"Sweet Dreams" is a fictional biopic of the Country Western and pop singer Patsy Cline. Cline (1932-1963) was born Virginia Hensley in Winchester, Virginia. She had a great influence on Country Western Music in the short span of a little over a decade before she died at age 30 in a plane crash. Her bold contralto voice and emotional depth made her music stand out from the crowd.
This musical biopic and drama covers just the last eight years of Cline's life. It includes several of her best songs, and covers her close relationship with her mother and her rocky but enduring marriage with second husband, Charlie Dick. But the story plays out as though her music was just added onto her life. The film's great attention to the person in her personal relationships is okay except that doesn't portray more accurately how her music and life of performing ruled much of that life and those relationships. Some movie critics and musical promoters of the time thought the film way underplayed how much of a star Cline was.
I have to agree with that impression in my seeing this film for the first time. I can recall several of her songs being played frequently on the juke boxes of the Army EM and NCO clubs while stationed in Germany in the early 1960s.
Besides the imbalance in the musical and personal Patsy Cline, I can't understand why the producers would alter some of the details of these last years of her life. After her father abandoned the family when she was 15, she quit school after her freshman high school year to help her mother make ends meet. She held a couple of different jobs, and when she finally started singing she became popular very fast, from local, then radio and TV, and soon the Grand Ole Opry. It's questionable that she ever played carnivals and circuses as this film depicts. And, it skips some major performance (a 35-day headline program in Las Vegas, the first ever for a female Country Western and pop singer). The film doesn't show a single other performer with whom Cline had close personal friendships - most notably, Loretta Lynn, Dottie West or Jan Howard
Owen Bradley was with her from the start of her recordings, and had a lot to do with her singing changeover in time, and selection of songs that brought out her special talents. Yet, his character is down to almost nothing in this film, played by Jerry Haynes. And the role of Randy Hughes is given more attention here (played by David Clennon). A couple of scenes show Cline singing with a beer in hand, or drinking a beer at home or in a bar. In real life, both she and husband, Charlie Dick, were heavy drinkers (but not alcoholics).
The film shows the vehicle accident in which she was badly hurt as something completely different than what actually happened. Here she is riding with brother, John, when a truck crashes into the passenger side at an intersection. John and a bystander carry her unconscious body to the nearby lawn. In reality, the accident was a head-on collision with another car. Two of the people from that vehicle died, but Patsy was conscious and told people to tend to those in the other car first.
Finally, the plane crash. Of course, all the dialog in the plane would be unknown and fictional. But why the big change in the actual plane crash? The movie shows the plane exploding on impact with a rock outcropping of a hill or mountain. In reality, the plane made a nose-dive crash into a remote forest. That site has a memorial marker to this day. It's located about 80 miles (90 plus by driving) West of Nashville. In my travels in the late 1990s, I stopped at the site just off Mt. Carmel Road west of the town of Camden, Tennessee. There's no sign of a mountain or rock-faced cliff in the vicinity.
The six stars that I give this film are for the two reasons to watch it. The first is for the actual singing by Patsy Cline - her real recordings are played over the scenes of actress Jessica Lange who portrays Cline. And, the second is for Lange's superb portrayal of Patsy Cline. Especially in her ebullience and scenes that show Cline's emotional singing persona, Lange gives a very good picture of a very talented person. She deserved her Academy Award nomination for best actress n 1985. Ed Harris was okay as Charlie Dick.
For a number of aspects, this isn't a family film. They include Dick hitting and beating Cline, infidelity, drinking, crass language and profanity, and frequent disrespect. But anyone might listen to and enjoy the soundtrack of songs sung by Patsy Cline.
This musical biopic and drama covers just the last eight years of Cline's life. It includes several of her best songs, and covers her close relationship with her mother and her rocky but enduring marriage with second husband, Charlie Dick. But the story plays out as though her music was just added onto her life. The film's great attention to the person in her personal relationships is okay except that doesn't portray more accurately how her music and life of performing ruled much of that life and those relationships. Some movie critics and musical promoters of the time thought the film way underplayed how much of a star Cline was.
I have to agree with that impression in my seeing this film for the first time. I can recall several of her songs being played frequently on the juke boxes of the Army EM and NCO clubs while stationed in Germany in the early 1960s.
Besides the imbalance in the musical and personal Patsy Cline, I can't understand why the producers would alter some of the details of these last years of her life. After her father abandoned the family when she was 15, she quit school after her freshman high school year to help her mother make ends meet. She held a couple of different jobs, and when she finally started singing she became popular very fast, from local, then radio and TV, and soon the Grand Ole Opry. It's questionable that she ever played carnivals and circuses as this film depicts. And, it skips some major performance (a 35-day headline program in Las Vegas, the first ever for a female Country Western and pop singer). The film doesn't show a single other performer with whom Cline had close personal friendships - most notably, Loretta Lynn, Dottie West or Jan Howard
Owen Bradley was with her from the start of her recordings, and had a lot to do with her singing changeover in time, and selection of songs that brought out her special talents. Yet, his character is down to almost nothing in this film, played by Jerry Haynes. And the role of Randy Hughes is given more attention here (played by David Clennon). A couple of scenes show Cline singing with a beer in hand, or drinking a beer at home or in a bar. In real life, both she and husband, Charlie Dick, were heavy drinkers (but not alcoholics).
The film shows the vehicle accident in which she was badly hurt as something completely different than what actually happened. Here she is riding with brother, John, when a truck crashes into the passenger side at an intersection. John and a bystander carry her unconscious body to the nearby lawn. In reality, the accident was a head-on collision with another car. Two of the people from that vehicle died, but Patsy was conscious and told people to tend to those in the other car first.
Finally, the plane crash. Of course, all the dialog in the plane would be unknown and fictional. But why the big change in the actual plane crash? The movie shows the plane exploding on impact with a rock outcropping of a hill or mountain. In reality, the plane made a nose-dive crash into a remote forest. That site has a memorial marker to this day. It's located about 80 miles (90 plus by driving) West of Nashville. In my travels in the late 1990s, I stopped at the site just off Mt. Carmel Road west of the town of Camden, Tennessee. There's no sign of a mountain or rock-faced cliff in the vicinity.
The six stars that I give this film are for the two reasons to watch it. The first is for the actual singing by Patsy Cline - her real recordings are played over the scenes of actress Jessica Lange who portrays Cline. And, the second is for Lange's superb portrayal of Patsy Cline. Especially in her ebullience and scenes that show Cline's emotional singing persona, Lange gives a very good picture of a very talented person. She deserved her Academy Award nomination for best actress n 1985. Ed Harris was okay as Charlie Dick.
For a number of aspects, this isn't a family film. They include Dick hitting and beating Cline, infidelity, drinking, crass language and profanity, and frequent disrespect. But anyone might listen to and enjoy the soundtrack of songs sung by Patsy Cline.