Coal Miner's Daughter
1980 · Movie · PG · 125 min · ★ 7.2 · 86% critics
A young woman grows up in deep poverty in a coal-mining community and marries early, building a family while trying to find her own voice. With raw talent, persistence, and complicated support at home, she begins performing locally and pushes toward a hard-won career in country music.
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Details
- Years
- 1980
- Release date
- 1980-03-07
- Language
- English
- Rated
- PG
- Runtime
- 125 min
- Critic score
- 86/100
- TMDB rating
- 7.2/10 (279 votes)
About
You’ll likely enjoy this if you want an emotional, grounded rise-to-stardom biopic with strong performances and classic country songs, like The Buddy Holly Story; Not for you if you need nonstop momentum or a more high-drama approach.
Pros: powerful lead performance; heartfelt hardship-to-fame story; lots of great music | Cons: familiar biopic formula; uneven pacing later; some scenes feel glossed over
Themes
- country music
- kentucky
- female friendship
- biography
- washington state
- still
- grand ole opry
- nashville, tennessee
- honkytonk
- coal
- coal mining
- death of best friend
- +1 more
Awards & recognition
- Academy Award — Best Actress · 1981
- National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
- Academy Award — Best Picture · 1981 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Actress · 1981 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay · 1981 · nominated
Show all 9 awards →
- Academy Award — Best Film Editing · 1981 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Production Design · 1981 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Sound · 1981 · nominated
- Academy Award — Best Cinematography · 1981 · nominated
Cast & crew
Sissy Spacek
as Loretta Lynn
Tommy Lee Jones
as 'Mooney' Lynn
Levon Helm
as Ted Webb
Beverly D'Angelo
as Patsy Cline
William Sanderson
as Lee Dollarhide
Phyllis Boyens
as 'Clary' Webb
- BJ
Bill Anderson Jr.
as Webb child
- FD
Foister Dickerson
as Webb child
- MM
Malla McCown
as Webb child
- PM
Pamela McCown
as Webb child
Directed by Michael Apted