Coal Miner's Daughter

1980 film by Michael Apted

Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 biographical film about legendary country music singer Loretta Lynn.

Directed by Michael Apted. Screenplay by Thomas Rickman; based on the autobiography by Loretta Lynn and George Vecsey.

Loretta Lynn

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  • [after discovering Mooney with a young woman] I'm warning you, Doolittle, I'd better not ever catch you with trash like that again! I mean it!
  • I had something I wanted to tell y'all tonight. But Doo, he don't want me to say nothing. But I can tell you, friends, cause you wouldn't be here if you didn't care about me. See, things is moving too fast in my life. Always have. I mean. one day I was this little girl. The next day I was married. Next I was having babies. Next day I was out here singing for y'all. Patsy's always saying, "Little girl, you got to run your own life." But my life's running me.

Patsy Cline

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  • [to Loretta] I'll call you on Monday and we'll go shopping. Anything we can't buy, we'll make. Anything we can't make, we'll steal!

Other

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  • Lee Dollarhide: Doo, if you're born in the mountains, you got three choices, coal mine, moonshine or moving on down the line.

Dialogue

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Doolittle Lynn: Tell you one thing that army showed me. There's a whole big world out yonder. Showed me I ain't about to spend my life buried in no coal mine, neither. Ain't no future in it, not a damn bit. And that's what I'm interested in, mainly, course, is the future. You got any plans for the future?
Loretta Webb: Not that I know of.

Doolittle Lynn: Mr. Webb, me and Loretta are fixin' to get married, if it's alright with you.
Ted Webb: Go ask Clary.
[Doolittle walks through the house to the kitchen]
Doolittle Lynn: Mrs. Webb, me and Loretta is thinkin' about gettin' married tomorrow.
Clara Webb: Go ask Ted.
[Doolittle walks back onto the porch, then back into the house]
Loretta Webb: Doolittle, what are you doin'?
Doolittle Lynn: Ted says go ask Clary; Clary says go ask Ted; I don't know.
Loretta Webb: Wait 'til they go to bed; then you can catch them together. 'Less they'll keep you runnin' back and forth all night long.

Ted Webb: I ain't ever gonna see you again.
Loretta Lynn: Yes you will, daddy.
Ted Webb: Maybe. But I ain't never gonna see my little girl again. Them years has been robbed from me, like a thief broke in and robbed 'em.

[the morning after the wedding night]
Loretta Lynn: This stuff's cold.
Doolittle Lynn: That's because it froze between here and the damn restaurant. You want a hot breakfast, you got to go with me.
Loretta Lynn: I ain't going in there having all them people looking at me knowing what we've been doing in here.
Doolittle Lynn: Hell's Bells, Loretta. You think this is somethin' the rest of the world ain't caught onto yet? They don't give a damn. Baby, it's just a little rough the first time, that's all.
Loretta Lynn: Didn't seem too rough on you.
Doolittle Lynn: Well, you better get used to it, darling, because that's what a damn marriage...
Loretta Lynn: I ain't gonna get used to you gettin' on me and sweatin' like an old pig!

Doolittle Lynn: Loretta, I am leaving Kentucky. I'm going out west to Washington to get me a job on a ranch or something. That damned ol' coal mine's got me buried alive.
Loretta Lynn: Was you just gonna leave me?
Doolittle Lynn: Just long enough to get the money to send for you.
Loretta Lynn: What makes you think I'd come?
Doolittle Lynn: 'Cause you're my wife, darling!
Loretta Lynn: I'm your wife! Boy, you better think of a better reason than that.
Doolittle Lynn: There ain't nothing for me in Kentucky, Loretta. Except a chest full of coal dust and bein' an old man time I'm 40. You ask your daddy. 'Sides that, you got to come with me, I love you.
Loretta Lynn: You promised Daddy you wouldn't take me off far from home.
Doolittle Lynn: Well, you just have to make up your mind, darling, whether or not you're his daughter or my wife. Get in. I'll take you back to the house. What are you doing in the bottom anyhow?
Loretta Lynn: I come to see Doc Turner.
Doolittle Lynn: You sick?
Loretta Lynn: Yeah, I'm gonna have a baby.
Doolittle Lynn: [laughs] Oh, Lord, Loretta. You know, darlin', you might have found something that you know how to do.

Loretta Lynn: I ain't no singer, Doo. I can't sing for no strangers.
Doolittle Lynn: Yes, you can. I done fixed it up for you. There ain't no problem.
Loretta Lynn: You didn't ask me nothin' about it!
Doolittle Lynn: How the hell can I ask you somethin' about it if you run off and hide like a stupid hillbilly?
Loretta Lynn: Don't call me that. I may be ignorant, but I ain't stupid. Why do you want me to sing so much for anyway?
Doolittle Lynn: 'Cause I'm proud of you when you sing.
Loretta Lynn: Doo, I'm glad I make you proud, honey, but I can't sing in front of people. I just can't!
Doolittle Lynn: Yes, you can, baby. You're gonna sing for these old boys in here in the morning, and next week you're gonna be up on that stage singing for all these people here, if I have to kick your st-, ignorant hillbilly ass every step of the way!

Loretta Lynn: I'm gettin' so sick of baloney.
Doolittle Lynn: You are? Well, you know what they say about eatin' baloney, don't you?
Loretta Lynn: No, what?
Doolittle Lynn: Makes you horny.
Loretta Lynn: What does that mean?
Doolittle Lynn: [starts laughing] Are you so dadburn ignorant, you don't know what "horny" means?
Loretta Lynn: No, what does it mean?
Doolittle Lynn: I ain't gonna tell you.
Loretta Lynn: Doo! Doo, what does it mean? What does it mean?

Doolittle Lynn: Deal is, Loretta, you can sing in every little honky tonk in the country. There's thousands doing it and they ain't getting nowhere and they never will. The thing that's gonna give you the edge is getting yourself a record. And the next step's even more important than that and that's getting people to play the dad-burned thing, but right now what you and me have to worry about... is you making the best doggone record you can, it all depends on that, darling.
Loretta Lynn: Boy, Doo, I didn't know you knew so much about the music business.
Doolittle Lynn: I don't. I'm just figuring it out as I go along, listening to people talk.

Loretta Lynn: [in a radio interview] Shoot, we've been driving so much, I don't know where I am half the time. But it's fun. We sing, and talk, and Doo - that's my husband - he'll get to acting horny.
Speedy West: [shocked] What?!
Loretta Lynn: And the more I laugh, the hornier he gets, and then he'll say "Loretta, spread me up another one of them baloney sandwiches!"
...
Radio station manager: [later] I don't know where in the hell you think are, lady, but that part of smut don't go in this part of the country!
Loretta Lynn: I didn't know it was dirty! I thought "horny" meant cuttin' up and acting silly!
Radio station manager: And cut up that dumb hillbilly act!
Doolittle Lynn: If you knew Loretta, you'd know that ain't no act.
Loretta Lynn: Thank you, honey.

Loretta Lynn: The Grand Ole Opry! What if they won't let me in?
Doolittle Lynn: They'd better let us in, I done spent all the money on these donuts. Besides that, how are they gonna keep us out? We're number 14! Nationwide.

Loretta Lynn: [catches Doolittle with another woman] Woman, if you want to keep that arm, you better get it off my husband.
Girl at fairgrounds: Who are you telling what?
Loretta Lynn: I don't know who you are, but I know what you are.

Loretta Lynn]]: [after being picked up by Patsy's husband Charlie after singing `I Fall to Pieces' at the Midnite Jamboree] You ain't mad at me for singin' your song are you Patsy?
Patsy Cline: Set-own. People might think you sing better than me.
Loretta Lynn: Huh-uh.
Patsy Cline: Well, how many times you been on the Opry now?
Loretta Lynn: I been on seventeen straight times.
Patsy Cline: People wanna know who you been a-sleepin' with to be on that many times.
Loretta Lynn: Aw, who's been a-sayin' that?
Patsy Cline: [chuckles] Gals that been a-sleepin' with ever'body and still ain't been on yet.
Loretta Lynn: Like who?
Patsy Cline: Oh, take it as a compliment. Girl, you got `em runnin' scared.

Loretta Lynn: Dadgum it, Doo! You never ask me nothing! You just say, "Hey baby, here's the deal, take it or leave it." Well, it's drivin' me crazy, Doo!
Doolittle Lynn: Well, hell, then let's go up to the house, call a lawyer and get a divorce. I'm tired of this bullshit.
Loretta Lynn: I don't want no divorce! I just want the dadgum bedroom in the back of the house!

Radio Announcer: That was Miss Patsy Cline, tragically killed in a plane crash early this morning near Dyersburg Tennessee.
Loretta Lynn: [slowly waking up to the news and jumping out of bed to call, making mistakes, hanging up and trying again while dissolving into tears] She can't be dead, Doo! We was goin' shoppin'! Who am I gonna talk to now?!

Cast

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