Buddy's Song (1991)

Director:

Claude Whatham

Writers:

Nigel Hinton (novel)
Nigel Hinton (screenplay)

Release Date:

1 March 1991 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Plot:

Buddy is an aspiring teenager who is a very good musician and has pressure to go further than his Dad's teddy boy rocker days...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel | Independent Film | Character Name In Title

Cast

Roger Daltrey	...	Terry Clark
Chesney Hawkes	...	Buddy Clark
Sharon Duce	...	Carol Clark
Michael Elphick	...	Des King
Douglas Hodge	...	Bobby Rosen
Paul McKenzie	...	Julius
Lee Ross	...	Jason
Nick Moran	...	Mike
Colin Peel	...	Glenn
James Aubrey	...	Adrian
Liza Walker	...	Elaine
Emma Amos	...	Dawn
Julia Sawalha	...	Kelly
Sandy Ford	...	Paul (Hi-Tones)
Tre Smith	...	Photographer (as Trevor T. Smith)

Runtime:

Netherlands:105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:M | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Buddy Productions Ltd.

Trivia:

Last cinema feature of 'Ed Deveraux'.

Movie Connections:

Follows "Buddy" (1986)

Soundtrack:

The One and Only

Pointless film with average music and really wooden performances from the teenage cast

Buddy is an aspiring teenager who is a very good musician and has pressure to go further than his Dad's teddy boy rocker days. However when his father is sent away for a year for covering up for criminal Des it puts further strain on the family relationship. When Terry is released things get steadily harder while Buddy's career gets rosier.

I can't imagine that many people will revisit this film unless they saw it when it came out on the back of Hawkes' short lived pop career. I only watched it on TV the other night out of interest as I had never seen it. As the film went on I started to wonder what had happened to the plot – there was some stuff about Terry being a criminal but this is dropped in favour of touring and recording. While this could be a musical drama, it isn't as nothing of any real consequence comes about. The film goes just where you expect it to in terms of ending, but does so without really doing much.

I know that it is meant to be some sort of kitchen sink, rags to riches drama but it doesn't work at all. In place of drama there is mind numbing monotony as minor arguments occur between the various characters and are then resolved. It is difficult to see characters in the film and thus hard to be involved in any drama in their lives. The music is OK if you like soft, 1990's pop-rock stuff. There is no song in the main film that is as catchy as Hawkes debut hit, but even that is showing it's age now.

Terry is the only watchable character and that is also due in a big way to Daltrey. He is the centre of the film and he manages to give a good performance despite never really having anything but dialogue that had been rejected from Minder episodes. The weak spot (and it's a big weak spot) is Hawkes. He, and most of the young cast, cannot act at this stage in their careers. Hawkes stands out as the worst, he has the same look on his face for the majority of the film and uses the same snotty tone of voice – he makes Steven Segal look like he's in touch with his inner self! Even when confronted with a pair of breasts, Buddy stares as if he's watching a boring TV show. I'm not sure if it's his performance or bad ADR, but the dialogue sounds fake for the most part, like it has no connection to the actors on screen (hence the thought that it might be bad dubbing), but sound or not he is simply a really poor actor and it is impossible to care about him or his story. Duce is good and Elphick has a brief role.

Overall this film is pointless and very dull. The acting and production values gives it a feel of an episode of Grange Hill. Daltrey (as others have said) is quite good and tries hard but his natural performance only serves to make Hawkes look even more wooden and forced. I watched this film out of curiosity as I was a teenager when Hawkes hit big with his single – after a pretty dull 105 minutes I wished I hadn't bothered. It's not a totally bad film – it is just inconsequential and littered with flaws and bad points.