I keep seeming to end up watching biopics of singers I know very little about. First Ray Charles, then Johnny Cash, now Buddy Holly. Admittedly I knew a few of his songs, but really nothing else. I guess now I know quite a bit more about him after watching The Buddy Holly Story, but somehow the movie never quite grabbed me.

Born in 1936 in Texas, when he grew up he developed a style of music that was genuinely new. It won many fans among the younger generation, but was largely condemned by the older generation who preferred more traditional country music. In this film version at least, his parents and pushy girlfriend try to get him to give up his music for a more established profession. Buddy, insistent that his music must be heard, didn’t heed this of course. As a result, he is now considered one of the most influential rock musicians in history, being for example a major influence to a certain John Lennon and Paul McCartney (“The Beatles” was named as a homage to Buddy Holly’s backing group, “The Crickets”.)

Back to the film, we start at a roller rink where young Buddy is playing some traditional music but, against the better judgement of his bass player, decides to play one of his own songs. The radio station manager who is recording the event likes Buddy’s music, but his sponsors don’t… so Buddy and his drummer (Jesse Charles) and bass player (Ray Bob Simmons) try to find someone else who appreciates their music. Eventually they get a call… but it isn’t all that they hoped for. Along the way to fame Buddy meets the love of his life, and the trio get booked in “sight unseen” to the Apollo theatre – which turns out to be a bit of a shock to the manager, audience, and themselves – the manager heard their sound and assumed them to be a black group, and no white group had ever played at the Apollo before. (Apparently, according to Little Richard this part of the film is actually pretty accurate, and I found this look at racial tension told from the other side of the coin quite interesting.) However the entirely black audience took to them, and from then on there was no stopping Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Nothing from the outside to stop them, anyway – internal stresses soon begin to take their toll. What happens then I will leave you to find out.

Anyone who’s a fan will have already noticed from the above that there is a certain amount of poetic licence in this film, in that there were actually three members of the Crickets not two, and the names of the two in this film are fictitious. In fact this was not really the Producer’s fault – the image rights of the Crickets had already been sold to the Producer of another Buddy Holly film. To fans this may be a real problem but didn’t really worry me much. The drummer, played by Don Stroud, was a bit of a maniac but in a rather likable way, and Charles Martin Smith had a pleasant character. Gary Busey(nominated for the “Best Actor” Oscar for his performance) in the lead role gives a fine performance, you really do get the impression of a true musician driven to go his own way despite everyone around him trying to redirect him back towards the mainstream of the time. His singing seems relatively authentic to me, though my wife who’s more of a Buddy Holly fan than I am wasn’t quite so sure. One way or another pretty much all the famous songs are in this movie – “Peggy Sue”, “That’ll Be The Day”, “True Love Ways” etc. Due to the low budget most shots didn’t have many takes, which resulted in quite a few impromptu moments that actually do help give the film a more natural appearance.


The trouble with it all was, I just couldn’t’ really get involved with the film. The soundtrack was good (it won the Oscar for Best Soundtrack that year), but I just didn’t find the storyline compelling. The love story just seemed to be there without being remotely interesting, the band members were quite interesting individually but not as a whole. Overall it just lacked the ability to make me care what was going on, it was just something vaguely interesting to watch. The script had occasional flashes of dry humour, but not quite enough for my taste.

Overall The Buddy Holly Story is a quite enjoyable film but I found it to be rather uninvolving. It lacked any real sense of conflict and overcoming it, despite there being conflict in several places. (It didn't help that from the look of him, I just found it really difficult to imagine Buddy Holly as a rebel. Maybe my fault!) The ending is also very abrupt, though that is at least in keeping with the real events it was portraying. As far as accuracy is concerned, it’s probably reasonably close in most areas. Fans of Buddy Holly’s music are the people I would expect to enjoy this film most.

(The Buddy Holly Story was also nominated for the “Best Sound” Oscar.)

Other Information

Runtime: 113 minutes
Rating: PG (mainly for mild swear words)

The DVD version we watched had no extras, it was one my wife picked up as a freebie somewhere ages ago but hadn't got round to watching before.


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The animation Soul Music, based on Terry Pratchett’s Book, will probably be enjoyed by anyone who likes rock and roll. It’s main character’s name is Buddy as well (which is not coincidence!)


Other Biopics About Musicians

Ray (about Ray Charles)
Walk the Line (about Johnny Cash)



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD