The One About Gary Busey

When crazy eyes work well, acting-wise

Dear Casey,

Have you ever seen The Buddy Holly Story? Gary Busey played the lead and was nominated for an Oscar. Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both loved it, largely because of Busey, who did his own singing and was, you know, super intense in the signature Gary Busey way. (The guitar parts were overdubbed.)

But actually the movie sucks, and it’s because there is a pattern in the script where Buddy Holly shows up somewhere, and another character will say, “Stop, Buddy Holly! You can’t do that! No one’s ever done that before!” and then Buddy Holly will say, “But I’m Buddy Holly and I’m gonna do it!” and then we in the audience are meant to think, admiringly, Wow, Buddy Holly sure was amazing.

And he was! But it’s still dumb emotional fakery¹ and it really drags down the movie.

I mention this because this kind of hagiographic stunting seems to be everywhere now in popular culture. And it still sucks.

Grumpily,

Daniel

P.S. In The Buddy Holly Story, Charles Martin Smith plays Ray Bob, a fictionalized version of one of Buddy Holly’s bandmates. You might also remember him from The Untouchables and a ton of other appearances. Am I the only person on earth who confuses Charles Martin Smith with Clint Howard?

1. It is, of course, true that Buddy Holly was a pioneer in rock music. But this is still a bad way to make a movie. On a somewhat related note, here is a lengthy 1978 Rolling Stone critique of the movie’s inaccuracies.