SISSY SPACEK as Loretta Lynn in COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER

SISSY SPACEK

SISSY SPACEK as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter

Sissy Spacek- is Loretta Lynn. I still get them confused when I see them in pictures. I’ll see a snapshot of Sissy Spacek at a movie premiere and I'll start talking with a Southern accent like Lor-rettie. With the same sort of magical chemistry she's shown before, when she played the high school kid in CARRIE, Spacek at twenty-nine has the ability to appear to be almost any age onscreen. That’s the real deal about this performance. In COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER she ages from about fourteen to somewhere in her 30's. When mauling over true blue performances I always looks the age, and how she handles playing the various stages of a life. In this she never seems to be wearing makeup. She does it with her posture and acting ability. Age is a difficult thing to master and if done badly – actors come off as mongoidal; early in the film, as a poor coal miner's kid, she slouches and slinks around, and then later she puts on dignity with the flashy dresses and wigs she wears onstage. Lange did it in FRANCES beautifully and Marion – more recently in LA VIE EN ROSE. Early thirties seems to be that age where a talented actor can completely be able to go back and then forth – without any doubt. Late twenties / early thirties are the age range to do those legendary bio roles. This is the definitive example.

There is a grandness when finding a signature piece. CARRIE would definitely have signature characteristics and IN THE BEDROOM creeps in at times too. I’ll think about moments of what Sissy did in awe. I feel she had better acting moments in MISSING, especially the stunning sequence in Santiago when Beth, unable to get home before curfew but that film didn’t have the bigness that this film and character had. It’s a better film in my opinion but her Beth was a quiet suffering – subtle – wise – funny - warm lady where Loretta Lynn has all bigness that a signature piece represents.

But it’s those early moments of COAL MINER”S DAUGHTER that I always go back to and think - wow - how did she manage that? The movie's about Loretta Lynn's childhood, her very early marriage, her quick four kids, her husband's move to Washington State looking for a job, her humble start in show business, her apparently quick rise to stardom, and then the usual Catch-22 of self-destructiveness. You can feel love inside she has for her husband, kids, music, fans (at the end) and special friend Patsy. One of my favorite little moments is when Patsy Cline has returned tot he 'Grand Ole Opery' after her car wreck and winks to Loretta off-stage, who idolizes the talent and loves her new superstar friend.

We're not surprised, somehow, that right after the scenes where she becomes a superstar, there are scenes where she starts using pills, getting headaches, and complaining that everybody's on her case all the time, that no one loves her for her, "I need you Doo". We fiercely want to believe in success in this country, but for some reason we also want to believe that it takes a terrible human toll. Sometimes it does and that always makes for a better story. Straightforward success sagas, in which the heroes just keep on getting richer, are boring. We want our heroes to suffer. We like to identify, it makes stars more human, somehow, if they get screwed by Valium, too.

What's so refreshing about COAL MINER"S DAUGHTER is that it takes the basic material (rags to riches, overnight success, the onstage breakdown, and, of course, the big comeback) and relates them in wonderfully human terms. It's fresh and immediate. Spacek through every step has such an honest and simple way she delivers this performance we forget about a story and think it’s documentary about Loretta Lynn.

The most entertaining scenes in the movie are in the middle, after the coal mines and before the Top 40, when Loretta and Mooney (Also terrific Tommy Lee Jones) are tooling around the back roads trying to convince country disc jockeys to play her records. The scene with Mooney taking a publicity photo of Loretta is a little gem illustrating the press agent that resides within us all... "Where do I look?" "Look up to heaven baby".

I think it's one of those films people like so much while they're watching it that they're inclined to think it's better than it is. It's warm, entertaining, funny, and centered around this great performance, Who raises the bar for actors taking on Musician bio pics but it's essentially pretty familiar material (not that Loretta Lynn can be blamed that Horatio Alger wrote her life before she lived it). The movie isn't great art, but it has been made with great taste and style; it's more intelligent and observant than movie biographies of singing stars used to be. That makes it a treasure to watch, even if we sometimes have the feeling we've seen it before. Another great brief performance by Beverly D‘Angelo as Pasty Cline, whom should have been nominated as well for supporting but Sissy won the Gold that year. I do feel Mary Taylor Moore should have won, ( A photo finish I'm sure ), but this is still one amazing performance with a magical ending.