The Buddy Holly Story

I was fortunate enough to be an extra in this movie when I was about 13 during the roller rink scenes. My junior high school drama class was invited to participate. It was a fantastic experience.

Gary Busey, Charles Martin Smith and Don Stroud played the music live, all day! As a musician, I can appreciate the tireless work and dedication these guys put in to their roles. They must have played those songs 20 times. It's very difficult to maintain consistency and energy under those conditions. This is visible during a cut to a close-up on "That'll Be the Day," but fortunately the unsuspecting public probably wouldn't have picked it up.

Skating around all day, getting the day off from school and being transported back in time was a incredible thrill. I also had my first "date" on film. I had to walk a girl up to the ticket booth. Woo hoo! Even with an out-of-date haircut and hot lights melting the vaseline in my hair, it was still worth it. Fun stuff.

The movie is top notch and is highly satisfying as a whole. Busey delivers his best role ever and the supporting cast is superb. I'm glad to have participated in a great film of the day. To think I could have been in Corvette Summer or something. Not.

A funny ironic ending to this is that years later I was in a video store in Malibu looking at the movie the week it was released on video. Gary Busey walked in and stood right next to me. I showed him the cover and babbled on how great he was and how I was an extra and whatnot. Pretty weird, but very cool, for what it's worth.

I always liked listening to Buddy Holly and felt a real loss when he was killed at a young age in an airplane crash. He wasn't in the old rock 'n roll class of , let's say, Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis, but he wasn't far behind. Who knows how big his legacy would have been had he sang for decades. Almost every single he put out was a hit.

So, I was very pleasantly surprised how good a job Gary Busey did at playing him and at imitating his singing voice. He did Buddy proud, as were the actors (Don Stroud and Charles Martin Smith) who played Holly's backup group, "The Crickets."

Music-wise, there are some of Holly's better-known songs in the beginning of the film and its really good with a strong finish at the end as Holly and the boys are shown in Iowa in their last concert ever. Busey not only sings like Holly, he's a dead ringer for him in the looks department. Some thing was the actor''s best performance ever, and you get no argument from me.

I'm also glad they ended the film on an upbeat note with that Iowa concert, instead of dwelling on his tragic accident. The ending could have been a real downer, but they didn't let it be.

I've always been a Gary Busey fan since I saw him playing crazed villains in the likes of UNDER SIEGE and LETHAL WEAPON. The guy screams entertainment value, and it's tough to resist his manic charms. So I decided to go back to the beginning, and catch up with a role that helped make his name: as Buddy Holly in THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY, a biopic exploring the tragic rock 'n roll star's rise to fame.

It's a thoroughly engaging little movie with a definite 1970s vibe to it, in that actors are given the opportunity to act without flashy direction or editing or special effects getting in the way. Busey dyes his hair black, dons the horn-rimmed glasses and is good to go. Nothing more is needed than that.

The story that plays out is never less than interesting and usually more besides. Of course, there are musical numbers popping up throughout and Busey makes these his own; it feels like it's the kind of role an actor was born to play. That alone would make THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY a decent film, but the strength of the supporting players (mainly Charles Martin Smith and Don Stroud) and the involving storyline are the icing on the cake.

If there is one reason to watch this movie, it's not for an accurate depiction of Buddy Holly's life and career; it's for Gary Busey's incredible portrayal of the lead character. Busey received a well deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination for his tour de force. The film is a "docudrama" that overstates and over-glorifies Holly's contribution to and achievements in the early Rock and Roll era. I guess John Lennon was joking when he said "Before Elvis, there was nothing" because anyone who watched this movie understands that nobody knew what they were doing before Good Ole Buddy emerged on the scene a few years later. And he did it all without a producer or even a band who believed in and supported him! But when you're in the same league as Motzart, anything's possible! That's what makes Busey's performance so remarkable; he is so convincing and compelling that you actually believe this is who Buddy Holly was. Busey succeeds in creating this charismatic and dynamic performer,leader and visionary who never existed to that extent. The final scene is case in point when Holly is bombastically leading Richie Valens and the Big Bopper on stage during the final concert; in reality it could have been the 4th co-headliner, Dion and Belmonts closing that show and Holly playing drums for them which he had to do often on that tour. But this movie is not about presentation of the hard facts, but a celebration of a man and his music, which Busey's performance along with all of Holly's best songs easily accomplishes.

This film set the standard for all rock biopics to follow. It accomplished this through the energetic performances of the leads, the steadiness of the camera-work (avoiding 'rock-video' clichés that were actually invented for the Beatles in their first two films), tight editing, and a non-judgmental presentation of the star as human being rather than symbol or god (or demon). Yes, there are minor holes in the plot, and incidental details that are a little unnecessary, and there will always be debate between families of those personally involved as to specifics. But the issue here, as in the much more recent "I walk the Line" or Carpenter's famed TV Elvis biopic of the same era, is whether the meaning of the performer's life, in its time and place, as a catalyst for fans' ideals and appreciation, is made manifest in the performance, and this is clearly the case here. We come away from this movie understanding not only how Buddy Holly became a star, but why. I don't see what else one could want from the film.