The Buddy Holly Story (1978) Columbia/Drama-Musical RT: 114 minutes Rated PG (language, some sexual content, brief violence, drinking, mature themes) Director: Steve Rash Screenplay: Robert Gittler Music: Joe Renzetti Cinematography: Stevan Larner Release date: May 18, 1978 (US) Cast: Gary Busey, Don Stroud, Charles Martin Smith, Conrad Janis, William Jordan, Maria Richwine, Amy Johnston, Dick O’Neill, Fred Travalena, Neva Patterson, Arch Johnson, John F. Goff, Gloria Irizarry, Gailard Sartain, Gilbert Melgar, Albert Popwell, Paul Mooney, Jody Berry, Richard Kennedy, Jim Beach. Box Office: $14.3M (US)
Rating: ****
A plane crash in the early hours of February 3, 1959 cut short the lives of rockers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. This tragedy, known as “The Day the Music Died”, is immortalized in Don McLean’s hit song “American Pie”. The life of Buddy Holly, famous for hit songs like “That’ll Be the Day”, “Oh, Boy!”, “Words of Love” and “Peggy Sue”, is celebrated in The Buddy Holly Story.
Gary Busey, in his first starring role, plays the Texas-born singer and guitarist in a performance that netted him his one and only Academy Award nomination. It’s hard to believe Busey was once considered a promising young actor given his reputation now as a crazy old man. Looking at his performance in The Buddy Holly Story, it’s hard to believe he didn’t go on to greater success in the industry. He is positively electric as Holly. It isn’t just an imitation; he becomes Holly. He even does his own singing. It is an amazing transformation.
The movie follows Holly over the course of his tragically short career starting when he was a teen in Lubbock, TX with dreams of making it to the big time. Not everybody shares this dream. His parents urge him to go to school so he has something to fall back on when music doesn’t work out for him. His steady girlfriend (Johnston, Jennifer) wants him to enroll in college with her. The local fuddy-duddies don’t appreciate him exposing their children to the “Devil’s music” when he plays the roller rink with his band on Saturday nights. He loses his weekly radio show because the sponsors threaten to pull out if he keeps playing rock & roll. A trip to Nashville to cut a record yields no results after Holly refuses to rework “That’ll Be the Day” as a country song.
He’s about to give up on his dream altogether when he gets a phone call from New York City inviting him to a meeting with record producer Ross Turner (Janis, Mork & Mindy). It seems that a local DJ sent a demo of Holly to his label which accidentally released it to great success on the airwaves. He heads to the Big Apple with his two bandmates/best friends (aka The Crickets), drummer Jesse Charles (Stroud, Coogan’s Bluff) and bass player Ray Bob Simmons (Smith, American Graffiti). After some negotiation over doing it his own way, Holly signs on with Turner.
The Buddy Holly Story takes us through Holly’s two years of fame and success. It includes humorous episodes like being hired to play Harlem’s Apollo Theater, a venue that traditionally features black performers. The owner, Sol Gittler (O’Neill, House Calls), has no idea they’re a white band. He thought they were black based on their sound. His double-take upon seeing them in person for the first time is priceless. He initially refuses to let them play fearing a riot. Much to his surprise, the audience loves them. It’s one of the movie’s best scenes.
The movie also depicts the love story between Holly and future wife Maria Elena (Richwine in a phenomenal debut), Turner’s secretary. He digs her but she won’t go out with him because her aunt (Irizarry, Jacob’s Ladder) forbids her to date musicians or non-Puerto Ricans. A visit to the aunt to get her to change her mind ends in his favor along with a humorous punchline. It’s her one scene and she easily steals it right from under Busey. The two are married shortly thereafter.
I saw the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba many, many years before I saw The Buddy Holly Story in its entirety. I tried watching it on cable in ’84 but couldn’t get into it. I’m not sure where my mind was at that night, but it couldn’t have been anyplace good. Otherwise, I would have watched the whole thing. The Buddy Holly Story is an outstanding film highlighted by Busey’s dynamic performance as the singer who was only 22 when he died. Knowing that his life ends prematurely casts a dark cloud over the proceedings, but not once does the movie come off as a cinematic funeral dirge. Rather, it celebrates the life of a rocker who I’m sure would have gone onto to even greater things had he lived. He also produced music. He was innovative. He had ideas- e.g. overdubbing his own voice- that sounded crazy but nonetheless worked. In one scene, an orchestra violinist he invites to play on one of his tracks compares him favorably to Beethoven. He’s not wrong.
Directed by Steve Rash (Can’t Buy Me Love), The Buddy Holly Story is also an incredible showcase for Holly’s music. Watching Busey perform it is almost like you’re seeing the real thing. The best part is the final scene, at the Iowa leg of the Winter Party tour, when Holly performs a medley of his hits and is joined on stage by Valens and the Bopper (Sartain, The Hollywood Knights) at the very end. The final freeze frame shot is haunting and far more effective than showing the actual crash. The bottom line is that The Buddy Holly Story is an excellent film. It’s well-acted and well-told. It’s moving, it’s joyous and it has a beat that you can dance to. Watch it on a double feature with La Bamba.
