Saturday Night at Market Chess Cinemas

Featuring a strong performance by a young Gary Busey, The Buddy Holly Story (1978) does a good job portraying the iconic rock legend from his meteoric rise to fame followed by his marriage and tragic death.

Buddy Holly was a tremendous talent, and this film, along with La Bamba (1987), are certainly worth a viewing to look at the legendary music talents of that era. 

As Roger Ebert once wrote:

On February 3, 1959, a small plane crashed outside Mason City, Iowa, killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson. Don McLean sang about that day in 'American Pie.' He called it the day the music died. 

Walking out of "The Buddy Holly Story", you wonder if maybe he wasn't right. It's no use trying to guess how things might have turned out if Holly hadn't been on that flight. He might have continued to develop as the most original rock and roll artist of his generation. He might, on the other hand, have gradually become a Paul Anka or a Barry Manilow, a polished performer of comfortably mainstream pop.

The movie makes a pretty good case for the first possibility.