(It begins again!) This is a good movie. It tells the life story of Loretta Lynn, literally a coal miner's daughter. The movie opens with her father emerging from a coal mine and taking his kids into the store to buy them shoes for the winter. We see a family living in deep poverty. At the store, Loretta (Sissy Spacek) first sees her soon to be husband Dolittle (Tommy Lee Jones!). He impresses her by driving a jeep up a pile of mine tailings.
Soon he comes a courting and asks her for her hand in marriage. She's fourteen. Her parents consent on two conditions, that he never hit her and that he doesn't take her far away. Both of these conditions are soon broken and they move out of state with a bun in the oven.
As they're raising children, Dolittle comes to appreciate his wife's musical talents. In place of a wedding ring, he gets her a guitar. And then a gig at some honky-tonks. And then a record. He helps her to become a music star.
She enjoys fame and his role in his life becomes less and less important. Soon he's just getting drunk to fight off lonliness. Her sucess and his uselessness emasculates him. He quits touring with her and becomes a mechanic. Try and imagine a husband (or boyfriend) of one of today's singing divas doing that.
In truth, I found his story more interesting than hers. Some of that is Tommy Lee Jones superior acting. Some was the focus of the movie. And frankly, the story idea that fame isn't all that it's cracked up to be just isn't that interesting anymore. Still, a good movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment