The Buddy Holly Story

Movie
German title	The Buddy Holly Story
Original title	The Buddy Holly Story
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1978
length	113 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Steve Rash
script	Alan Swyer ; Robert Gittler
production	Fred Bauer
music	Joe Renzetti
camera	Stevan Larner
cut	David E. Blewitt
occupation
	Gary Busey : Buddy Holly ; Don Stroud : Jesse ; Charles Martin Smith : Ray Bob; Conrad Janis : Ross Turner; William Jordan : Riley; Maria Richwine : Maria Elena; Amy Johnston : Cindy Lou; Dick O'Neill : Sol Gittler; Fred Travalena : Madman Mancuso; Neva Patterson : Mrs. Holly; Arch Johnson : Mr. Holly; John F. Goff : TJ; Gloria Irizarry : Mrs. Santiago; Paul Mooney : Sam Cooke ; Gailard Sartain : The Big Bopper ; Craig White : King Curtis ; Jerry Zaremba : Eddie Cochran ; Gilbert Melgar : Ritchie Valens ;

The Buddy Holly Story is an American biopic from 1978 . The literary film adaptation of the biography Buddy Holly: His Life and Music by John Goldrosen tells the last three years of the musician Buddy Holly , played by Gary Busey .

action

The radio presenter Riley Randolph believes in the talent of Buddy Holly , who with his school band The Crickets still occasionally performs in front of small audiences in Lubbock , Texas . And despite all warnings from family, friends, and the Church that rock 'n' roll is a danger to youth, he enables Holly and his friends to record their first album in Nashville , Texas. But the first attempt fails because, contrary to their own opinion, the music producers there consider him too black and Elvis Presley too similar, which is why they want to force Buddy Holly and the Chrickets into a corset of country music . Holly hits the music producer in the face with her fist, believing that his music career is over. Meanwhile, however, Riley sent a secretly recorded demo tape to New York City . There this recording is pressed and sold as an album before the musicians have even signed a contract.

Having already earned $ 75,000 without a contract, they only sign a record deal on the condition that they can produce their own albums. Because of their music, they are repeatedly mistaken for African American , so that by accident, they are the first white artist ever to appear in front of a black audience in the venerable Apollo Theater in Harlem . He wins the respect of the black community and goes on tour with Sam Cooke , for example . While Buddy Holly manages to win the love of young Puerto Rican Maria Elena, he and his band make a fortune. However, a dispute breaks out within the band, after a disagreement over the place of residence, Jesse and Ray Bob feel overwhelmed by Buddy Holly's presence and knock him out during an argument before the recording of the " Ed Sullivan Show" .

The band breaks up and Buddy Holly continues as a solo artist and records his first own album. On the advice of his manager, he goes on one last tour of the year and leaves his pregnant wife Maria Elena behind. Jesse and Ray Bob surprise Maria Elena during the tour and tell her that they are planning to play with Buddy Holly again. But after his last concert in Clear Lake , Iowa, he died together with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper in a plane crash, which went down in music history as “ The Day the Music Died ” .

criticism

“ The Buddy Holly story has only one type of story, because in the B-movie story, all crises and alleged villains were discreetly removed. [...] It's Gary Busey's rousing solo appearances that give meaning to an otherwise informal and bland feature film about the American rock 'n' roll legend who died in a plane crash in 1959. "

- Vincent Canby : New York Times