Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 1985

The Contenders:

Anne Bancroft: Agnes of God
Whoopie Goldberg: The Color Purple
Meryl Streep: Out of Africa
Jessica Lange: Sweet Dreams
Geraldine Page: The Trip to Bountiful (winner)

I Fall to Pieces

Film: Sweet Dreams
Format: DVD from Rockford Public Library on laptop.

I do not consider myself a country music fan, although a lot of the music I like does have some country roots. I do make some exceptions for some country music, though, and Patsy Cline ranks pretty high on that scale. It’s not so much the songs themselves. It’s that the woman had the voice of an angel. Seriously, go listen to “I Fall to Pieces.” I’ll wait here until you come back.

Back? Okay. Sweet Dreams is the story of Cline’s life, or at least the relevant and most important parts of Cline’s life—her first and second marriages, he rise to stardom, and her tragic and untimely death in a plane crash at the height of her stardom. It’s fair for those not familiar with Patsy Cline and her career to wonder why she’d be worth a biopic. Cline was one of the first country music artists to experience crossover success, charting on both country and pop and contemporary charts in the early ‘60s. She’s still iconic in music in country music in particular and music in general, and still has tremendous influence. And, of course, her career was interrupted by a terrible car accident and then cut tragically short by her death after a few scant years of recording.