The Buddy Holly Story

Rating:
Summary: The Buddy Holly Story
Review: I'll keep it brief. Gary Busey delivers, in this reviewers humble opinion, the performance of a lifetime .. dare I say the role he was destined to play. Meanwhile, historical inaccuracies aside (mainly the absence of Holly's co-producer Norman Petty for dramatic reasons) the story remains the focus, originality, and the songs of rock and roll's equivalent of Ellington or Armstrong. No matter how often I see this movie I'm moved by the humanity, the innocence, the simplicity of this great American fable ... but it's the songs, especially in the climactic medley, that elevate this picture above and beyond the standard biopic.
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Rating:
Summary: Gary Busey brings Buddy Holly to life!
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Gary Busey brings Buddy Holly to life!
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: aka "The Gary Busey Story"
Review: Important when it first came out in 1978 because it helped revive interest in Buddy Holly in this country, unfortunately if you are not a real knowledgeable fan of Buddy Holly and believe this to be the "true story", you will be disappointed to know otherwise. For entertainment value alone it can be appreciated and Busey does give his all, but any viewing of this should be immediately followed by a viewing of the Paul McCartney documentary "The Real Buddy Holly Story" from 1987 which "set the record" straight. Truth is, Gary Busey's career benefitted much more from this movie than Buddy's legend and legacy ever did. Viewer beware!

Rating:
Summary: Great music, great fun
Review: Like most biopics, there are inaccuracies in the story. And Gary B. doesn't look a lot like Buddy H. But so what? The film is what a movie should be: entertaining, well-paced and enjoyable enough to rewatch and therefore justify buying. I also like the commentary, because I'm a writer and appreciate any insights into the story telling process. BTW, I saw the London musical called "Buddy" which was a fabulous production with somewhat different story approach and a handsome, athletic star. Wish that also could be on DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Gary Busey Makes this Movie Rock!
Review: 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!!

Rating:
Summary: THIS MOVIE IS GREAT EVEN IF IT PARTS ARE INACCURATE!
Review: 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!!

Rating:
Summary: Buddy will Not Fade Away!
Review: 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! :)

Rating:
Summary: DVD makes a great tribute to a great movie
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: More than a few "historical innaccuracies."
Review: Other than the title and a few of Buddy Holly's songs, this film has nothing to do with the Rock legend. If one enjoys this movie as a period piece with a Buddy Holly-like soundtrack, fair enough. But no one watching this movie should kid themselves for a minute that they are learning ANYTHING about the real Buddy Holly. The apologists in the other reviews here should take the time to read one of several books about the man. They can still enjoy the movie for what it is, but must finally admit what it is NOT: a biography of Buddy Holly. And look for "The Real Buddy Holly Story", a documentary produced by Paul McCartney - a Buddy fan if ever there were one.