Movies

Loretta Lynn's life has been to say the least,interesting.A wife at 13, mother at 14,and walking a long path to her throne as the "Queen of Country Music".Triumphs and tragedies have virtually filled her life, and it was expertly brought to life in this film.Sissy Spacek gives a dead on performance as Lynn,right down to her voice,and even does her own singing for the film.This is without a doubt one of the best acting performances of a non fictional character I have ever seen,and let us not forget the Oscar worthy performance of Tommy Lee Jones as Doolittle Lynn,Loretta's husband.He is always excellent,but he was never better than he was here.This is an excellent true story of Loretta's long journey from the Kentucky backwoods to the Grand Ole Opry stage.A must see and must own movie.

The true-life story of Loretta Lynn (dominant Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek) from her youth where she married at the tender age of 13 all the way to country music stardom. Along for the ride is her husband (Tommy Lee Jones' first legitimate role), an amazingly complex individual who has anger management and jealousy issues. Beverly D'Angelo (in arguably her finest career performance) is also a solid scene-stealer playing doomed singer Patsy Cline. Spacek and D'Angelo actually did all the singing themselves and that just elevates an already high level of performances. The direction by Michael Apted is adequate and so is the Oscar-nominated adaptation, but the excellent work by the three leads makes "Coal Miner's Daughter" one of the finest pictures of the early-1980s. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Biographical story of Loretta Lynn, a legendary country singer that came from poverty to worldwide fame. She rose from humble beginnings in Kentucky to super-stardom and changing the sound and style of country music forever.For me, if I think Sissy Spacek, I only think of "Carrie". I know she has done other things, but that is, in my opinion, her defining role. Now, that being said, Loretta Lynn probably takes a close second. I am not sure that anyone else would have been right for the part.It seems that we need more country music biopics. When they succeed, they succeed in a big way. Both this and "Walk the Line" are excellent, and I suspect there are a lot more great stories of country music pioneers. Not the polished, fake country stars we have today... but the real ones. George Jones, Hank Williams and countless others.