Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Coal Miner's Daughter Blu-ray Movie Review

Scenes from a Marriage

Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 25, 2014

Coal Miner's Daughter was an unexpected hit for Universal, and then a major awards contender, because the studio thought it was making a low-budget special interest film with no major stars and a little-known British director whose experience was mostly in TV. Since the studio didn't expect much from the film, they left everyone alone to do their best work. The result pleased not only country singing star Loretta Lynn, on whose autobiography the film was based, but also her notoriously prickly husband and manager, Doolittle "Mooney" Lynn (real name: Oliver), Loretta's legions of fans, and just about anyone who likes a good story, well told. Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for her convincing incarnation of Loretta Lynn from the ages of 14 through her mid-40s, and the film was nominated for an additional six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Tommy Lee Jones's portrayal of Doolittle was widely overlooked during awards season, in what has since been generally acknowledged as an injustice, but the film helped launch Jones's career.

Coal Miner's Daughter doesn't follow the standard template for a show business bio-pic, but that's because Lynn's career itself was unusual. She wasn't driven to perform by some inner demon. As she observed to director Michael Apted in the 2003 interview included as an extra, she might easily have remained in the mining town of Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, where she was born and raised. Or she might have stayed a housewife and mother in Washington State, where she and Doolittle moved after they were married. Her career as a singer was really a double act, because it was Doolittle who sensed her talent and, as the film depicts in detail, literally forced her onto the stage. Once there, she discovered a natural gift for connecting with an audience. A star was born.

The script by Tom Rickman (Everybody's All-American ) perfectly captures the sense in which the tempestuous Lynn marriage and Loretta's singing career are inextricably bound together. Apted, who had the advantage of being a foreigner looking at Appalachian mining country with fresh eyes, immediately grasped the centrality of that world to Lynn's songs and her appeal as an entertainer. He set about trying to portray the world as truthfully as possible, rejecting professional actors in favor of local talent and casting musician Levon Helm, an Arkansas native, in the pivotal role of Lynn's father, Ted Webb, the "coal miner" of the title, who died too young to see his daughter's success but whose presence echoes throughout the film and Loretta's career.

Apted's film forgoes dates flashed across the screen, but we know from Loretta Lynn's biography that she met Doolittle in 1947, when he was 21 and she was 15. (Her age in the film is given as "not yet 14", but she was later determined to be a few years older). They were married just over a month later, despite the misgivings of Loretta's parents (Helm and Phyllis Boyens).

Apted takes the time to acquaint the viewer with Loretta's hometown of Butcher Hollow, because it and her crowded family shack remain essential to the artist she became. One of the two available occupations for men is mining, represented by the stoic and dignified presence of Loretta's father, who knows that his life is being shortened every day by the coal dust he inhales underground; he predicts, when Doolittle takes Loretta off to the West, that he won't live to see her again, and unfortunately he's right. The other option is selling moonshine, which was Doolittle's former occupation before he served in the military during World War II (hence the nickname "Mooney"). It's a risky line of work, as demonstrated by the troubles that befall Doolittle's former boss, Lee Dollarhide (Deadwood's William Sanderson).

Doolittle dreams of something better, which is what prompts him to take his young and inexperienced bride to Washington to try his hand at ranching. Rickman's script takes bold leaps forward in time, so that the next thing we know, the Lynns have four small children, and Loretta is busy running the household. Similar leaps take us to key moments in the evolution of a musical star, including Doolittle's insistence that his wife learn guitar and perform at a local saloon; the adventure of cutting Loretta's first single, "Honky Tonk Girl", followed by the couple's dogged and ultimately successful efforts to promote the song by driving all through Kentucky and Tennessee, giving radio interviews; and Loretta's first appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where she is an instant hit.

It's in Nashville that Loretta is befriended by reigning country star Patsy Cline (Beverly D'Angelo, who did all her own singing), and the friendship between the two entertainers provides a boost to Loretta's career, while at the same time destabilizing her marriage to Doolittle. Patsy's brash independence—she clearly wears the pants in her own household—provides Loretta with a different vision of how a husband and wife can relate to each other. As the two singers tour together, you can see Doolittle gradually shrinking into himself, as he realizes that he's lost the complete control he used to enjoy over his wife's life and career. Still, it is Doolittle who is there to comfort Loretta, when she loses her friend and colleague in the tragic plane crash that claimed Cline's life in 1963 at the age of 30. And it is Doolittle who carries her off the stage when she later collapses from exhaustion, overwork and the pressure of constant touring.

Apted concludes the film with a performance of "Coal Miner's Daughter", Lynn's tribute to her beloved father that became her signature song (and, like all of her songs in the film, is performed by Spacek). Arguably, though, the true climax of the film is the preceding scene, a lengthy argument between Loretta and Doolittle over Doolittle's plan to build them a new house. It occurs on a beautiful sunny hilltop, begins in anger, takes a sharp turn into comedy and gradually settles into grudging affection. It's one of the most complex portraits of a marriage ever captured in a few minutes of film.

Coal Miner's Daughter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cinematographer Ralf D. Bode (Saturday Night Fever and Dressed to Kill) received an Oscar nomination for his delicate lighting of the many locations in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, where Coal Miner's Daughter was filmed, often under adverse conditions. Universal's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is one of its better catalog efforts, which doesn't appear to have been subjected to the company's typical treatment intended to transform film into video. Detail is quite good, especially in complex outdoor scenes and crowds (whether of miners and their families or audiences at performances), and blacks are dark and solid. The film's grain pattern is readily observable, and it appears to be fine and natural, undisturbed by the artificial sharpening that so commonly appears in Universal titles. The color palette is terrific, with the warm earth tones of Butcher Hollow gradually supplanted by the brighter, less natural blues, reds and purples of recording studios, big cities and the world of show business.

With the extras in standard definition on a BD-50, the main feature has been given a healthy average bitrate of just under 32 Mbps, which no doubt accounts for the absence of compression artifacts in the film's considerably active grain. Except for some slight instability in the opening titles, this is a superb rendition of Coal Miner's Daughter.

Coal Miner's Daughter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

According to the best information I could find, Coal Miner's Daughter was originally released to theaters in mono, which was also the format on the first DVD release in 2003. For the second DVD release two years later, Universal offered a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, but the remix was reportedly limited to the musical numbers, leaving the rest of the soundtrack as mono. The same mix appears to have used on the Blu-ray, encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1. The track has remarkably good fidelity, and the musical performances have surprising fullness and depth. The theatrical portions of the film remain front-oriented, but the dialogue is clear, the dynamic range is wide and the sound effects make a suitable impact.

Coal Miner's Daughter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Universal's 2003 DVD release of Coal Miner's Daughter. The same extras appeared two years later on the "25th Anniversary Edition" DVD, which included a photo journal (omitted here).

• Commentary with Actress Sissy Spacek and Director Michael Apted: In an understated, self-effacing style, Apted assumes the role of interviewer, asking Spacek about the experience of shooting scenes or visiting various locations, almost as if he hadn't been there directing her. She responds with substantial detail about her preparation for the role and her memories of making the movie. Among the many interesting facts to emerge is the production company's constant need for armed guards, because some local elements in Kentucky and Tennessee viewed outsiders with suspicion, especially movie people. Shots were fired on more than one occasion.



• Tommy Lee Jones Remembers Coal Miner's Daughter (480i; 1.33:1; 9:51): In conversation with Apted, Jones recalls the experience of transforming himself into Doolittle/Mooney Lynn and of working with Spacek.



• Interview with Loretta Lynn and Michael Apted (480i; 1.33:1; 14:10): The director interviews the singer at her Hurricane Mills estate about how the film came about, Spacek's casting and preparation, Jones's performance as Doolittle/Mooney, Lynn's own reaction to the film, its continuing appeal and the singer's life and career.



• President George Bush Sr. Salutes AFI and Coal Miner's Daughter (480i; 1.33:1; 5:18): In remarks taped in Sept. 1989, the first President Bush celebrates the 25th anniversary of the AFI, mentioning several notable films in passing, including Coal Miner's Daughter.

Coal Miner's Daughter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Loretta Lynn's fans love the fact that she has always remained a simple country girl at heart, but one of the many strengths of Coal Miner's Daughter is how effectively it demonstrates that there is nothing "simple" about it. Humility, perseverance, loyalty to friends, devotion to family—all the qualities for which Loretta celebrated her mother and father—are easy to talk about, but difficult to maintain in the face of life's many challenges. Apted's film and Spacek's performance give the viewer a taste of the daily effort required to live up to those virtues through the life of someone who just happened to discover she had a talent for singing about them. Highly recommended.