Coal Miner's Daughter
Universal
March 7, 1980
Historical Drama, Romance, Musical
DVD
B
I saw this at the time and enjoyed it, although, yes, it was upsetting for a twelve-year-old girl to watch the (non-explicit) deflowering of a bride not much older. And as a woman forty years later, it still is difficult to hear the child bride saying no and her husband insist that the first time must be rough. The movie, based on Lynn's autobiography, doesn't sugar-coat that life, and it is a tribute to the performances of Spacek and Jones as Loretta and "Mooney" that they are fascinating to watch, even when their actions are not admirable. I'm using the "romance" tag, although it's more a movie about how a couple stays together than how they get together.
I mostly know Michael Apted for the
Up series, and he's an interesting choice for director not just because he's British but because those every-seven-years documentaries show how some people grow up, and this movie is definitely about Loretta coming into her own and yet retaining her innocence and modesty. (The "horny" scene is funny, including Mooney's comment that "that's no act.") Oddly enough, Apted doesn't do much to individualize the various child characters, other than Loretty's bratty kid brother Herman. And, really, other than D'Angelo's vivid Patsy Kline and Levon Helm as Loretta's father, this is really a two-person story, where even Minnie Pearl doesn't get a line as herself.
