Molly Haskell

“As everyone knows, Loretta Lynn … has … a voice. And part of the beauty of Universal’s Coal Miner’s Daughter is the careful detailing of loretta’s early life and the gridingly slow, almost accidental way out of it that her voice provided.

“… [Loretta] loves her father’s warmth, his kindness. And yet, in Loretta’s reaction to her father, played by Levon Helm, we see the beginnings of some new emotion, an anger toward his passivity….

“Then Loretta meets Doolittle! We can suddenly see by the looks they exchange that this film is a romance. But with a difference. The film allows us to see why they’re attracted to each other. And this depth adds a richness that few Hollywood romances possess.

“Beyond the beauty of the performances, Coal Miner’s Daughter has a sense of place that few films capture…. However it was gotten, [it] is a film worth seeing. Finally, Sissy Spacek is a star!”

Molly Haskell, Playgirl, May 1980
(may have left out a little)