Buster

Dir: David Green

1988

**

David Green's Buster, the story of Buster Edwards, one of the infamous Great Train Robbers of 1963 who stole £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train heading to London from Glasgow in the early hours of 8th August at the now famous Bridego Railway Bridge, leaving Jack Mills (the Train's driver) for dead, is a rather upbeat romance as well as a vehicle for singer Phil Collins to sell a few records. It's staggering when you look back at it, the way Buster was seen as a lovable rouge, while the guy who played him sang a string of would be pop hits. The fact is, Buster Edwards was a nasty piece of work. No one is entirely sure who beat Jack Mills, who was unable to return to work due to his injuries, but essentially they were all involved and there is still nothing innocent in stealing millions of pounds of other people's money. This film paints Buster as some sort of working class hero, and people honestly saw him as one, just as they did the Kray brothers and Ronnie Biggs. My Mum remembers buying flowers from him outside Waterloo station, although she didn't know who he was at the time, she often wondered why people would have their photo taken with him and noticed how popular he seemed to be. There is a great story that the 25 year old actor Dexter Fletcher stole flowers from his stall in 1991 to give then girlfriend Julia Sawalha whom he was then staring alongside with in the brilliant kids TV show Press Gang. Buster, a long time petty thief before the train robbery, reported him to police after recognizing him on TV. Lovable rouge indeed. I actually liked the film at the time but I think I was too young to appreciate just how deplorably amoral the whole thing is. Its depiction is nothing like the real life or character of Buster Edwards, it's a ridiculously romanticized version of him and a poor exploration of real events. Phil Collins is good at playing a 'geezer' because he is one, and Julie Walters is perfect in the part written, whether she's anything like the real June Edwards is anyone's guess. The action sequences aren't really that exciting when you consider the infamy of the crime and it is far from a typical gangster film that one might expect. It's not without its charm but overall it is poorly conceived. Of course now that Buster is dead, more revelations have become known and the circumstances of his death (he was found hanged and so full of alcohol it is suggested he wouldn't have been able to do it himself) and the beating of Jack Mills have come into question. When you break it down, it is more like Lorenzo St. DuBois's Springtime for Hitler rather than a reliable biopic, and with worse music.