Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) Universal/Drama-Musical RT: 125 minutes Rated PG (mature themes, sexual content, language, some violence and alcohol and drug use) Director: Michael Apted Screenplay: Tom Rickman Music: Owen Bradley Cinematography: Ralf D. Bode Release date: March 7, 1980 (US) Cast: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo, Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens, Bob Hannah, William Sanderson, Ernest Tubb, Robert Elkins. Box Office: $67.1M (US)
Rating: ****
When I first saw Coal Miner’s Daughter at 13, I knew who Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline were; I just didn’t know any of their songs. At the time, I wasn’t a fan of country music. You might even say I hated it. That changed the night I saw Coal Miner’s Daughter with my dad at one of the local $1 theaters in August ’81.
By that point, Sissy Spacek already won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn aka the “First Lady of Country Music”. It was absolutely deserved. It’s a truly incredible performance. Spacek was 30 at the time, but she has an advantage most actors don’t. She has this amazing ability to play any age convincingly. In Coal Miner’s Daughter, she plays Loretta from 13 to 38, a feat she accomplishes without aging makeup. The secret is in how she carries herself throughout the film. Watch her posture. See how it changes as she gets older and gains more confidence? That, my friends, is what great acting is all about.
Directed by Michael Apted (Stardust), Coal Miner’s Daughter isn’t just your average musical biopic. It’s also a compelling rags-to-riches story about a poor, ignorant girl from a Kentucky coal mining town who rises out of abject poverty to become one of the country music’s biggest stars. It’s also an overnight success story in which a fast ride to stardom eventually takes its toll on the heroine. Of course, it all culminates with a big comeback scene where Loretta sings the title song to a sold-out audience. This is all familiar material, but the fact that it’s a true story about a real person gives Coal Miner’s Daughter an edge.
Coal Miner’s Daughter focuses primarily on Loretta’s relationship with her husband Doolittle “Doo” Lynn (Jones, The Fugitive) who she married at the tender age of 13 over the objections of her parents who think he’s too old (he was 22) and too wild for their naïve, innocent daughter. She had four children by the time she was 20. Doo gives Loretta a second-hand guitar he bought at a pawn shop (in lieu of a wedding ring) as an anniversary gift. He likes her singing and thinks she could be a star. They make a demo of her singing “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” that Doo mails to every country music station in the South along with a publicity photo he shoots himself. The two then embark on a promotional tour to said stations to get them to play her song. Before long, it becomes a hit. So begins Loretta’s quick rise to success.
Another relationship the film focuses on is Loretta’s friendship with country superstar Patsy Cline (D’Angelo, the Vacation movies). Cline, in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained in a near-fatal car crash, summons Loretta to her bedside after she sings one of her songs (“I Fall to Pieces”) at a midnight jamboree at Ernest Tubb’s record store in Nashville. The two become instant friends and go on tour together. Loretta’s friendship with the more world-wise Cline is the main factor behind her newfound sense of independence.
Fame and success come at a price. In this case, the cost is Loretta’s health. Many factors contribute to the on-stage nervous breakdown she ultimately suffers. She’s overworked and exhausted with trying to maintain a career and a family. Cline’s sudden death in a plane crash in 1963 hit her hard. And it certainly doesn’t help that she becomes addicted to painkillers. What this means, in the context of a Hollywood biopic, is that Loretta will come back stronger than ever and go on to continued success in the country music industry. Hey, who doesn’t love a happy ending?
It’s true that Coal Miner’s Daughter plays fast and loose with some facts. Loretta’s nervous breakdown actually occurred in 1975 not the late 60s as shown in the movie. Guess what? It’s not the first biopic to take factual liberties for dramatic effect. As such, I won’t criticize Coal Miner’s Daughter or Tom Rickman (Kansas City Bomber), who based his screenplay on Lynn’s autobiography of the same name, for it. In fact, I can’t really criticize Coal Miner’s Daughter for much of anything. Is it perfect? No. Details of Loretta’s personal life as they relate to her children are left vague. What happened to her first four kids (she later gave birth to twins Peggy and Patsy) once she became a star? Did she forget about them like the movie apparently does? I would think something like this should be included in the narrative. But like I said, I don’t intend to criticize Coal Miner’s Daughter. I still think it’s an excellent film.
Much is made of Spacek’s incredible performance, but you hardly ever hear about the equally terrific one delivered by co-star Jones. Let’s talk about it now. It would have been easy to portray Doo Lynn as a show biz husband jealous of his wife’s success and leave it at that. Instead, he’s a multi-layered character with good and bad traits, a recognizable human being prone to anger and fallibility. Doo clearly loves his wife and wants to take care of her as per the role of husband in pre-Women’s Lib times. But he’s also a mean drunk who regularly cheats on Loretta and slaps her around a few times. The genius of Jones’ performance is that he takes the character of Doo and makes him more than a one-dimensional bully. He got her to where she is and doesn’t quite know how to deal with it. After all, he’s just a good old boy from the hills of Kentucky. Equally great is D’Angelo as Patsy Cline. I wish she had been in it a bit more.
Coal Miner’s Daughter has a strong sense of realism, especially in the early scenes in Butcher Hollow, KY. Apted really gives you a feeling for the poor conditions Loretta grew up under. She lived in a shack with her parents and seven siblings. They didn’t have much. Any money her father (The Band’s Levon Helm) made mining coal went right back to the company store. Her early life was a hard one. The film’s best moments are of Doo and Loretta on the road trying to convince disc jockeys to play her record. In one funny scene, she makes a verbal faux pas that nearly gets her banned from the radio. The journey ends at the entrance to the Grand Ole Opry where Loretta makes a startling debut.
I’d like to circle back to what I said earlier about hating country music prior to seeing Coal Miner’s Daughter. It didn’t turn me into a die-hard fan, but I did develop an appreciation for the form as a result of seeing it. I also gained respect for Ms. Lynn who’s to country music what Elvis is to rock, Aretha is to soul, Coltrane is to jazz and Muddy to blues. She is an icon. At the same time, she’s always remained humble and appreciative of her fans. You can’t help but like her. By extension, you can’t help but like Coal Miner’s Daughter. It’s interesting, funny, sad and has some great music to boot. What’s more, it’s aged well. It’s as relevant now as it was in 1980. It’s a true gem of a film!
