Question: Why do some Buddy fans hate the movie "The Buddy Holly Story"?
Answer: The movie The Buddy Holly Story was released by Warner Bros. in 1978, and while it did decently at the box office, it didn't please Buddy's friends and family, who were appalled at the suggestions Buddy was capable of violent outbursts and impure sexual urges. By any other standard, the film was tame, but in attempting to give him a more vibrant personality, the movie crossed the line in many folks' minds. (It also fudged many of the facts concerning Buddy's life and music, but no more than any other film biography of the time would.)
However, it remains a great movie, if an inaccurate biography, and that's largely due to Gary Busey's performance as Buddy, which was so alive and natural it earned Busey a Best Oscar nomination. Indeed, Busey and his "Cricket" actors play all the music in the film; his performance of "True Love Ways" was so accurate that Holly's real-life widow reportedly left the room in tears when she first watched the scene.
