a Gary Busey film?

hey everyone

we recently picked up The Firm on DVD, and watched it for probably the first time since it was on at the cinema back in 93 or maybe 94.

it's not a bad film at all - Cruise was starting to have a go at being a proper actor, and Hackman is fantastic, despite his insistence on his name being removed from the film (see the poster below, although i think he still featured on the credits). worth seeing if for some reason you are interested in this kind of film and yet had avoided this one for about 14 years.



a point of confusion for us, though, was Gary Busey and his contribution (or lack thereof) to the film The Firm. now if you have not seen it, my observations could be considered as being spoilers. you have been warned.

Gary Busey features in The Firm for about ten minutes, split across two scenes. important scenes? maybe, but not exactly overtly demanding of a Gary Busey appearance. which is to say it is not like Sydney Pollack sat down in the production office and said "we need Busey for this or the whole project falls apart.". granted, that kind of thing is seldom, if ever, spoken of Mr Busey i suppose.




now here's the trick - despite his limited appearance, Gary Busey features in a disproportionate 33Z% of the full theatrical trailer for The Firm, and, get this, has his picture on display on the DVD menu for the special features - something that turns out to be the aforementioned trailer.

one could easily have ended up going to see The Firm on the basis that it was in fact a Gary Busey film, at least on the basis of the trailer alone. difficult as it is for many of us to comprehend, there are people out there who would actually only watch a film because of the appearance of the "Busemeister".

if you are someone who saw the film on the basis of the trailer and assumed it was the big comeback film for Gary Busey, i would be delighted to hear from you - please take the time and trouble to leave a comment.




i guess, in at least one scene, Gary Busey did make look Tom Cruise look like a proper actor in comparison. you have to remember that this was all pre Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia, long before he had a proper director to make him actually work, so Cruise needed all the "comparatively good" performances he could land. i wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that the "Cruisemeister" was personally involved in getting the "Busemeister" on board, under that circumstance.

not that i have anything against Gary Busey as such, mind. The Buddy Holly Story was of course a great movie, and he was class in Lethal Weapon as the unhinged Mr Joshua. And I do have Predator 2 on my shelf.

oh dear, now that i think about it, that makes 4 (four!) Gary Busey films i own, since i have the mentioned ones. perhaps i should purchase Point Break just so that i can say i have "the very best of Gary Busey" on DVD?

be excellent to each other, and to Gary Busey, i guess..................