Buster *** (1988, Phil Collins, Julie Walters, Larry Lamb) – Classic Movie Review 7039

Director David Green’s entertaining, sentimental 1988 real-life thriller biopic stars Phil Collins, who makes his star début as 1963 Great Train Robber, Buster Edwards, playing him as a London working-class lad who wants to make good but makes bad instead.

The inexperienced actor Collins does surprisingly well and Julie Walters does well too as his tolerant wife June, but they are self-consciously lovable rather than truthful performances, and the film has the same tendency to gloss over uncomfortable facts (the train driver was badly beaten in the real robbery) in its determination to appeal.

Buster is a carefully made film, though, that was widely and deservedly popular. Collins sings his big hits ‘Two Hearts’ and ‘A Groovy Kind of Love’.  ‘Two Hearts’ (Lamont Dozier music and Phil Collins lyrics) won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song – Motion Picture and a Grammy for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television, and it was an Oscar nominee for Best Music, Original Song. It won the Brit for Best Soundtrack at the Brit Awards 1989.

It has a UK 15 certificate, though there is no notable violence or gore, just the train robbery. There are a few four-letter words but the TV version edits the swearing.

Also in the cast are Larry Lamb, Stephanie Lawrence, Martin Jarvis, Sheila Hancock, Anthony Quayle, Ellen Beaven, Michael Atwell, Ralph Brown, Harold Innocent, Rupert Vansittart, Clive Wood and Christopher Ellison.

Buster is directed by David Green, runs 103 minutes, is made by The Movie Group, NFH Productions and Buster Productions, is released by Vestron and Hemdale (US), is written by Colin Shindler, is shot in Technicolor by Tony Imi, is produced by Frank Giustra (executive producer) and Norma Heyman (producer), is scored by Anne Dudley and is designed by Simon Holland.

Buster Edwards, who appears in a cameo as Man at Airport, died on 29 November 1994, aged 63.

Though Buster was conceived for Bob Hoskins, the film-makers eventually decided he had played that kind of role already in The Long Good Friday (1980) and Mona Lisa (1986), so Collins was cast after director Green saw him on TV’s Miami Vice (1984).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7039

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