The Buddy Holly Story
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| The Buddy Holly Story | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Steve Rash |
| Produced by | Fred Bauer |
| Written by | Robert Gittler |
| Starring | Gary Busey Don Stroud Charles Martin Smith Conrad Janis |
| Release date(s) | May 18, 1978 |
| Running time | 113 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Buddy Holly Story is a 1978 biographical film which tells the life story of rock musician Buddy Holly. It stars Gary Busey, Don Stroud, Charles Martin Smith, Conrad Janis, William Jordan and Maria Richwine, who played Maria Elena Holly.
The movie was adapted by Alan Swyer from the biography of Holly by John Goldrosen. It was directed by Steve Rash.
It won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Gary Busey) and Best Sound.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film opens with Buddy Holly's beginnings as a teenager in Lubbock, Texas and his emergence into the world of rock and roll with his fictional good friends and bandmates, drummer Jesse Charles (Don Stroud) and bass player Ray Bob Simmons (Charles Martin Smith), soon to be known as The Crickets. Their first break comes when they are brought to Nashville, Tennessee to record, but Buddy's vision soon clashes with the producers' rigid ideas of how the music should sound and he walks out. Eventually, he finds a more flexible producer, Ross Turner (Conrad Janis), who, after listening to their audition, very reluctantly allows Buddy and the Crickets to make music the way he wants.
While there, he meets Turner's secretary, Maria Elena Santiago (Maria Richwine). His budding romance with her nearly ends before it can begin, when her aunt initially refuses to let her date him, but Buddy persuades her to change her mind. On their very first date, Maria accepts his marriage proposal and they are soon wed.
A humorous episode results from a misunderstanding in one of their early bookings. Sol Glitter (Dick O'Neill) signs them up sight-unseen for the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, thinking (from their music) that they're an African-American band. When three white Southerners show up, he is stunned, but unwilling to pay them for doing nothing, he nervously lets them perform and prays fervently that the all-black audience doesn't riot. After an uncomfortable start and an initially hostile crowd, Buddy's songs soon win them over and the Crickets are a tremendous hit. (In real life, this was the first appearance of a white group in that venue.) Glitter books them to come back several times.
After two years, Ray Bob and Jesse decide to break up the band, feeling overshadowed by Buddy and not wanting to relocate to New York City. Initially, he is saddened by their departure, but he soldiers on. When Maria announces that she is pregnant, Buddy is delighted. Eventually, his former bandmates show up at his door proposing a reunion tour. Buddy, feeling nostalgic, agrees to reform the band after the Winter Party Dance Tour is finished.
On February 3, 1959, preparing for a concert at Clearlake, Holly decides to charter a private plane to fly to Moorhead, Minnesota for his next big concert. The Big Bopper and Richie Valens (who is reluctant to fly, but wins a coin toss with Tommy Allsup for the last seat) join him on the flight. After playing his final song, "Rave On", Holly bids the crowd farewell with "Thank you Clearlake! We love you. C'mon....we'll see you next year.", unaware that, for him, next year will never come. A caption at the end reveals the deaths of Holly, Valens, and the Bopper in a plane crash that night and dedicates the film to his family and friends.
[edit] Controversy
Many consider the film to be a highly fictionalized portrayal of Holly's life. As with many biopictures, the Buddy Holly Story tends to let historical accuracy take a back seat to dramatic effect, folklore and legend for audience entertainment. For example, the scene in the garage in which the members of the band hear a cricket on a recorded tape is pure embellishment. This event did indeed occur, in the Norman Petty Studio in Clovis, NM, but it did not inspire the Crickets to choose the name; this happened after they were already the Crickets. You can actually hear the cricket chirping at the end of the song: " I'm gonna love you too." The poignant scene in which Buddy's former mates in the Crickets appear unannounced at Maria's door in New York is also a fabrication, but a full reunion with the Crickets had been discussed with Buddy prior to the Winter Party Dance Tour in 1959, and was scheduled to occur after the tour. And the scene showing Lubbock with mountains in the background of the bus station caused gales of laughter when the film was premiered in Lubbock, which is located on the flat West Texas plain!
The actors did their own singing and played their own instruments live during the filming. Busey, in particular, was admired by critics for recording the soundtrack music for the film live, and losing a considerable amount of weight in order to portray the skinny Holly. His accurate portrayal was aided by knowledge gained from a previous attempt to film part of the Holly life story, the ill-fated Three-Sided Coin, in which he played Crickets drummer Jerry Allison (the film was cancelled by 20th Century Fox due to pressure from Fred Bauer and his company, who had made deals with the Holly Estate). The screenplay of Three-Sided Coin (by Allison and Tom Drake) revealed many personal details about Holly, and Busey picked up more during off-set conversations with Allison.
The Crickets were angry at being portrayed in The Buddy Holly Story (with names changed to avoid legal action) as racists — this prompted their then singer Sonny Curtis to pen a critical song about the film, "The Real Buddy Holly Story." In turn, this became the title of a Buddy Holly documentary made by Paul McCartney and his MPL Productions company in association with the BBC. They were also angry that there were only two Crickets portrayed, and their names changed, as they already sold their movie rights to another studio.
[edit] Taglines
- His story will have you singing, laughing, crying, cheering, and stomping your feet.
- Music never felt this good!
- Church ministers think he's crazy. School psychologists think he's dangerous. He's going to change the face of music as we knew it. He's just twenty years old. His name is Buddy Holly, and this is his story.
- Parents think he's crazy. Girls find him sexy. He's only twenty. His name is Buddy.
- The music you'll love forever. The man'll you'll never forget. The movie you must not miss.
[edit] Trivia
- Buddy Holly goes from the ages of 19 to 22 through the film. Gary Busey was 34 when he played the role of Holly. According to his biography, he lost thirty-two pounds to look more like Holly, who was 146 lbs at the time of his death.
- Charles Martin Smith, who played Ray Bob Simmons, auditioned for the role of Buddy, but since Busey had been cast, the producers cast him as Simmons because they liked his audition.
