COUNTRY SINGERS
Honky-tonk women, faithless men, broken hearts, momma, trucks- country music touches the inner core of many. Country singer biographies is a genre that Hollywood has done extremely well.
Walk The Line (2005) is one of the best. Joaquin Phoenix (Johnny Cash) and Reese Witherspoon (June Carter Cash) did their own singing, and are really good at it. Ten minutes in the actors become the singers they’re playing. That June saved Johnny from sinking into oblivion from drugs and alcohol is well known, and the movie gets it right. The story is a good one and the music is great.
The film that is perhaps the high watermark of this field is Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980). Sissy Spacek (who does her own singing) is simply marvelous as Tammy Wynette, and Tommy Lee Jones does a good job as her husband and manager. Her meteoric rise from coal-mine poverty to queen of the country stars is told accurately and well.
Sweet Dreams (1985), with Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline, is a step slower but still quite good. The dependable Ed Harris is just fine as her ne’er-do-well husband, and little-known Ann Wedgeworth is superb as her mom. That’s Patsy singing and Jessica lip-synching in this one.
David Carradine can sing up a storm (he starred in the Broadway hit Will Rogers Follies) and does so as legendary Woody Guthrie in Bound For Glory (1976). Woody’s music is very close to the heart and soul of America..He travels the land singing and fighting for the underdog. “This Land Is Your Land” will always be remembered and sung with pride. This movie is gloriously photographed by Haskel Wexler.
The quintessential country singer is, of course, Elvis. Though I guess you can’t really put him in the country (or any) category box. Anyway, to date, nobody has made the defining biopic but it’s not too late. This Is Elvis (1981) isn’t even close; it is more exploitational than entertaining OR true. There are several others, none of which seems to me to get it right.
I’m throwing in a film about a country singer who never was because Robert Duvall’s performance in Tender Mercies (1983) is about as good as it gets. It’s not about a real life, but it oughta be!
All of the movies in this column are available on video and DVD. All are fine for 12 and up.
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