{"id":4270,"date":"2024-10-01T21:51:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T21:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4270"},"modified":"2024-10-12T21:08:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T21:08:24","slug":"coal-miners-daughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/01\/coal-miners-daughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mature themes, sexual content, language, some violence and alcohol and drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Apted\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tom Rickman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Owen Bradley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ralf D. Bode\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 7, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D\u2019Angelo, Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens, Bob Hannah, William Sanderson, Ernest Tubb, Robert Elkins.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $67.1M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0When I first saw Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> at 13, I knew who Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline were; I just didn\u2019t know any of their songs. At the time, I wasn\u2019t a fan of country music. You might even say I hated it. That changed the night I saw Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> with my dad at one of the local $1 theaters in August \u201981.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By that point, Sissy Spacek already won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn aka the \u201cFirst Lady of Country Music\u201d. It was absolutely deserved. It\u2019s a truly incredible performance. Spacek was 30 at the time, but she has an advantage most actors don\u2019t. She has this amazing ability to play any age convincingly. In Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Michael Apted (Stardust), Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter <\/strong>isn\u2019t just your average musical biopic. It\u2019s 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\u2019s biggest stars. It\u2019s 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\u2019s a true story about a real person gives Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> an edge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> focuses primarily on Loretta\u2019s relationship with her husband Doolittle \u201cDoo\u201d Lynn (Jones, The Fugitive) who she married at the tender age of 13 over the objections of her parents who think he\u2019s too old (he was 22) and too wild for their na\u00efve, 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 \u201cI\u2019m a Honky Tonk Girl\u201d 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\u2019s quick rise to success.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another relationship the film focuses on is Loretta\u2019s friendship with country superstar Patsy Cline (D\u2019Angelo, 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 (\u201cI Fall to Pieces\u201d) at a midnight jamboree at Ernest Tubb\u2019s record store in Nashville. The two become instant friends and go on tour together. Loretta\u2019s friendship with the more world-wise Cline is the main factor behind her newfound sense of independence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fame and success come at a price. In this case, the cost is Loretta\u2019s health. Many factors contribute to the on-stage nervous breakdown she ultimately suffers. She\u2019s overworked and exhausted with trying to maintain a career and a family. Cline\u2019s sudden death in a plane crash in 1963 hit her hard. And it certainly doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t love a happy ending?<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s true that Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> plays fast and loose with some facts. Loretta\u2019s nervous breakdown actually occurred in 1975 not the late 60s as shown in the movie. Guess what? It\u2019s not the first biopic to take factual liberties for dramatic effect. As such, I won\u2019t criticize Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> or Tom Rickman (Kansas City Bomber), who based his screenplay on Lynn\u2019s autobiography of the same name, for it. In fact, I can\u2019t really criticize Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> for much of anything. Is it perfect? No. Details of Loretta\u2019s 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\u2019t intend to criticize Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong>. I still think it\u2019s an excellent film.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Much is made of Spacek\u2019s incredible performance, but you hardly ever hear about the equally terrific one delivered by co-star Jones. Let\u2019s talk about it now. It would have been easy to portray Doo Lynn as a show biz husband jealous of his wife\u2019s success and leave it at that. Instead, he\u2019s 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\u2019s Lib times. But he\u2019s also a mean drunk who regularly cheats on Loretta and slaps her around a few times. The genius of Jones\u2019 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\u2019t quite know how to deal with it. After all, he\u2019s just a good old boy from the hills of Kentucky. Equally great is D\u2019Angelo as Patsy Cline. I wish she had been in it a bit more.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong> 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\u2019t have much. Any money her father (The Band\u2019s Levon Helm) made mining coal went right back to the company store. Her early life was a hard one. The film\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d like to circle back to what I said earlier about hating country music prior to seeing Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong>. It didn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019s always remained humble and appreciative of her fans. You can\u2019t help but like her. By extension, you can\u2019t help but like Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter<\/strong>. It\u2019s interesting, funny, sad and has some great music to boot. What\u2019s more, it\u2019s aged well. It\u2019s as relevant now as it was in 1980. It\u2019s a true gem of a film!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coal Miner\u2019s Daughter (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mature themes, sexual content, language, some violence and alcohol and drug use)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Michael Apted\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tom Rickman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Owen Bradley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ralf D. Bode\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 7, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D\u2019Angelo, Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens, Bob Hannah, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Coal-Miners-Daughter-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4745,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions\/4745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}