really SHOULD HAVE WON over Jon Voight in Coming HOme, for his portrayal of Holly. Even HOlly's parents endorsed Busey's portrayal saying Busey captured Holly to a tee! Busey is amazing! The lovely actress who played his wife Maria Elena is incandescent. There is not one single flaw in this film!! It is an extraordinarily done biography which would have made Holly proud!! As I said before, the inaccuracies mentioned have not taken away one iota from the Holly mythos. Best Scene: Holly performing "True Love Ways" at the final concert; truly a heartbreaking moment! There is a dandy documentary on the making of the film with Busey and the film's director! There are trailers and subtitles as well. The picture and sound are great!!Movie Review: Whose Story?
Summary: 5 Stars
I have very mixed feelings about this movie.
Nearly everything about the lives of Buddy and the Crickets has been altered/amended/fictionalized.
Jerry Allison, J B Maudlin, Nikki Sullivan, Sony Curtis, Norman & Vi Petty, Bob Montgomery etc., have all been written out of the movie.
Buddy & the Crickets tours to UK and Australia are not even mentioned.
I'm one of the lucky ones who actually saw Holly and the Crickets live in concert in Southampton during their 1958 tour of UK and I have stayed a fan ever since.
I don't think our "cousins" across the pond have any idea what an impact the music of Holly and the Crickets and the post-Holly Crickets had on the music scene in this country and how they inspired a generation of Brit musicians. The "British Invasion" of USA in the 1960's had a lot to do with Holly and the Crickets.
Even today, when the Crickets come over (yes, they are still going, Sony, J B and Jerry!), they play to to sold-out concerts up and down UK.
Paul McCartney admits that the Beatles name and style of writing and singing were inspired by Buddy Holly and then by Sony Curtis, Jerry Allison and J B Mauldlin's Crickets. The Rolling Stones first hit was "Not Fade Away"
So, watching the "Buddy Holly Story" is a bit of 1950's nostalga for me, but I keep thinking that it sounds like Buddy & the Crickets on a "bad hair day".
It could have been so much better. Brave of Busey to do the singing, but why not have used the original recordings?
I think the old expression "Half a loaf.......!" applies to this movie (but I still gave it a 5)
Movie Review: Compelling, Fascinating Portrait of Buddy Holly
Summary: 5 Stars
Despite that a lot of factual information was omitted from this portrait of Buddy Holly, this movie is a compelling, insightful portrait of the mesmerizing character of Buddy Holly himself. Sure, there are glaring omissions concerning the real Crickets and Norm Petty, the 'manager' that helped Buddy get his start--nevertheless, the portrait Gary Busey paints of Buddy is a fascinating, driving and complex picture of an immensely talented, driven, and totally amazing young man who had an unerring faith in his own ability and unsurpassed talent and conviction that he understood and heralded what would become known as rock and roll....the faults in this movie can be overlooked--it is easy enough to find the truth in the in depth biographies of Buddy Holly available. It is far harder to find that fascinating grain of persona and truth that this portrait provides; that is what makes the errors/omissions forgivable. Gary Busey's performance as Buddy garnered him an Academy Award nomination--and provided millions of new fans a look at the driven, multi-faceted, extremely talented and amazing young rocker, Charles Hardin 'Buddy' Holly.
This movie is a triumph. The essence of Buddy Holly is portrayed in a magnetic, unsurpassed depiction. The ultimate portrait is a compelling, fascinating look at a young man whose life ended far too soon--and whose talent, foresight and legend created rock music as we knew it in the late 1950's and as we know it today.