Gary Busey's forcefulness is useful when a director gives it a purpose. We like him in Point Break, where his liveliness keeps the lawmen interesting without competing with the surfers for the film.
Fi1m perspective
Gary Busey makes the official side of Point Break (1991) worth staying with. As Agent Angelo Pappas, he brings a liveliness that keeps the police scenes from feeling like compulsory business before we can return to the surfers. We enjoyed his company because his energy makes the lawmen interesting in their own right. Kathryn Bigelow gives that forcefulness a useful job without letting it distract from the attraction between Keanu Reeves’s Johnny Utah and Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi.
The breakthrough lead in The Buddy Holly Story (1978) is a useful corrective to the familiar toothy grin and unsettling stare. Playing Holly, Busey sang and played guitar live, drawing on his experience as a musician. The music is part of the acting, and gives us something to appreciate beyond his ability to look threatening. Supporting action roles became a stronger feature of his career in the 1980s, notably Mr. Joshua in Lethal Weapon (1987). Commander Krill in Under Siege (1992) continued that run.
The risk with Busey's intensity is that it can become all we watch him for. Point Break makes better use of it by placing him alongside two markedly different performances. Reeves’s earnestness lets us believe Utah could be drawn towards Bodhi, while Swayze takes the surfer’s spiritual talk seriously enough to make that attraction plausible. Busey supplies a welcome change of company within that earnest cast. The dialogue is sometimes foolish, but the casting keeps the people worth following.
His supporting work also takes him to David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997), as Bill Dayton. We like its unsettling noir, though its slower passages test the patience, and it is Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette who keep us interested in the people. It would be a mistake to treat every Busey appearance as a promise that he will dominate the film. Start with Point Break, where Bigelow puts him to work without asking him to be the whole attraction.
Biography
Gary Busey is an American actor. Born in Goose Creek, Texas, he made his film debut in 1971 and gained prominence with his lead performance as Buddy Holly in The Buddy Holly Story (1978).
Busey received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for that role. He is also known for appearances in Lethal Weapon (1987), Predator 2 (1990), Point Break (1991), Under Siege (1992), The Firm (1993) and Lost Highway (1997), as well as voice work on The Simpsons.
