Please note: This was screened in Aug 2017
Sissy Spacek won a much-deserved Oscar for her vivid, thoroughly natural performance as music legend Loretta Lynn in Michael Apted’s thoughtful and endearing film charting her life from the depths of poverty in rural Kentucky to her evolution into the first lady of country music.
One of eight children born to struggling Kentucky coal miner Ted Webb (Levon Helm), Loretta (Spacek) marries Doolittle 'Mooney' Lynne (Tommy Lee Jones) young, having four children of her own by the time she was 20. But after getting spotted singing in local bars, she’s picked up by a small record label and records a demo. Desperate to take advantage of Loretta's initial success, Doolittle plans an extensive countrywide tour and the pair set out in a bid to push the new record. But as Loretta's star continues to rise, the stresses of trying to raise a family and an exhausting touring schedule begin to take their toll…
In a time before TV music channels started making star biographies into such formulaic fare, Coal Miner's Daughter was the real deal. No wooden portrait, this vibrant tale of a woman making her name in the world showed Loretta’s hard-country voice and tough, no-nonsense songs introduced a feminist mindset to Nashville years before the phrase "women's liberation" became common currency.