Customer Reviews

Buddy Holly Story [VHS]

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'm a huge fan of Gary Busey, who may not be a "star" but is nevertheless a great actor. This is by far his best performance, & I feel he deserved the best actor oscar more than Jon Voight (who won for Coming Home). Few people know that Busey was a musician before he was an actor, so in this awesome musical biography of Buddy Holly we get to see just how talented he is. The film is mostly factual, although some screen characters are actually composites of two or more people. The energy in Busey's performance is what makes this a winner. Not only did he sing, he did it while being filmed live! That's what gives this such a realistic look to it & it's why this stands out among the other musical biographies as one of the best. There was also a lot of unscripted dialogue that makes this even more entertaining. The best thing about the dvd is the hilarious & very informative commentary from the director Steve Rash & Gary Busey, which is almost as good as the film itself! This is an excellent tribute to a lengendary rock & roll icon & it won an oscar for best score adaptation. Do yourself a favor, add this great film to your collection!

This is not a huge hollywood production with slick lighting and camera work but rather a small production that almost has the feel of a cross between a home movie and a TV movie (in a good way). What this movie does so well is celebrate life, and simply follows a character with passion and drive. It's inspiring to see someone follow their dreams relentlessly and that is what the filmmakers have tapped into here. We all know how Buddy Holly's life ends (so if you don't know don't read on), but the movie never even shows a shot of the plane because that is not what it's about. Top this movie off with Gary Busy's performance which is even more impressive when one learns he did all the singing in this film live (he did not lip sync any of it!).

The Buddy Holly Story starring Gary Busey should not be taken as a historical document. Nor do I believe it ever set out to be. What has been created is a film which gives the feel and atmosphere of Buddy Holly, his music and the USA of the day. To have been completely factual would have most probably killed the film with legal challenges and suppression. The Crickets leaving Buddy to side with Norman Petty in the split leading to the final tour and the bitter disappointment this must have caused Buddy, the actual split itself with Petty and the resultant financial complications, these happenings are really not the sort of thing to air in a movie to celebrate the life and music of one of the founders of Rock.

Instead Gary Busey has strapped on a Fender and in effect becomes Buddy Holly. The rhythm and beat, the frantic excitement, the sheer enjoyment of the music, it is all there. We actually get to experience a timeslice of a period some of us recall fondly and others would like to share. A wonderful reminder of good music for us oldies or a enjoyable introduction to a legend for others, a Rock'n'Roll legend quoted by The Beatles and a number of other major musical identities as a major influence in their music.

I think this is a fantastic movie. Gary Busey did an excellent job portraying Buddy Holly. Though I am aware that not every detail of this movie is 100% factual, it still makes the audience love and care about Buddy and his music. This movie is truly a must for any music fan.

I think the most important thing about "The Buddy Holly Story" is it captures the essence of it's subject, the time it is depicting, and the burgeoning rock'n'roll movement. The most glaring innacuracy is the names of the other Crickets, Jerry Allison and Joe Mauldin, being changed. That quibble aside, this film is simultaneously important, yet thrilling, because it celebrates the artistry of rock's premiere pioneer(sorry, Elvis). Gary Busey doesn't merely portray Buddy Holly, he is possessed by the spirit of the man. Though he doesn't necessarily duplicate the vocals of Holly, he has the essence of them down pat. Credit too has to go to Don Stroud and Charles Martin Smith as the other Crickets. This trio actually feels like a working band. I read some of the other reviews that take issue with the film for it's inaccuracies. The truth of the matter is alot of the fabrications in the film were the result of legal wrangling and not a deliberate attempt to falsify the facts. The most important thing here is the film celebrates the man, his creative processes, and the music. If this film moves the uninitiated they can seek out the true story. In conclusion,"Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll!"(Oh, that's Chuck Berry.)

You become accustomed to Hollywood taking too many liberties with the actual stories of the famed and infamous alike; in music, you could ask Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and the Dorsey brothers, all of whom had their life stories sentimentalised and bowdlerised to the quick once Hollywood got its mitts on them. Likewise with Buddy Holly. The liberties taken with the Texas rock pioneer's actual story may have made for audience-gripping moviemaking, but history has its claims as well - and there was no need whatsoever to gussy up the Holly story, unless someone figured that because he was one of the few early rock stars who could claim a background of reasonable stability and, for the most part, parental support and empathy, Buddy Holly as a film subject would have been as boring as Buddy Holly the musician was exciting.

But there remains one reason to indulge "The Buddy Holly Story" after just over two decades - Gary Busey's performance as the long tall Texan with the thick-rimmed glasses, the toothy smile, and the deceptively gripping songs and rippling guitar style remains one of the most unpretentiously electrifying you will ever see given of an actual music star. Busey made a very credible Holly, both when cranking out his versions of Holly's signature music and in portraying the shyly confident young man offstage, and it remains the most earnest and thorough performance of Busey's career; it garnered him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor and he deserved the nomination. He played every facet of Holly - the musical confidence, the unprejudiced amiability, the striking romantic (slightly twisted though the scripting is, it is nevertheless true that Buddy Holly really did ask his girl friend's aunt, who'd raised her, for her hand in marriage), the enthusiastic performer - with a surety and a thoroughness he's been hard pressed ever since to equal.

Holly himself might have been spinning in his grave over the telling of the story - and it only begins with the point that even the uninitiated knew (and know) that the Crickets were a quarter for most of the time they worked with Holly. But Holly might yet have said of Busey that he'd done him justice in spite of what he had to work with, even if he'd wished Busey could have delivered that justice in a more appropriate presentation.

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! :)

My parents took my brother, sister, and I to a drive-in theatre back in 1979 to see THE VILLIAN -Kirk Douglas, Ann Margaret, and "Aunuld" Schwarzenegger-(Does anyone remember that movie??!!). Fortunately for us, the evening wasn't a total loss because on the second billing was THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY. This film proved to be the better movie of course. Being a Beatles fan, and knowing Buddy Holly was one of their influences, this movie about one of the innovators of rock 'n' roll, is excellent. Gary Busey in the title roll pulls it off with such depth and passion that he actually did his own singing and guitar playing. Great supporting performances by Charles Martin Smith (who I only knew as "Toad" in American Graffitti, or as the guy who almost buys Greg Brady's "lemmon" of a car in the BRADY BUNCH) and Don Stroud (always plays bad guys on tv guest appearances etc..) who play their own bass and drums respectively. I found out later, that the movie takes some liberties with the actual events of Buddy Holly's short but great career, but it is an effective and entertaining biopic nonetheless. Also, Holly's songs are great. Other noteworthy performances from Conrad Janis (Mindy's Dad in MORK AND MINDY) as the record company owner Ross Turner, and Maria Richwine as Maria Elena Holly. Note: Look for Matthew 'Stymie' Beard (of OUR GANG/LITTLE RASCALS fame) as Luthor, the stage hand at the Apollo Theatre!!

One of, if not the best performance by an actor of that year. Gary Busey is amazing as the doomed rock and roll pioneer, Buddy Holly. I am so glad they have finaly released this film in widescreen and fantastic stereo. I felt there could have been some more info stuck in here on the real buddy, or maybe a featurette. But the commentary is as good as they get. Given that most people love the DVDs because of this seperate audio track and the truth being that most commentaries tend to be too general and not scene specific, Gary Busey and director Steve Rash are the exact opposite. They are so excited about this film that they remember it like yesterday (even when they disagree)and you can tell in their voices how proud they are. They do what I wish everyone else would do and let you in on the camera techniques, behind the scene stories, etc and stay caught up to each scene, where so many others are still talking about scene 1 while you are watching scene 5. They go to great lengths to point out all the moments of improvisation each time it happens. So, the commentary is first rate and the movie itself is top notch. Worth the price!

The Buddy Holly Story starring Gary Busey should not be taken as a historical document. Nor do I believe it ever set out to be. What has been created is a film which gives the feel and atmosphere of Buddy Holly, his music and the USA of the day. To have been completely factual would have most probably killed the film with legal challenges and suppression. The Crickets leaving Buddy to side with Norman Petty in the split leading to the final tour and the bitter disappointment this must have caused Buddy, the actual split itself with Petty and the resultant financial complications, these happenings are really not the sort of thing to air in a movie to celebrate the life and music of one of the founders of Rock.

Instead Gary Busey has strapped on a Fender and in effect becomes Buddy Holly. The rhythm and beat, the frantic excitement, the sheer enjoyment of the music, it is all there. We actually get to experience a timeslice of a period some of us recall fondly and others would like to share. A wonderful reminder of good music for us oldies or a enjoyable introduction to a legend for others, a Rock'n'Roll legend quoted by The Beatles and a number of other major musical identities as a major influence in their music.

One of the lesser known items about this film and the making thereof is that Gary Busey actually formed a band and toured up and down the west coast of the USA before the making of it to provide himself with the feel and practice of performing Buddy Holly songs before an audience. He actually played and sang the songs in the film rather than lip-sync Buddy's records to provide some authentic feel to the whole thing - good on yer Gary !