Vinyl Destination: The Buddy Holly Story

It's true that Gary Busey has become one of Hollywood's true oddballs.  But before his weird Amazon Fire Stick commercials, his moronic Trump support, and his in general "Weird...-OH!" status (a term coined by my beautiful wife and editor who doesn't get enough Mom props) he was a legit character actor of actual worthiness of respect and gained renown.

Let's not forget the 80's and early 90's.  His turn as Mr. Joshua in the Shane Black-scripted "Lethal Weapon" is actually kind of scary. 

"Mind if I test drive your Audi?"

His Uncle Red literally steals the movie from Corey Haim and Megan Follows in the Stephen King-written "Silver Bullet".  I will also say the film formed from King's calendar-based novella "Cycle of the Werewolf" is one of the most underrated horror films of the 80's as well as a criminally disrespected werewolf flick.   A terrific performance.

Who can forget Angelo Pappas?  Keanu Reeves' rookie FBI agent really rankled his quasi-mentor, Busey's character, and Busey conveys all of that and more with panache.  Plus, he's funny as well.

"Utah!  Get me two"

In 1978, Busey was actually nominated for best actor for his turn as Buddy Holly in "The Buddy Holly Story". A pretty nifty film in general, it really takes off during the musical sequences. A nice thing about the tunes is that all the music you're seeing in the film is actually performed by Busey, and his on-screen Crickets, Charles Martin Smith and Don Stroud. These 3 really light it up, and those segments of the film really WORK. They Rock. The soundtrack is a great grab, as I stumbled on it at a local second hand store. It's like listening to a really good tribute band.

   

 And for Hollywood, especially in 1978, that's saying a lot.