Coal Miner's Daughter | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Michael Apted |
Screenplay by | Tom Rickman |
Based on | Coal Miner's Daughter by Loretta Lynn & George Vecsey |
Produced by | Bernard Schwartz |
Starring | Sissy Spacek Tommy Lee Jones Beverly D'Angelo Levon Helm |
Cinematography | Ralf D. Bode |
Edited by | Arthur Schmidt |
Music by | Owen Bradley |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 124 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $15 million (equivalent to $46.6 million in 2023) [1] |
Box office | $67.18 million (equivalent to $209 million in 2023) [1] |
Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 American biographical musical film directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay written by Tom Rickman. It follows the story of country music singer Loretta Lynn from her early teen years in a poor family and getting married at 15 to her rise as one of the most influential country musicians. Based on Lynn's 1976 biography of the same name by George Vecsey, the film stars Sissy Spacek as Lynn. Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo and Levon Helm are featured in supporting roles. Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, and Minnie Pearl make cameo appearances as themselves.
A film on Lynn's life was intended to be made since the release of the biography. Production for the film began in March 1979, and Lynn herself chose Spacek to portray her on screen after seeing a photograph of her, despite being unfamiliar with her films. The film's soundtrack featured all of Lynn's hit singles, which were all sung by Spacek, as well as Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" sung by D'Angelo. The soundtrack reached the top 40 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Universal Pictures released Coal Miner's Daughter theatrically on March 7, 1980. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes calls it "a solidly affecting story". The film grossed $67.18 million in North America against a budget of $15 million, becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 1980. The film received seven nominations at the 53rd Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, with Spacek winning Best Actress. At the 38th Golden Globe Awards, it garnered four nominations and won two; Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress (for Spacek).
The film is considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected to be preserved in the United States National Film Registry in 2019. [2] [3] [4]
In 1945, 13-year-old Loretta Webb is one of eight children of Ted Webb, a Van Lear coal miner raising a family with his wife in the midst of grinding poverty in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky (pronounced by locals as "Butcher Holler").
In 1948, at the age of 15, Loretta marries 22-year-old Oliver "Mooney" (aka Doo, short for Doolittle) Lynn, becoming a mother of four by the time she is 19. The family moves to northern Washington State, where Doo works in the forest industry and Loretta sings occasionally at local honky-tonks on weekends. After some time, Loretta makes an occasional appearance on local radio.
By the time Loretta turns 25, Norm Burley, the owner of Zero Records, a small Canadian record label, hears Loretta sing during one of her early radio appearances. Burley gives the couple the money needed to travel to Los Angeles to cut a demo tape from which her first single, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl", is made. After returning home from the sessions, Doo suggests he and Loretta go on a promotional tour to push the record. Doo shoots his own publicity photo for Loretta, and spends many late nights writing letters to show promoters and to radio disc jockeys all over the South. After Loretta receives an emergency phone call from her mother telling her that her father had died, she and Doo hit the road with records, photos, and their children. The two embark on an extensive promotional tour of radio stations across the South.
En route, and unbeknownst to the couple, Loretta's first single, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl", hits the charts based on radio and jukebox plays, and earns her a spot on the Grand Ole Opry. In the summer of 1961, after 17 straight weekly performances on the Opry, she is invited to sing at Ernest Tubb Record Shop's Midnite Jamboree after her performance that night. Country superstar Patsy Cline, one of Loretta's idols, who had recently been hospitalized from a near-fatal car wreck, inspires Loretta to dedicate Patsy's newest hit "I Fall to Pieces" to the singer herself as a musical get-well card. Cline listens to the broadcast that night from her hospital room and sends her husband Charlie Dick to Ernest Tubb Record Shop to fetch Loretta so the two can meet. A close friendship with Cline follows, which is abruptly ended by Cline's death in a plane crash on March 5, 1963.
The next few years are a whirlwind. The stress of extensive touring, keeping up her image, overwork, and trying to keep her marriage and family together cause Loretta a nervous breakdown, which she suffers onstage at the beginning of a concert. After a year off at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, Loretta goes back on the road, returning to establish herself as the "First Lady of Country Music".
The film closes with Loretta recounting the story of her life through her 1970 hit song "Coal Miner's Daughter" to a sold-out audience.
Lynn personally chose Spacek to portray her, making the decision based on a photograph of the actress despite being unfamiliar with her films, a story Spacek recounts in a DVD audio commentary for the collector's edition of the film. Initially, Spacek was reluctant to participate, and asked to do her own singing in the film in hopes of scaring the studio from pursuing her for the role. At the time that Lynn prematurely announced on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson that "Sissy Spacek is going to play me," the actress was torn between friends who advised her to do Lynn's film and those who advised her to choose instead a Nicolas Roeg project due to start filming at the same time. Talking it over with her mother-in-law that evening, Spacek was advised to pray for a sign, which she did. She and her husband subsequently went for a drive in his mother's car, where the radio was tuned to a classical music station that changed formats at sunset every evening. As the couple pulled out of the parking garage, the title line of the song "Coal Miner's Daughter" came from the radio. [5]
In her 2012 memoir My Extraordinary Ordinary Life, Sissy Spacek states that she became fast friends with Loretta Lynn and worked to emulate her unique accent and speech patterns by spending an afternoon tape-recording the singer while she told stories of her life, some of which made it into the script. She then listened to the tapes and repeated the lines until she captured her own version of Lynn. Though Spacek had started out as a singer, the producers considered dubbing Loretta's vocals over her performance. Lynn encouraged them to allow Spacek to do all of her own singing in the film and helped the actress learn to sing and play guitar in her style. The film's soundtrack featured Spacek's singing all of Lynn's hits sung in the movie, including "Coal Miner's Daughter". [6]
The locations included Blackey, Eolia, Flatgap, Bottom Fork, Redfox in Knott and Letcher Counties in Kentucky; and Pardee, a former coal camp on the Virginia side of Black Mountain. Interiors of Lynn's childhood home were shot in a warehouse in Norton, Virginia. Scenes were also shot in Loretta Lynn's Madison, Tennessee, home on Barbara Drive. [7]
The replica of Lynn's home in Butcher Hollow, built at Bottom Fork, Letcher County, Kentucky, was burned by arsonists. It was on the front porch of that house that Levon Helm, drummer and singer of the rock group The Band, made his acting debut as Lynn's father. [7]
In an interview with Merv Griffin broadcast on November 7, 1978, Loretta Lynn said that Harrison Ford had been originally cast.
There are some events depicted in the film that are contrary to actual facts:
Patsy Cline never owned a tour bus, although she had thought about purchasing one shortly before her death.
Cline's plane crash did not occur early in the morning as the DJ on the radio in Lynn's bedroom stated; it happened shortly after 6:00 in the evening.
"You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" was not inspired by one of Mooney's cheating episodes, which was caught by Lynn while touring with Cline, as the film suggests. The inspiration came from a fan of Lynn, whom she met backstage. The fan told Lynn how another woman had been trying to steal her husband from her, to which Lynn replied, "Why she ain't woman enough to take your man," instantly giving Lynn an idea for a song title. Also, the film portrayed Lynn singing the song to Cline while writing it; the song was not recorded until late 1965, nearly three years after Cline's death; so it was likely that Lynn didn't write the song (and met the fan who inspired it) until after Cline's death as well.
In the film, just before Cline's death, Lynn tells her she is pregnant with twins; given this is the last time they see each other, this would have happened February to March 1963. Lynn's twin daughters were in fact born August 6, 1964, roughly 17 months after Cline's death.
Coal Miner's Daughter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
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Soundtrack album by various artists | |
Released | March 7, 1980 |
Recorded | 1980 [8] |
Studio | Bradley's Barn, Mount Juliet, Tennessee |
Genre | Country |
Label | MCA Nashville |
Producer | Owen Bradley |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Coal Miner's Daughter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on March 7, 1980, under the MCA Nashville label. [10] It included music by Beverly D'Angelo, Levon Helm, and Sissy Spacek except for the "End Credits Medley" and material by other artists that were not under contract to MCA. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on January 11, 1982 [11] and has been released on vinyl, [12] cassette tape, [13] and CD. [10] Levon Helm's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" was released as a single on 7-inch vinyl, both as a double-A-side and also with Allen Toussaint's "Working in the Coal Mine", a non-album track also sung by Helm, on the B-side. [14] The soundtrack would win Country Music Association Award for Album of the Year in 1980, the first of only two soundtracks to do so. ( O Brother, Where Art Thou? would be the other in 2001.)
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performer | Length |
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1. | "The Titanic" | A.P. Carter, Sara Carter, Maybelle Carter | Sissy Spacek | 2:29 |
2. | "Blue Moon of Kentucky" | Bill Monroe | Levon Helm | 2:51 |
3. | "There He Goes" | Eddie Miller, Durwood Haddock, W.S. Stevenson | Sissy Spacek | 2:11 |
4. | "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" | Loretta Lynn | Sissy Spacek | 2:22 |
5. | "Amazing Grace" | John Newton | Funeral Guests | 2:08 |
6. | "Walkin' After Midnight" | Donn Hecht, Alan Block | Beverly D'Angelo | 2:21 |
7. | "Crazy" | H.W. Nelson | Beverly D'Angelo | 2:45 |
8. | "I Fall to Pieces" | Hank Cochran, Harlan Howard | Sissy Spacek | 2:48 |
9. | "Sweet Dreams" | Don Gibson | Beverly D'Angelo | 2:37 |
10. | "Back in Baby's Arms" | Bob Montgomery | Sissy Spacek, Beverly D'Angelo | 2:10 |
11. | "One's on the Way" | Shel Silverstein | Sissy Spacek | 2:42 |
12. | "You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man" | Lynn | Sissy Spacek | 2:18 |
13. | "You're Lookin' at Country" | Lynn | Sissy Spacek | 2:26 |
14. | "Coal Miner's Daughter" | Lynn | Sissy Spacek | 3:04 |
Weekly charts
Chart (1980) | Peak position |
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Australia (Kent Music Report) [15] | 98 |
Canada Country Albums ( RPM ) [16] | 1 |
Canada Top Albums ( RPM ) | 23 |
US Top Country Albums ( Billboard ) | 2 |
US Billboard 200 | 40 |
Year-end Charts
Chart (1980) | Position |
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Canada Top Albums ( RPM ) [17] | 97 |
Certifications
Country | Certification |
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United States | Gold [11] |
In its opening weekend in the United States and Canada, Coal Miner's Daughter was number 1 at the box office, grossing $3.6 million in 796 theaters. The film grossed a total of $67.1 million in the United States and Canada, becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 1980 in North America. [18]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Coal Miner's Daughter holds an approval rating of 86% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Like a classic traditional country song, Coal Miner's Daughter draws on time-tested formula -- and undeniable talent -- to tell a solidly affecting story." [19] On Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [20]
Variety called it "a thoughtful, endearing film charting the life of singer Loretta Lynn from the depths of poverty in rural Kentucky to her eventual rise to the title of 'queen of country music.'" [21] Roger Ebert from The Chicago Times stated that the film "has been made with great taste and style; it's more intelligent and observant than movie biographies of singing stars used to be." [22]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
On May 10, 2012, at the Grand Ole Opry, Lynn announced that Zooey Deschanel was to portray her in a Broadway musical adaptation. [26]
One episode of The Simpsons , titled "Colonel Homer", is based partly on this film. The episode also stars Beverly D'Angelo as cocktail waitress Lurleen Lumpkin.
Mary Elizabeth "Sissy" Spacek is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for four BAFTA Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. Spacek was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.
Patsy Cline was an American singer from the state of Virginia. She is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century and was one of the first country music artists to cross over into pop music. Cline had several major hits during her eight-year recording career, including two number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country and Western Sides chart.
Loretta Lynn was an American country music singer and songwriter. In a career spanning six decades, Lynn released multiple gold albums. She had numerous hits such as "Hey Loretta", "The Pill", "Blue Kentucky Girl", "Love Is the Foundation", "You're Lookin' at Country", "You Ain't Woman Enough", "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl", "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' ", "One's on the Way", "Fist City", and "Coal Miner's Daughter". The 1980 musical film Coal Miner's Daughter was based on her life.
Beverly Heather D'Angelo is an American actress who starred as Ellen Griswold in the National Lampoon's Vacation films (1983–2015). She has appeared in over 60 films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role as Patsy Cline in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and for an Emmy Award for her role as Stella Kowalski in the TV film A Streetcar Named Desire (1984). D'Angelo's other film roles include Sheila Franklin in Hair (1979) and Doris Vinyard in American History X (1998).
Sweet Dreams is a 1985 American biographical film which tells the story of country music singer Patsy Cline.
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1980.
"Coal Miner's Daughter" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn. Considered Lynn's signature song, it was originally released as a single in 1970 and became a number one hit on the Billboard country chart. It was later released on an album of the same name. Produced by Owen Bradley, the song tells the story of Lynn's coal-mining father in rural Kentucky during the Great Depression. Lynn, who was born in 1932 and experienced the Great Depression as a child, also describes her childhood and the circumstances she was raised in during those years.
William Owen Bradley was an American musician, bandleader and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was a chief architect of the 1950s and 60s Nashville sound in country music and rockabilly.
Fred F. Carter Jr. was an American guitarist, singer, producer and composer.
"Sweet Dreams" or "Sweet Dreams (of You)" is a country ballad, which was written by Don Gibson. Gibson originally recorded the song in 1955; his version hit the top ten of Billboard's country chart, but was eclipsed by the success of a competing recording by Faron Young. In 1960, after Gibson had established himself as a country music superstar, he released a new take as a single. This version also charted in the top ten on the country chart and also crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No.93. The song has become a country standard, with other notable versions by Patsy Cline and Emmylou Harris.
Oliver Vanetta Lynn Jr., commonly known as Doolittle Lynn, was an American talent manager and country music figure, known as the husband of country music legend Loretta Lynn. Over the course of their often-tumultuous 48-year marriage, Lynn was instrumental in developing his wife's musical talent and country music career, purchasing her first guitar, lining up her first radio appearances, and serving as her de facto talent manager for many years. Lynn was also the President of Loretta Lynn Enterprises, Inc., a company formed in 1973 to take care of Lynn's businesses. He also worked on the farm he and his wife bought in 1966 and eventually opened as a tourist attraction. Lynn worked the land, and developed the first Loretta Lynn Rodeo in Goodlettsville in the early 1960s
"You're Lookin' at Country" is a country music song written and made famous by Loretta Lynn in 1971. The song peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and reached #1 on the Canada Country Tracks chart on RPM.
Coal Miner's Daughter is the sixteenth solo studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn. It was released on January 4, 1971, by Decca Records.
American Son is a studio album by American country rock musician Levon Helm, who is most famous for his work as drummer for the rock group the Band. It was released in October 1980 on MCA Records and was Helm's third studio album. It had generally been considered Levon Helm's best solo work until the release of Dirt Farmer in 2007.
American country artist Loretta Lynn released 86 singles, two B-sides and 14 music videos. Her debut single was "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" (1960) via Zero Records. Promoting the song with her husband by driving to each radio station, the effort paid off when it peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Arriving in Nashville, Tennessee, that year, she signed a recording contract with Decca Records. In 1962, "Success" reached the sixth position on the country songs chart, starting a series of top ten hits including "Wine Women and Song" and "Blue Kentucky Girl". She began collaborating with Ernest Tubb in 1964 and recorded four hit singles with him, including "Mr. and Mrs. Used to Be". Lynn's popularity greatly increased in 1966 when she began releasing her own compositions as singles. Among the first was "You Ain't Woman Enough " which reached the second position on the country songs list. She then reached the number one spot with "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' " (1967). This was followed by "Fist City" (1968) and "Woman of the World " (1969).
The discography of American country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn includes 50 studio albums, 36 compilation albums, two live albums, seven video albums, two box sets and 27 additional album appearances. Briefly recording with the Zero label, she signed an official recording contract with Decca Records in 1961, remaining there for over 20 years The first under the label was her debut studio album Loretta Lynn Sings (1963). It peaked at number two on the Billboard Top Country Albums survey. Lynn would issue several albums a year with her growing success, including a duet album with Ernest Tubb (1965), a gospel album (1965), and a holiday album (1966). Her seventh studio album You Ain't Woman Enough (1966) was her first release to top the country albums chart and to chart within the Billboard 200. Other albums to reach number one during this period were Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (1967) and Fist City. Don't Come A'Drinkin would also become Lynn's first album to certify gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
"I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" is the debut single by American country music artist Loretta Lynn, released in March 1960. The song was among the first to not only be recorded by Lynn, but also to be penned by her. She composed the song while living in Washington State, maintaining her role as a housewife and occasional member of a local country music band. The composition was later recorded in California after Lynn was given money by a local businessman, who was impressed by her singing. "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" was then issued as a single under the newly founded and independent Zero Records label in March 1960.
Still Woman Enough is the forty-sixth and final solo studio album by American country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn. It was released on March 19, 2021, by Legacy Recordings. The album was produced by Lynn's daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. The album shares its title with Lynn's 2002 autobiography.
Phyllis S. Boyens, also known as Phyllis Liptak, was an American folk singer and actress. Her music was in the genre of "Mountain Music", also known as Appalachian music. She was the daughter of American folk singer and coal miner Nimrod Workman.
"Dear Miss Loretta" is a song recorded by American country music artist Carly Pearce and features Patty Loveless. It was released on August 3, 2021, as a promotional single from her third studio album 29: Written in Stone. Pearce co-wrote the song with Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally. The song is a tribute to pioneering country singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn, who died in October 2022.
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