Coal Miner’s Daughter movie storyline. At only 13, Loretta Webb marries Doolittle Lynn and is soon responsible for a large family. She appears destined to a life of homemaking, but Doolittle recognizes his wife’s musical talent, and buys her a guitar as an anniversary present one year. At 18, the busy mother of four children still finds time to write and sing songs at small fairs and local honky-tonks. This gift sets Loretta Lynn on the grueling, tumultuous path to superstardom and country-music greatness.
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 successful country musicians. Based on Lynn’s 1976 biography of the same name by George Vecsey, the film stars Sissy Spacek (in an Academy Award-winning performance) 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 on 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 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 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 and sold over 500,000 copies, thus being certified gold by the RIAA.
Coal Miner’s Daughter was released theatrically on March 7, 1980 and grossed $67.18 million in North America against a budget of $15 million, becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 1980. It garnered critical acclaim and received seven nominations at the 53rd Academy Awards including for the Best Picture and winning Best Actress (for Spacek). At the 38th Golden Globe Awards, the film received four nominations and won two : Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actress – Musical or Comedy (for Spacek).
About the Story
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 abruptly was ended by Cline’s death in a plane crash on March 5, 1963.
Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
Directed by: Michael Apted
Starring: Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo, Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens-Liptak, Foister Dickerson, Malla McCown, Pamela McCown, William Sanderson, Sissy Lucas
Screenplay by: Tom Rickman
Production Design by: John W. Corso
Cinematography by: Ralf D. Bode
Film Editing by: Arthur Schmidt
Costume Design by: Joe I. Tompkins
Set Decoration by: John M. Dwyer
MPAA Rating: None.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: March 7, 1980
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