Sissy Spacek

A couple struggles to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas. Brad and Kate have been together three years, in love, having fun, doing all sorts of things together with no intention of marriage or children. Christmas morning, they're on their way to Fiji, having told their two sets of divorced parents that they're off to do charity work. Through a fluke, they have no choice but to visit each of their four idiosyncratic parents. As the day progresses, Brad and Kate remember growing up, each learns more about the other, and Kate realizes that her life may not be as good as it could be. Do they know each other well enough to weather the storms families bring? —<jhailey@hotmail.com> To escape Christmas and their divorced parents with their dysfunctional families, happily unmarried Brad and Kate have been successfully pulling off the same trick for three years: a little bit of charity work in a far-off place at the end of the world is always the perfect alibi. However, not this year--and as the young couple is forced to spend Christmas with all four of their estranged parents--the ultimate Yuletide disaster is at hand. Can Brad and Kate survive not one, but four Christmases? —Nick Riganas Until now, Brad and Kate had always managed to avoid spending Christmas with their family by escaping to exotic lands to enjoy heavenly vacations. But this year, they failed. When they arrive at the airport, all the flights have been canceled. Even worse, a television news crew interviews them, revealing to their family where they are. This time, there's no way out and no excuses. Brad's father is waiting for them at his house. So is Kate's mother. And Brad's mother and Kate's father. Four family Christmases, the same day! Brad and Kate expect the worse... and they won't be disappointed. They will be spared of nothing. In between humiliations, the secrets each one of them had carefully kept from the other, the hard feelings and impossible situations, the couple will live through a day that might be the last their relationship can stand. —Happy_Evil_Dude

Self-proclaimed stuntman Rod Kimble is preparing for the jump of his life - to clear fifteen buses to raise money for his abusive stepfather Frank's life-saving heart operation. Rod Kimble is a naïf, a slacker living in a small US town with his mom, his younger brother, and his stepfather whose respect he craves. He also misses his dead dad, whom he thinks was Evel Knievel's back-up. Rod, a man-child, believes that he is a stunt man. When his stepfather needs an operation, with help from his brother and his slacker pals, Rod hatches a plan to set a school-bus-jumping record on his moped. First, his crew and he have to raise money to rent the buses and build the ramp. Trouble is, Rod's inept at his chosen career. Looming failure is complicated by the return of Denise, Rod's next-door neighbor and secret heartthrob, who is home from college. Is public humiliation at hand? —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Fantasising about being a successful stunt performer, just like his legendary idol, Evel Knievel, unfortunately, the maladroit and overly optimistic wannabe stuntman, Rod Kimble, has never completed a jump without doing a faceplant. With his friends not taking him very seriously, and his bullying stepfather, Frank, treating him like a punching bag, Rod, however, is not going to take this situation lying down, and let these minor details stand in the way of accomplishing the greatest acrobatic feat of his life. Now, Rod has to do the impossible and jump over fifteen school buses on his feeble Tomos Sprint moped to raise money for Frank's costly heart bypass operation. Will Rod look death in the eye, prove his worth, and get the girl? —Nick Riganas Rod Kimble is a stuntman, well, an amateur stuntman at best. He lives in a small town with his mom and ailing stepfather. In order to pay for his stepfather's medical costs he decides to perform a daring jump. His life is further complicated by the addition of his secret crush, Denise, to his crew. —grantss

Rachel Keller and her son Aidan move to a small town. When they learn of the murder of a teenager who watched a strange video, Rachel believes Samara has come back to haunt them.

This synopsis is from the UNRATED VERSION. A girl (Jane Powell) (Isabelle Almgren-Doré) is running through snowy woods near her house in Boston, Massachusetts. Something unseen is chasing her. She approaches the house and tries to open a double door. It opens and she rushes in, closing it and an inner door which she latches shut. She looks around, picking up a letter opener and leaves the room. The door is forced open by the unseen force. She runs upstairs into her bedroom, bolting the door. The doorknob is rattled as the unseen tries to get in. The noise stops and there is silence. The girl cautiously approaches the door when suddenly the ghostly image of a girl (Betsy Bell) (Rachel Hurd-Wood) appears beside her. She screams and at that moment awakens from a dream, sitting up in bed in hysterics. She is comforted by her mother (Elizabeth Powell) (Susan Almgren) who tells her she had a bad dream again. She suggests a nice warm bath, which is rejected by Jane, saying maybe later. The mother tells her she must get ready to be picked up by her father (David Powell) (HoJo Rose) for the weekend. She acknowledges this. Elizabeth picks up some clothes from the floor, noticing a bundle of old things which she asks Jane about. Telling her mother they are from the attic, Jane is told you know the attic is off-limits. Jane apologizes and is told just don't do it again as the mother exits. Jane goes into a fetal position on her bed. Elizabeth goes into the study carrying the old doll and things from the attic. Pouring herself a drink from a vodka bottle, she looks painfully at a family photo that includes her, Jane and her ex-husband David. She picks up the doll (having a cracked face) and says to it I know how you feel. Picking up an envelope marked The Truth of Our Family History, she removes the paper from it and begins reading November 1848. "I had hoped no one would ever find cause to open this letter. If you have, I must assume that inexplicable or even supernatural events have begun to occur. The story of the Bell Witch has always been considered to be a tall tale. This is not so. Please read this journal with great care. Its contents may save your life." At this point, a flashback shows Betsy being chased by Joshua Gardner (HoJo Rose) who tries to kiss her after she falls on the ground. She tells him no. The other girl, Theny Thorn (Zoe Thorne) tells him leave that young lady alone. The two girls run off together giggling. Theny asks "did he try to kiss you again?" The Bell family home is shown in winter stating Red River, Tennessee 1817. Lucy Bell (Sissy Spacek) brings in folded clothing as Betsy sits brushing her hair staring into the mirror. She tells her daughter that she should be nicer to Joshua. A woman should always keep a man on his toes, says Betsy. "Isnt that what you taught me?" "I taught you no such thing," replies her mother. Lucy tells Betsy to lighten up on Joshua and to do her schoolwork. James Johnston (Matthew Marsh) and his wife arrive at a party at the Bell house. They enter into a room full of people as John Bell (Donald Sutherland) is telling a group of men about James and his experiences while drunk. He approaches them as John says speak of the devil. Theny prepares mistletoe on a stick to hang over the head of the teacher Richard Powell (James D'Arcy) so that Betsy can try to get a kiss from him. Her father John tells her it is inappropriate for a student to force her teacher into a compromising position. She insists that it is a Christmas tradition and that she is trying to learn the customs. Richard suggests a dance instead and they go off. James asks Lucy for a dance. Later that night, Lucy is awakened by the sound of crying. Getting up, she notices John is not in bed. Lighting a candle, she goes to check on the boys, who are sound asleep. As she turns to go upstairs, John puts a hand on her shoulder, startling her. She tells him she heard noises from the roof. He tells her it comes from the attic and that it is not squirrels. This is not the first time they heard crying at night. He tells his wife you sleep so soundly, you never hear me get out of bed. She says yes I do and asks him what it was. He says it's maybe the old witch trying to scare me off from the hearing tomorrow. Meanwhile something unseen opens the door to Betsys room and approaches her. Heavy breathing is heard, but Betsy appears to be asleep. The next day at the church a hearing is made between Kathe Batts (Gaye Brown) who some say is a witch and John Bell. The fighting is over some land which adjoins the Bell property. John tells the court he gave her $100 and the use of his slave in compensation. The judge (Vernon Dobtcheff) rules that the land is returned to Batts but the profit made from sale of the timber belongs to John. John is judged to have committed usury which is against church law (He charged her 20% on the loan). The witch turns back as they are leaving and tells John to enjoy his family, land and good health. She says a dark dread will fall upon him and especially his daughter Betsy. The following year, John is out hunting with his son John Jr. (Thom Fell) and James. When a deer is seen running through the brush, the three men separate. Seeing a black wolf charging at him, John fires. The wolf vanishes. As John kneels, he sees the wolf charging at him again, but then suddenly his son is seen standing there where the wolf was. John Jr. tells his father we got him. John asks the wolf? His son replies Wolf? We shot a deer. Come see it, father. That night, a wolf is heard outside. John and his son go out to look for it. The wolf is seen charging toward them and both men fire at it. Lucy is awakened by the shots and gets out of bed. Betsy also goes to her window and looks out, seeing the wolf below. Closing the window, she gets back in bed and pulls the covers up just below her eyes. The sounds of a wolf are heard in the room. Suddenly, the windows burst open and more growling sounds are heard and footsteps. Looking under her bed, she sees two eyes looking back and cries out. Her mother, having been called by the two younger sons, comes into her room and asks about what she heard. Betsy tells her something is in her room. Lucy says the windows are open and goes to close them. Betsy stops her, saying there is something in the room. Lucy tells her there is no one there, suggesting that it was mice. She tells her to go with her to get her brothers. As they go downstairs a shot is fired by James Jr. (who is firing at the wolf), shattering glass in the door. The door opens and the two men enter. Lucy and the children go back upstairs. A conversation between Lucy and John over the shot fired through the door is simplified by John who says it was accidental. He confesses that he is unable to get Kathe Batts out of his mind. His wife tells him there is nothing else that can be done since the church ruled on the matter. Hearing this, Betsy retires to her room and covers up. Strange noises are heard in the room. Next day at school, Betsy is found to be asleep. Richard dismisses the class for physical activity outside and asks Betsy if she is all right. She tells him she is tired, not being able to sleep at home because of strange noises. The children play games outside and Betsy goes to the swing and begins swinging. Next, a small girl appears and swings next to her. Betsy notices and the girl holds out her hand. Betsy touches the hand of the girl, which turns black and disappears. Betsy falls to the ground and is assisted by Joshua and Theny, who insist they saw no girl in the other swing. Crying, Betsy runs off. Richard observes all this from the window. That night, John is out with his gun and lantern again when he sees the ghostly image of Betsy. It vanishes immediately and John turns back toward the house. Seeing a dark figure on the roof, John prepares to fire at it, but it disappears. Meanwhile Betsy is sleeping but is awakened as the covers are pulled down on her. She pulls the cover up again. Again, the covers are pulled slowly down and Betsy pulls them up again. Suddenly, the covers are violently pulled off her and she jumps up to try to leave the room. Her door closes and prevents her from going out. Heavy breathing is heard as Betsy gets back in the bed. The indentation of a body appears on the bed beside her and an attack begins. A strand of her hair is pulled out and seen on the bed next to her. Betsy's screams and fighting draws her mother, father and brother into her room. Immediately, the attack ends and she is comforted by her mother who tells her it was just a bad dream. Outside her room, John tells Lucy he thinks Batts may have sent a slave to terrorize them. When the lock of hair is found on the floor by Lucy, John swears he will get revenge against Batts for harming his daughter. He goes off with the gun but is coaxed out of it by Lucy. Next, James is seen meeting with the Bell family as they sit around the table discussing John's predicament. James tells them that reading a few Scripture passages should ward off the demon. After the reading is concluded, he leads them in a spoken prayer to cast out the demon from the house. They all join hands and repeat the prayer three times, after which James says by midnight if nothing happens they should be safe. Betsy goes to bed but is suddenly attacked again, this time more violently. She is dragged by her hair, lifted up into the air and repeatedly slapped on each cheek. Her cries draw Lucy, John, James and James Jr. who try to enter her door but are unable to. Finally, the three force open the door and witness Betsy being held in mid-air and being struck. James orders the demon to leave and it stops the attack, facing each person in the room with heavy breathing. Lucy holds and comforts her daughter. As James has a drink for his nerves, John tells him he saw a man on the property recently but couldn't tell who it was. James suggests maybe Richard, the teacher, who lives nearby. In bed together are seen Lucy and Betsy with the two young boys in between. At the school house, James and John are discussing the situation with Richard, who doesn't believe in demons. The teacher tries to explain what happened with logical suggestions, which are refused by James, John and John Jr. Richard offers to come stay in the house to prove nothing will happen. At school the next day, Betsy is seen still sleeping at her desk. When class is dismissed, Joshua tries to wake her, telling her that they have to go to the river to do what they have been planning. She tells him no, saying she doesn't feel like doing it. When he tries to pull her up, she violently pushes him away, saying to leave her alone. Everyone sees this in the room. As the students leave, Richard tells Betsy that this will pass. Sitting by a tree, Betsy is seen crying and recalling her attacks and wondering why. Later, Betsy looks from her window and sees Joshua kissing Theny. She is upset and turns to her bed where her journal turns pages to expose the word "Remember." "Remember what?" she asks. She angrily throws the book aside and lies down with her doll. That night, something is seen approaching the house, going inside past where the men are playing checkers and upstairs, passing where Richard is camped out on the floor just outside Betsys room. The door opens as Lucy reaches the top of the stairs and looks in. Betsy is seen in bed covered up. As her mother continues watching, the covers are pulled down off Betsy. She is attacked again, violently and appears to be being raped. Lucy and Richard watch with Richard holding the mother back, saying no. John asks what is happening and comes upstairs, telling Richard that he should not be witnessing this. He is knocked back and the door slammed. The door opens again and Lucy looks in to see Betsy sleeping under cover as before. Next John is seen in bed tended to by Lucy and Chloe (Miquel Brown), who recommends a poultice of roots that should remain until morning. Richard says he believes Betsy is tormented by violent nightmares, which the others deny, saying something evil is at work. Suddenly, a cross is taken from the wall and thrown across the room. Candles and the fireplace are all extinguished as everyone panics. John Jr. calls out the demon and tells it to show itself. Richard asks if it is Betsy. James begins reading from the Bible again, trying to cast the demon out. Richard tells James to stop. Finally, the Bible is taken from his hands, thrown across the room and then a number of pages torn out and flying through the air. Speaking to the demon, Richard asks if it knows the book from which James is reading. James assures him the demon knows Scripture. Richard asks if it is from the Gospel of Matthew. Scraping noises are heard. Is it from the Gospel of Mark he asks? More scraping noises. Is it a Psalm of David? More scraping, followed by a window bursting open. Lucy cries out to Richard, saying are we all imagining a nightmare now? John is seen getting out of bed after feeling something on his tongue. He goes to the dresser to look, getting a hand mirror from the drawer and sitting down. As he looks at his tongue, he sees welts on it and is shocked. The mirror falls to the floor and shatters. John feels of his tongue again, which is shown normal. As he looks in the mirror on the dresser, he sees the ghostly image of Betsy, which is suddenly replaced by Lucy. He tells her that he made the mess and he will clean it. Lucy begins sweeping up the broken glass. The family is then seen cleaning up after the ghostly attacks in the living room. There is a knock at the door. Lucy tells their servant Anky (Shauna Shim) to answer it. At the door is a slave from Batts, who says he is delivering something from her. She brings it inside, telling Lucy it came from Batts. Lucy refuses it, saying its something from Batts but is told it belongs to the Bells. Finally the bag is emptied out on a table and shown to be clothes. One nightgown bearing a blood stain is said to belong to Betsy while another one is said to be Johns shirt which has been missing for a year. Chloe explains that a witch may put animal blood on someones clothing which spells death. Enraged, Lucy takes the clothes and tries to put them in the fireplace. Chloe stops her, saying that will make it worse. The devil will come in. Next day the children are playing ball in the schoolyard as Betsy sits and watches. When Joshua kicks the ball into the forest, Betsy goes to retrieve it. As she bends to pick up the ball, the hand of the little girl appears and gets the ball. She disappears, then reappears and leaves with the ball. Betsy chases her, trying to get her to stop. All at once Betsy is back where she was before, seeing the ball and picking it up. There is a cave there and Betsy goes inside. There the little girl is kneeling beside a small pool of water. Betsy approaches on the other side of the pool. The little girl splashes water toward Betsy, who splashes back. For a moment the two girls enjoy splashing water at each other and Betsy smiles. The little girl stops, stands and comes close. When Betsy sees the girls face, it suddenly turns dark. Betsy wakes from a dream again, struggling in the bed with Theny there trying to comfort her. In the other room, John examines the nightdress with the blood on it. Angry, he throws it into the fire and swears hell kill Batts. He is stopped by Lucy, who tells him that they will find another way. She takes the gun out of his hand. Theny and Betsy hear a voice calling Betsys name. Then the spirit spins the girls around and races around the room. Theny is terrified and tries to get out the window. Candles light up and burn down completely in a seconds time. Fire roars in the fireplace. Richard examines Betsy, who is said to have been unconscious for thirty minutes. He asks Theny what happened. She says Betsy had a nightmare where she was fighting someone, and then she woke her up. Then she said they heard a voice. At this point Betsy sits up and screams. Richard tells her she is all right. She settles back down as if to sleep but begins convulsing. Falling out of bed, Richard holds her and tries to calm her. Her eyes roll up in her head for a moment, then she appears normal. Suddenly the window opens and closes repeatedly. The spirit goes around the room, speaking everyone's name to them. Richard calls out who are you? The voice answers someone who used to be happy. John stands and cries go to hell, Kathe Batts. At this point Betsy is grabbed by her arms and dragged upstairs. All the men are knocked down and James holds Lucy, preventing her from interfering. Richard is seen writing his journal and his voice is heard telling the story that they didn't understand who was tormenting Betsy or why. John is seen at the church praying and asking God to take his life to end the sufferings of his family. He begins to cough up blood. Later he is seen talking to Richard, saying the Lord has forsaken him. Richard says whatever it is is also attacking John. John says he believes it is Kate Batts. He tells Richard that Chloe tried to return the profit money to Batts before but it was refused. Richard says the entity seems to only attack on the property but John says it can hear their conversation. The coach is loaded with Betsy sleeping inside. John Jr. and Richard drive away, hoping Betsy will be safe if she is far away. Meanwhile the spirit notices that Betsy is gone and searches the house room by room. When it realizes they have taken the girl away it follows and causes a tree to fall in the path of the coach. The horses jump over the tree but the coach flips up and over, crashing down by a tree. The men are thrown clear. Betsy is found safe by Richard, who removes her from the coach and carries her to a clearing. John Jr. is seen bringing one of the horses for them to escape on. Suddenly the black wolf attacks John Jr., who calls for them to go. Richard mounts the horse and Betsy gets on behind him and they race off, the black wolf following. After a few minutes of chase, the wolf vanishes. They continue on. The wolf is seen jumping up and knocking them off the horse. Suddenly Betsy awakes in bed with a cut seen on her cheek. She calls to her mother who wakes up and speaks. She tells her she had a horrible dream that they were sending her away. Lucy denies this, telling her daughter that she will live and not die. Richard and John admit that the entity can attack her anywhere and John says there is nothing they can do. Lucy talks to Richard about Betsy, suggesting he marry her. He tells her that he is twenty years her senior. Lucy admits that she and John are that way also. She encourages Richard to marry her, but he refuses, saying he cannot in good conscience marry her just to be her protector. Richard tells that after that things changed. The entity attacked John and left Betsy almost catatonic. Whenever John would try to help his daughter he would be attacked. Lucy is seen sitting on the front porch when the spirit approaches and sits by her, telling her she knows the truth. Lucy questions and is shown in her mind what was happening to Betsy all that time. John goes to the Batts farm to confront Kate. She comes out and he gives her a gun, asking her to remove the curse. She tells him she put no curse on him or his family that he did that himself. She refuses to shoot him. He leaves, trying to shoot himself. The gun only clicks and he is unable to kill himself. He weeps. Betsy is reminded by the spirit of what happened that night. John raped Betsy and hid it from his wife, taking the bloody clothes and hiding them. The spirit who represents Betsy tell her to avenge herself. Lucy poisons some cough syrup which then is given to John by Betsy. He dies and later Betsy is seen viewing his grave. The young girl who represents the innocent young Betsy finally is able to leave. Back to the present, Elizabeth (who is a descendant of Betsy, who married Richard some years later) is told by her daughter Jane that she is leaving with her dad. As they begin leaving, Elizabeth goes inside and is confronted by the spirit of Betsy again, who tells her to help her own daughter. Realizing Jane is being molested by her father, Elizabeth runs outside and after the car as it drives away.

Josey's (Charlize Theron) life leaves much to be desired when we see her waiting by the Christmas tree with her pre-adolescent son and younger daughter, alone in the house. Her husband drives up. And we next see her lying on the floor bloody after hes beaten her. At that point, she wastes no time packing up her stuff into her pick up truck and moving herself and the kids out of there never to return. They move to her parents home in northern Minnesota. This living arrangement is not much better. At the very least, she and the kids are safe from her husband. But the minute her father (Richard Jenkins) observes her face, he has to ask her if the husband caught her with another man. He clearly has no respect, whatsoever for his daughter. Her mother, more nurturing (played by Sissy Spacek), encourages her daughter to reconcile with her husband and take him back, without regard for the fact that he is abusive. Neither parent has a clue or any respect for her. Josey works temporarily washing hair in a local salon when she runs into an old acquaintance, Glory (Frances McDormand), who informs her that there are some good paying jobs available to women at the iron mines. Knowing that her father works there, Josey realizes that applying and working there will not go over well with him. But Glory informs her that she would be making as much as he makes. Realizing she doesn't have too many options, that the iron mine job pays six times what she makes washing hair, she has kids to feed and she cannot live with her parents forever, her choices are pretty clear. So she goes and applies. Of course, before they can hire her, they have to do a pelvic exam in order to prove that she is not pregnant. She and the kids move in with Glory and her husband after she's applied for the job. Next, we see her and the other women at their orientation. Her supervisor makes it very clear that he does not approve of women doing the type of work that they are hired to do. And he answers the very obvious question of why, in that case, does he hire them in the first place? He clarifies to them that the Supreme Court mandates that the company hires women whether he likes it or not. And given that the guys are forced to let the women work with them, we can clearly see that they are determined to make their working environment unbearable all the while they are there. The first thing that is revealed is the reason why the company requires the pelvic exam for all women before they start. The supervisor all but spells out that it is completely unrelated to any medical protocol. When the women start working, they get introduced to their shift leader who is clearly relishing the opportunity to abuse and sexually harass them. And Josey looks at his face and remembers he is Bobby Sharp (Jeremy Renner), her old high school boyfriend. She also remembers an old teacher she had many years ago who observed the two of them together. When the women start working, they see pictures and profanity with their names written on the walls. The guys talk filthy and intimidate them. And they discover obscene surprises in their lunch boxes and locker. Josey goes and talks to the supervisor about the unacceptable working conditions. But he clearly states to her that nobody wants her there and nothing is going to change. So what can anybody do? It looks like not many people intend to quit. What other jobs pay enough to live on in a town like that in the 80s? Josey finds herself making enough to get a home loan, buy a house and provide all the stuff that her kids want and need. There is an uphill battle for the company to provide porta-johns for the women. Glory explains to management that it takes women longer to use the bathroom than it does men since they must pull down their overalls and cannot simply whip it out within seconds. And as soon as there is a porta-john for women, a worker named Sherry (Michelle Monaghan) goes to use it. They guys stand around and inform her that they have taken a big dump in it before she enters. When she goes in, they surround it and tip it back and forth. And they knock it over with her in it. The filth spills all over and she is hurt and very traumatized. But what can she do about it? At that point, Josey is determined to do whatever it takes, including taking a day off work to drive into the city for a formal meeting with the owner, Mr. Pearson (James Cada). He tells her he will "help" her by arranging for her immediate resignation. But she protests that she does not intend to quit. Hearing that, Pearson concludes in that case, she needs to spend less time stirring up her female co-workers, less time in the beds of her married male co-workers, and more time developing her job performance. These are the accusations that not only the company charges her with. But all over town, rumors go around that shame and disgrace her in front of her kids, parents, friends and co-workers. Her son tells her she is a whore and disrespects her. He is only responding to what he hears about his mother. One day, things get way out of hand at work. The women are all called to clean up a big filthy mess which looks like defecation on the wall. And Bobby calls Josey to do a job for him. She goes with him to a private place and he attacks her. At that point, she announces that she quits. She goes and finds a lawyer she's met through her friends (Woody Harrelson). She tells him she wants to file sexual harassment charges against the company. He tells her that he does not want to get involved in it. Although he is not disputing anything she says, he warns her that she will be ripped apart in the courtroom and they are not likely to win. But he later reconsiders and asks if she can get the other women to corroborate her story so they can file a class action suit. At first nobody wants to help her. Glory, who at that point, is in the hospital, dying from Lou Gehrig's disease and not able to work anywhere anymore, is not about to help her and she demands Josey leave her alone. Josey, then asks Sherry who asks Josey what if they lose? She will have to go back there and face those sons-of-bitches. She knows they can get away with doing whatever they want. The others conclude the same thing, realizing its easy for Josey to make noise since she no longer has to work there. But one night, Josey enters a town meeting with her lawyer. All the guys are sounding off about the false charge she's made against Bobby. The women are also at the meeting and none are arguing. But Josey demands they let her talk. And lo and behold, her father comes to her defense after hearing the way these people are trashing his daughter. And he gets up and announces although he's worked with them for his entire life, he is disgraced by them and very proud of his daughter. Josey and her lawyer start the court hearing even though they are presently alone. Her former co-workers are all present in the courtroom after having been asked to sign affidavits that she is lying. Pearson has hired a woman lawyer (Linda Emond) who does not hesitate to rip Josey apart, asking her about her sexual history and the fact that nobody else believes what she is alleging happens at the mine. Yet the lawyer has privately warned Pearson that he may not win his case. All it takes is three plaintiffs to bring charges against him and new sexual harassment laws will be in effect all over the nation. Throughout most of the trial, nobody speaks up except Josey. The lawyer has even subpoenaed her old teacher with whom she has been accused of having a sexual relationship when she was 16. She realizes the only witness of her involvement with the teacher is Bobby Sharp, since he was her previous classmate, present right before the teacher raped her. Bobby obviously knew what happened yet did nothing. And to this day, he affirms that she was not raped. She chose to have sex with the teacher. But others know better. Josey's father suddenly stands up and goes to physically attack the teacher for raping his daughter. And he gets removed from the courtroom for his outburst. Josey's lawyer finally coerces Bobby into admitting that he had witnessed Josey's rape and had run away as he was too afraid to stand up for her. Josey's lawyer then makes a speech that a courageous person stands up for what is right, even if they are alone, like Josey. At that point, Glory suddenly motions, from her wheelchair, in the back row of the court-room, that she backs Josey. Josey's lawyer reminds the judge that they only need three plaintiffs to file the class action. And they now have two. At that point, Sherry stands up. Then the woman beside her stands. Then we see many people all over the courtroom standing including both men and women at the mines and Josey's parents. Next, we see her life back on track. Her teenage son plays hockey with her lawyer and he wants his rich mom to buy him a car. She reminds him that he is still too young to drive. But when she is driving him home, she decides she will teach him to drive. It looks like she is finally living a life of quality and being respected.

Blast From The Past is a romantic comedy about the fallout of falling in love. At its center are two children of the Nuclear Age one a savvy, cynical, modern L.A. woman; the other an innocent, naïve young man cocooned since 1962 in a bomb shelter. Brendan Fraser is Adam, a man out of time. Alicia Silverstone is Eve, a woman of her times. When these two polar opposites begin to attract, the result is a wondrous chain reaction. Adam was born in a steel bunker buried in his parent's backyard, an unforeseen product of the "duck-and-cover" era taken to its extreme. The son of brilliant-but-paranoid scientist Calvin Webber (Christopher Walken) and picture-perfect suburban wife Helen (Sissy Spacek), Adam's bizarre upbringing was the result of a major tactical mistake. In the midst of the fearsome Cuban Missile Crisis, the Webbers witnessed a blast they thought must be the Big One, but was actually a plane crashing into their yard.So it was that they ensconced themselves in their elaborately engineered bomb shelter to wait out the half-life of radioactive contamination. For 35 years, Adam was raised on Jackie Gleason re-runs, Perry Como records and dreams about life on the surface. While his father taught him about science, baseball and avoiding Communists, his mother taught him about dancing, manners and charming girls. Meanwhile, he waited and waited for a chance to see the sky. Eve, on the other hand, grew up in a rapidly changing Los Angeles and emerged as a woman suspicious of intentions, savagely smart about survival and pretty darned uncertain about the possibilities of love. Her life has been a series of dead-end jobs, shallow boyfriends and dashed hopes. Now, for the first time, Adam is about to leave the safety of the underground for the overwhelming complexity of the '90s and Eve is about to get a whole new perspective on life. When the time-triggered locks on the Webber's shelter at last open, Adam is sent out to replenish supplies and find a nice, non-mutant girl from Pasadena in order to repopulate the world with upstanding citizens. Adam's hapless search in the brave new world of homeless people, adult book stores and all-night supermarkets leads him smack into Eve. At first, she just can't believe this guy who says "Ma'am," thinks seersucker jackets are stylish, and has never seen color television, is for real. But the more Eve watches Adam approach the world with wide eyes, comic miscomprehension, joyous delight and a deliciously sweet innocence, the more she begins to find herself falling . . . in love? But the question still remains: can these two find happiness in the real world, or will their sparks send Adam back underground?

Young love may endure in your heart and one day re-ignite, but reality may soon dowse the flames. Gussie is a talented photographer who wants to break free of her small Maryland seaside town and see the world. Henry wants to stay and run the the local newspaper. The two high school sweethearts go their separate ways until Gussie returns to visit her parents. Henry has married Ruth and had a son while Gussie is single. He has kept track of her career and still carries a torch for her. He invites her for dinner at his house one night and they begin an affair after Henry walks her home. Thus begins a bittersweet affair that proves you can't change the past or someone you love.

Mother and daughter Thelma and Jessie Cates spend a night together after Jessie reveals that she will kill herself by the end of it in this cinema adaptation of Marsha Norman's Pulitzer prize-winning Broadway play. What would you do if someone you loved sat down with you one night and calmly told you that they were going to end their life before morning? This is Thelma Cates' dilemma. Her daughter Jessie has had it. A middle-aged epileptic unable to drive or hold a job, with a failed marriage and a drug-addicted runaway son on the wrong side of the law, Jessie can find no reason to keep living. Adapted from the play by Marsha Norman, "'night, Mother" is the story of a parent's worst nightmare. How can Thelma convince her daughter that life is worth living if she can't feel her pain? How can she end her daughter's embrace of death before morning? —Mark Fleetwood <mfleetwo@mail.coin.missouri.edu>/Reid Taylor

A farming family battles severe storms, while taking a valiant stand against a bank foreclosure and a powerful land grabber. Tom and Mae Garvey are a hard working farming couple living with their two children on the east Tennessee farm owned by Tom's family for generations. They and many of their neighbors have hit hard times of late. A downturn in the economy has led to dwindling land prices. But the biggest problem of late has been that their crop land has been prone to flooding as the property is adjacent to a river. Manipulating the powers that be including a local senator and the local bank, Joe Wade, who also grew up in the area and now runs the local milling company that sets the local grain prices, is working behind the scenes to buy up the properties along the river for a song as he wants to build a dam which would flood the Garvey's and others riverfront properties. The dam would generate electricity, but more importantly for Joe it would provide irrigation opportunities for farm properties away from the river, such as his own. Tom already intensely dislikes Joe as he and Mae used to go together. Joe's behind-the-scenes manoeuvrings coupled with the continuation of these and many other farming problems makes it increasingly difficult for the Garveys to hold onto their farm, Tom who seems determined at any cost to stay on the land of his ancestors. —Huggo

When an idealistic American writer disappears during the Chilean coup d'état in September 1973, his wife and father try to find him. In September1973, in Chile, the American journalist Charles Horman arrives in Valparaiso with his friend Terry Simon to meet his wife Beth and bring her back to New York with him. However, they are surprised by the military coup d'état sponsored by the US Government to replace President Salvador Allende and Charles is arrested by the military force. His father Ed Horman, a conservative businessman from New York, arrives in Chile to seek out his missing son with Beth. He goes to the American Consulate to meet the Consul that promises the best efforts to find Charles while the skeptical Beth does not trust on the word of the American authorities. The nationalism and confidence of Ed in his government changes when he finds the truth about what happened with his beloved son. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September, 1973. Liberal minded young American couple Charles and Beth Horman - he a writer and translator - live in Santiago, Chile, they who chose Chile because of the comfort they felt in a country matching their own values. Charlie's father back in New York, Ed Horman, a conservative devout Christian Scientist, sees his son, and thus by association Beth, as flaky, directionless and irresponsible. Charlie and Beth's American friend Terry Simon, in the country solely for a visit, and Charlie are caught in Viña del Mar the day the right wing military overthrows the elected left wing government in a coup. At the hotel where Charlie and Terry end up for the night, they encounter US military and government officials. Because of the coup, Charlie and Terry decide to take notes of what they see, including that of the "unofficial" American presence in Viña. The day after the start of the coup, Charlie is taking Terry to the airport so that she can get out of the country, when they, learning that the airport is closed, are advised by American freelance reporter Kate Newman to take refuge at a large, American friendly hotel with lots of public visibility because of word that the military is taking away anyone for any reason, many of those who will end up missing never to be seen again, largely nationals but sometimes foreigners. Charlie leaves Terry at a hotel so that he can go home to retrieve Beth. Beth, however, is caught stranded away from home after curfew, and when she is able to get home the following morning, she learns from a neighbor that the soldiers had been to their house, with eyewitnesses later telling Beth that they saw Charlie being taken away. Two weeks later, Ed makes his way to Santiago to help Beth locate Charlie, Ed who had contacted his local politicians for diplomatic assistance in the matter. In Santiago, Charlie's case is largely handled by US Consul Phil Putnam, and US Naval officer Captain Ray Tower. Ed and Beth are often at odds with each other despite their common goal of finding what happened to Charlie: Ed wants Putnam, Tower and any other US official to use whatever clout they may have to assist him, Beth and Charlie - US citizens - while Beth doesn't trust them, especially Tower, for good reason. In the process of the Hormans' investigation, Ed may get a clearer picture of his son, who he would admit he really did not know. As Ed and Beth increasingly seem to be getting the runaround by those who are purportedly trying to help them, they may, with the assistance of others, get closer and closer to the truth, which may turn the world of patriotic Ed on its head forever. —Huggo In 1973, U.S. businessman Ed Horman arrives in Chile to look for his son, Charles, a politically left-leaning journalist who disappeared during a military coup. Charles' wife, Beth, has been looking for some time, but her requests for help from the U.S. consulate have thus far produced few results. As Ed and Beth try to figure out what really happened to Charles, Ed realizes that the American officials may know more than they're telling. —Jwelch5742 Based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman, this is the story of an American father of conservative background who comes to a South American country to search for his missing son, a journalist. Ed joins with his daughter-in-law Beth, who like her husband is politically polarized from the father, in prying through the bureaucracy and dangerous political intrigue in search of their son and husband. Little by little, the father comes to realize that his own beloved government is not telling him the truth. —Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

In the town of Edna, Texas, in 1940, Nita Longley (Sissy Spacek) carries her infant, William Henry Longley, to a local bar and sees her husband, Harry Longley Sr., kissing another woman. Outside, she takes the hand of Harry Junior (Henry Thomas), her other son, and returns home. Four years later, in Gregory, Texas, Nita works as an operator for the Southwest Consolidated Telephone Company in a small house where she lives with her two sons. She types an application for a transfer and presents it to her boss, Mr. Rigby (R.G. Armstrong), when he arrives for the company receipts. Tired of being on-call day and night, Nita wants a secretarial job with regular hours. Her sons, Harry and William Henry (Carey Hollis Jr.), roam to a nearby bar, where brothers Calvin (William Sanderson) and Arnold Triplett (Tracey Walter) play a trick to get William Henry's trousers wet. The "raggedy man," (Sam Shepard) a dark, derelict figure wearing a hat over his scarred face, walks past them, dragging a lawn mower. Inside the bar, Calvin and Arnold discuss their chances of having sex with Nita Longley, figuring that a divorced woman must be as sex-starved as they were when they were cellmates at Huntsville Prison. After several drinks, the brothers drive to Nita's house in Calvin's pickup truck. Calvin goes to the door, but Nita claims the company allows no after hours visitors. Later, on a rainy night, a knock on the door awakens Nita. Outside, a sailor named Teddy Roebuck (Eric Roberts) claims the man at the gas station sent him to use the telephone. Nita lets him into an anteroom, where a telephone sits below a small window with a door. At the switchboard on the other side of the window, Nita rings Teddy through to Ardmore, Oklahoma. He tells his girlfriend's father he is hitchhiking home from boot camp on liberty, but the father informs him she has married another man. Nita offers the drenched sailor a cup of coffee to cheer him up. When the storm knocks out the electricity, they talk in the dark until lights are turned back on. Teddy thanks her and leaves, but as he walks away, he thinks he sees a dark man in a hat standing nearby in the rain. At sunrise, Harry and William Henry find Teddy curled up asleep on the front porch. Nita receives a telephone call from Washington, D.C., for Jean Lester, and sends her sons to bring the young woman to the telephone. A voice informs Jean that her husband was wounded, but he will be coming home from the war. As the tearful woman returns home, the raggedy man passes by, dragging his lawn mower. Teddy pulls Harry and William Henry in a red wagon and shows them how to fly a kite. When he gives Nita the string, she trips over him and they fall down together. Every time she tries to play with them, the telephone rings and she hurries back to the house. With nowhere to go, Teddy decides to spend the rest of his leave with Nita and the kids. Herman Callaway (Ed Geldart), a middle-aged man, comes to pay his telephone bill, but tells Nita that Teddy's presence "doesn't look good" in the eyes of Gregory's citizens. That night, the raggedy man stands outside Nita's house. At the bar, Calvin and Arnold try to telephone Nita, but Teddy, unfamiliar with the switchboard, innocently hangs up the call. Arnold expresses anger that Nita told them they were not allowed in the house at night, yet now she entertains a stranger. The next day, Teddy takes Harry and William Henry on a bus trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he treats them to a beach side carnival and a John Wayne war movie. At home, Nita gets her best dress out of the closet, flirts in a mirror, and dances to the radio as she sweeps the floor. That night, Calvin and Arnold peek in Nita's window and watch her bathing, but they run when the horn on Calvin's truck begins to blare. Nita telephones Sheriff Watson (Bill Thurman) to report a "peeping Tom." Looking around and finding nobody, the sheriff mentions that everyone is talking about the stranger staying at her house. He emphasizes that locals depend on her, especially now with a war on. When Nita mentions seeing a strange man in a hat hanging around, Sheriff Watson says he is a harmless drifter named Bailey, who has been around town for a couple of years, mowing lawns. Harry and William Henry, wearing little sailor suits, return later that night with Teddy, who brings Nita a set of rayon stockings. After she puts the boys to bed, Nita and Teddy dance to radio music, then kiss. She turns off the telephone switchboard, and the two make love. The next morning, as prim Miss Pud and Miss Beulah pass by, they are shocked when Teddy steps onto the front porch without a shirt. Nita asks him to be more discreet, because "I have to live here." Meanwhile, Arnold and Calvin lure William Henry into the bar, buy him an orange soda drink, and ask about his mother and Teddy. Harry tries to pull his little brother away, but the Tripletts grab him and ask if his mother gets naked with the stranger. Suddenly, Teddy arrives and fights with them, but when Arnold hits him with a pool stick, the bartender, Crecencio, ends the melee by firing his shotgun in the air. Later, Nita tends to Teddy's cuts and scrapes. She bemoans being trapped in Gregory, but she cannot quit. She asks Teddy to leave, for the sake of everyone. Teddy bids goodbye to the boys, and since they have polished his shoes, he tells them he has named one shoe Henry, for William Henry, and the other Harry, so that no matter where he goes, they will be with him. As Teddy hitches a ride out of town, Calvin and Arnold watch him go. Harry blames his mother for sending Teddy away, just like she drove away their father. He wants to live with his daddy, but she reminds Harry that his father has never returned for him. That night, Nita telephones Mr. Rigby. When he comes to the house in the morning, she shows him the application for a transfer she is sending to the company personnel office in San Antonio, Texas. Rigby becomes angry, tells her she is "frozen" in her job, and insists that everyone else is also making sacrifices for the war. Nita knows all about the war, who is wounded, and who is not coming home, because every telephone call goes through her. When she telephones the company personnel office, Mr. Rigby disconnects her. Nita walks out the door and buys three one-way bus tickets to San Antonio from the local agent. Returning to the house, she finds Rigby indignant that she left him alone with the switchboard. That evening, Nita and the boys pack their possessions. Before going to bed, Harry goes to the outhouse in back, but Calvin locks him in. Arnold knocks on Nita's door and claims he needs to use the telephone. She lets him into the hall, but locks her door to the house interior. However, Calvin breaks in through the back, unplugs the telephone system, and grabs her. As the brothers assault Nita, the lights go out. Somebody outside starts Calvin's truck, honks the horn, and aims its lights at the front porch. Arnold steps outside with a knife to investigate, and the raggedy man hits him. Nita shakes loose from Calvin, locking him outside. Calvin runs to the outhouse to grab Harry, but the raggedy man kills him, allowing Harry to rejoin his mother. As Nita steps onto the front porch, Arnold grabs her, but the raggedy man intercedes, letting her slip back inside. Arnold stabs the stranger, then prepares to break down Nita's door, but with his final breath, the raggedy man slashes him with a hand sickle. After moments of silence, Nita goes outside and finds both Arnold and the raggedy man lying dead on the porch. Looking closer at the disfigured face of the raggedy man, she realizes he is her long-lost, unfaithful husband, Harry Longley. The next morning, with the sheriff's blessings, Nita and her sons board a bus to San Antonio. Harry is happy that their father returned to save them. They all agree they want to see Teddy again.

It is about October of 1947. Thirteen year old Loretta Webb and her younger brother Herman are riding on a mule and sled down to the mining camp in Van Lear, Kentucky to pick up the yearly gifts at the company store. Her father, Ted Webb, a hardworking coal miner, tells them they're "giving the company their money back". A young man in a soldier uniform newly discharged from the Army is placing bets on driving his jeep up a heap of coal slag. His name is Doolittle Lynn. He and Loretta exchange brief glimpses and flirts with each other. Doolittle wins the bet and gets his jeep to the top. Ted and his family arrive home with the gifts and we get a glimpse of mountain life with this poor, but decent and happy family of nine living in a log cabin in near abject poverty. All the kids receive new shoes, but Loretta gets an extra gift of a nice dress with her father declaring she's about to become a woman and should have nice things. Meanwhile, Doolittle is visiting with his old friend and moonshiner, Lee Dollarhide, who is trying to convince him to come into business with him, but Doo is reluctant, even though there are no other choices for him except to work in the coal mines or move away. A short time later, Lee Dollarhide is shot to death attempting to steal moonshine from another distributor. The Webb family witness Doolittle, his father, and an undertaker taking Lee's body A seemingly morose Doolittle is now working in the mines shoveling coal and working in a horrible environment of dust, claustrophobia, and danger of it caving in. At the local one room schoolhouse, there is a musical chairs dance and pie auction. Doolittle attends, volunteers to auction the pies, and buys Loretta's last one for $5, more than a days wages for a coal miner back then. He and Loretta sit down together, he tries a slice of the pie, and it turns out she put salt instead of sugar in it. He and Loretta leave early, walk through the woods to her house, see a glimpse of the mine in town, and exchange their likeness for each other. Doolittle declares he wants to get out of the community and how the war changed him for the better on how he can live a more fulfilling life. Loretta doesn't seem to understand, with her very limited view of the world and probably never having been more than a few hours away from her home in her lifetime. Doolittle kisses her goodnight and says he will bring his jeep the next day to pick her up The next day, Doolittle brings his jeep up to the Webb household and Loretta gets in and rides with him, without her mother's consent. Doolittle speeds through creeks, hills, and downtown Paintsville, then they stop, kiss, and have an intimate embrace for the first time. After hours of being gone, her father whips her with a tree branch or a "switch" in front of the family and her mother tells her to stay away from Doolittle or she'll give her an even worse punishment. Sometime later, near Christmastime while pickaxing coal for heating at a shallow mine, Loretta's father Ted pleads with her to stop seeing Doolittle and that she's too young to be associating with a grown man and does not need to throw away her young years In January 1948, soon after Christmas and New Years, Loretta is sitting in the family room on a Saturday night depressed and lovesick. Her father tries to lighten things up with the Grand Ole Opry on their radio with Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" playing. Doolittle enters the house and immediately the family leaves the room so Loretta and Doolittle can be alone. Doolittle proposes to her and asks permission from her parents, but both of them won't answer and tell him to ask the other parent. Doolittle explains to them while they're in bed that night he wants to marry their daughter, despite her age, and that he'll do whatever it takes and break his back to make her happy. Ted tells him to never hit her or take her far away from home and Doolittle promises. The next day, in an almost empty church, Loretta and Doolittle exchange vows with her father attending very briefly and giving her away. There are no wedding rings exchanged. Loretta and Doolittle spend their honeymoon at a roadside motel somewhere near town. She's supposedly cold and standing near the radiator in her room, but in actuality is scared half to death of the approaching intimacy and sex she knows nothing about. Doolittle forces himself on her, tears off her nightgown, and she cries and pleads with him to stop. The next morning, Doolittle brings her breakfast in bed (probably her first time eating restaurant food) and even though the food is cold, she refuses to go into the restaurant and embarrassed that people will know what they've done. Doolittle slaps her in the face for her outburst, already having broken one promise, he angrily apologizes, then she throws the food on him. Sometime later, Doolittle pulls his jeep up into the company home in town they live in. Loretta tries to be the nice devoted wife and ask about getting a radio, but Doolittle gives her a book called "Sex For Newlyweds" to read. She's offended by the pictures in it, but also a functional illiterate and can't read many of the words. Doolittle is frustrated by her bad cooking, lack of housekeeping, and reluctance to want sex and intimacy with him. He throws her out of the house. Loretta goes back to her parents cabin in Butcher Holler on a rainy/snowy day and her family is all happy to have her back. Her dad notices her weight gain and her mother is worried she's already pregnant. Loretta goes to Doc Turner's office in Paintsville and it turns out she is pregnant. Doolittle just happens to be in town and flirting with a local girl, but Loretta calls her a sow chases her away. Doolittle announces he's leaving Kentucky telling her how the coal mines will kill him young if he doesn't get out soon and that she can come up and join him as soon as he gets the money. This is the second promise broken. Loretta announces she's going to have a baby. Around April of 1948, Loretta and her father bid their farewells at the Van Lear train station with Ted declaring he'll see her again, but "never see his little girl again". It's about January 1959 (should be about 1956, due to the age of the kids) The Lynn family is living in a run-down, but comfortable home in rural Washington with her children Betty Sue, Jack Benny, Ernest Ray, and Cissy, all of them between 4 and 8 years old. Loretta is now a mature woman keeping house and competent cook, making up jars of apple butter and managing her kids. Doolittle is working as a logger. The family all sits down to dinner and they discuss their day. Their neighbor tells them Loretta's mother wishes them happy anniversary (supposedly their 11th one) and wants them to get a telephone, but Doolittle refuses and says he "don't like telephones". Loretta sings "The Great Titanic" to her kids to sleep. She asks Doolittle for a wedding rings as an anniversary gift, but Doolittle says "bullshit", then her son Jack Benny says the same word Doolittle drives to the local pawn shop that morning looking at rings, but ends up getting Loretta a guitar. Loretta is offended that he would buy her something she does not know how to play. But she learns how and sings to her kids while on the porch or doing household chores After a few days of learning the guitar, she and Doolittle drive out to Grange Hall in Custer. She feels he is up to something and it turns out Doolittle wants her to audition to sing on stage the next Saturday. Loretta is scared half to death of doing such a thing, but Doolittle won't take no for an answer. The next Saturday, Loretta sings Patsy Cline's "There He Goes" and ends up loving what she did on stage and does another one. The Lynn family drives to a recording studio in Bellingham and Loretta records a song she's written called "Honky Tonk Girl". After a few flubs, she has now cut her first record. Doolittle takes a picture of Loretta in their home using a bedspread as a backdrop and an aluminum pot top as a flash. Then Doolittle stays up all night typing letters and sending copies of her records to recording studios. The next morning, on February 22, 1959, Loretta is cooking breakfast for her kids. She hears her name being called outside and thinks her father is approaching, but in actuality, it's her neighbor informing them of a family emergency. Her father has just died. The family drives all the way back to Kentucky for the wake at the family home. Doolittle and several other men are outside the cabin drinking moonshine and standing around a burning barrel. At her father's burial, Loretta declares to Doolittle she wants to be a singer. They begin their months long tour all over the south visiting the disk jockeys of the places Doolittle sent records to. The first station they visit is from a dj claiming he played her record and liked it, but she found it in the pile and reprimanded him for lying. After months on the road of sleeping in their car and subsisting on bologna sandwiches, crackers, and Cokes, they meet with record promoter, Hugh Cherry. Loretta says the word "horny" on the radio and did not know that was considered dirty and the manager declares he will never play another record of hers. However, Hugh finds out just now she is #14 on the country charts and it will be played. Loretta and Doolittle travel all night, pull over to the side of the road, and make out. The next morning, she wakes up with their car parked in front of the Grand Ole Opry and excited. Sometime in 1960, Loretta plays on The Grand Ole Opry for the first time. She is introduced by country singer Ernest Tubb (as himself). Country legends Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl are also on stage greeting her. She feels out of place and that she has not done enough to earn the spot, but does perform. Her husband Doolittle hangs out at a bar with a patron teasing him that he doesn't do or need to do anything and she'll be bringing home all the money now. Doolittle punches him. Loretta leaves that night About September of 1961, Loretta is at the Ernest Tubb music shop singing Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" as a tribute to her. By this time, Loretta has spent the last year making repeated appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. She receives word from Patsy's husband, Charlie Dick, that Patsy wants to meet her. Patsy has been in the hospital recovering from a near fatal car accident. Loretta at first is intimidated by Patsy's outspoken and brassy personality, but the two become friends almost immediately. For the next several months or so, Loretta and Patsy make tours together on the Grand Ole Opry, at county fairs, and the like. Doolittle is becoming increasingly annoyed with Loretta's more independent nature, fast success, and influence from Patsy, especially trying on makeup for the first time. Loretta catches Doolittle drunk and making out with another woman in a car when their tour bus is about to leave. One day, Loretta and Patsy are out shopping in downtown Nashville, with Doolittle and Charlie dozing in the car while waiting. Doolittle has had enough and demands Loretta remove her makeup and she sasses him again. Doolittle slaps her for it and she breaks his fingers with her purse and they drive away. That night, Loretta is at their home suffering a migraine headache. Doolittle comes home and tells her he needs to get back out and work and do something he's good at, but Loretta assures him that it's because of him that she got where she's at. And he also declares to her there is a price to pay when you get there. Doolittle surprises Loretta with a wedding band she has for the first time after 14 years of marriage. Doolittle gets a job as an auto mechanic. In early March of 1963, Loretta announces to Patsy she's pregnant again and doesn't want to have the child (this was another timeline error, as the twin girls, Peggy and Patsy, were born August 6, 1964, almost a year and a half after Patsy's death). Patsy shows Loretta a box of maternity dresses and Loretta soon leaves. Patsy promises to call her first thing Monday morning after returning home from a benefit concert in Kansas City. On the morning of March 5, 1963, Loretta Lynn and Doolittle are in bed listening to Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" and the disk jockey announces Patsy was killed in a plane crash earlier. Loretta breaks down with Doolittle comforting her and she feels she has nobody to talk to now. Loretta has her twin girls, Peggy and Patsy, but doesn't know which one is which. Over the next 5 years, Loretta is making endless concert tours throughout the country staying in her bus and nights in hotels. Also during this time, she and Doolittle have bought a ranch in Tennessee called Hurricane Mills with Doolittle as caretaker of ranch and raising the twin girls. At her last concert tour, a fan tries to rip her hair out. She is traveling on the bus that night exhausted, unable to sleep, and suffering a migraine. Loretta comes home sometime in 1969 for some rest and relaxation after months on the road. Doolittle points to a car their son Jack Benny wrecked (an error, it was a 1971 or 1972 Ford) She asks Doolittle to start accompanying her to her concerts to be her guardian and caretaker. He reluctantly agrees. Just as they are going to sleep, a phone call is made to their house from a lonely fan wanting to talk to Loretta and Doolittle says she is not home yet, but to quit crying and that he'll give Loretta the message. Loretta and Doolittle are touring together once again, but she's on the edge of burnout, due to her unable to memorize the words of Shel Silverstein's "One's on the Way". At another appearance, Loretta has woke up with her tour bus parked. She has not yet learned the words of the song. She pleads with Doolittle that she can't do the concert, but he feels she should just go out and perform. She comes onstage, but instead of singing, opens up her personal life on stage about how her concert appearances, fame, and all have been overwhelming and exhausting for her, but that she appreciates her fans caring about her. She collapses and has a nervous breakdown and Doolittle carries her out. Months pass by and Loretta spends her life resting away at the ranch. Doolittle takes Loretta out not too far from the ranch one morning and shows her a little house he wants to build. They have an argument about where the window should go and Loretta doesn't like the way he kept the house a secret from her. But they make up After about a year of recovery, and in 1970, Loretta is back on stage once again and sings her signature hit "Coal Miner's Daughter". Coal Miner's Daughter opens with Loretta Webb (Sissy Spacek) riding a mule to the coal mine to meet her Daddy when he completes his shift. As the opening credits continue, the film shows some coal miners deep in a Kentucky coal mine where one yells "fire in the hole," which is followed by an explosion. Then the film switches to Doolittle Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones), who is dressed in his Army uniform, driving a jeep with a blonde girl sitting next to him. Doolittle talks to several of the miners in front of the company store bragging about his beat-up jeep. He cons them into betting he can't climb a heap of red dog (a hill of mining trash) in his jeep. Ted Webb (Levon Helm), Loretty, as he calls her, and Herman, a younger brother, enter the company store where Ted asks the storekeeper if his Sears Roebuck order has arrived. While the storekeeper fetches Ted's order, Doolittle coaxes his jeep up the trash heap and wins the bet. When the Webbs return home to their rundown cabin in Butcher Holler, we meet Loretta's mother, Clary (Phyllis Boyens), and the rest of the Webb brood: eight children who range in age from infancy to age thirteen. Meanwhile Doolittle hikes up the mountain to see his moonshine making friend, Lee Dollarhide (William Sanderson). Doo, as Lee calls him, had worked for Lee selling moonshine to the miners before he went into the Army. Lee admits to the rumors that he steals from the moonshiners over at Greasy Creek when his own supply runs low. He offers to go fifty-fifty if Doo will help him with his moonshine business. Lee reminds his friend that men born in the mountains of eastern Kentucky have three choices: "coal mine, moonshine or movin' on down the line." Back at the Webb cabin, Daddy Webb presents the children with the shoes he had ordered from Sears Roebuck (in the summer they went barefooted, but in the winter they get shoes). On this occasion Loretta receives a dress in addition to shoes; she gets something extra, Ted explains, because she's gettin to be a woman. The first time in the film that Loretta sings she takes her youngest sibling out onto the porch and sings the traditional mountain song, "In the Pines," a cappella. While she's out there, Lee starts another run on Greasy Creek and is shot by one of his moonshine competitors. Soon Doo and his Pa lead Lee's mule with his body draped over it past the Webb home. Doo's Pa is glad his son wasn't working for Lee or he would likely be draped over the mule beside his friend. The scene changes to a community gathering where several of the youngsters are playing musical chairs while a string band plays. After the game there is a pie auction, for which Doo volunteers to be the auctioneer. When it comes time to auction Loretta's chocolate pie, Doo and another young man compete to be the highest bidder. Doo finally wins for $5. While the crowd square dances, Doo tries a bite of Loretta's pie and immediately spits it out. She had put salt instead of sugar in her pie by mistake. Later, he offers her a ride in his jeep, but she won't accept. So, he walks her home. During the walk Doo talks about how much he learned about the outside world while he was in the Army. It made him realize he doesn't want to be a coal miner. When they get to her cabin, he kisses her good night (it was her first kiss). As he's leaving he promises to bring his jeep up to her cabin and take her for a ride, but she doesn't think he can get it up the holler. The next morning, true to his word, Doo drives his jeep up the holler to take Loretta for a ride - a wild ride. When Doo almost plunges the jeep off an embankment, he kisses Loretta. She is breathless partly from the kiss, but also from the wild ride. Doo tells her, "That's the way youre supposed to feel when youre in love." When she returns home after dark, her Daddy whips her like she was a little girl and tells her to stay away from Doo. Later, when Loretta and her father go to a shallow mine for coal for the family to burn, he talks to her about her relationship with Doo; she's not even fourteen and he's a wild grown-up. He begs his "shinin' pride" not to throw her young years away, but she loves Doo and they want to get married. Back at the cabin while the family is listening to the Grand Ole Opry on their battery-powered radio, Ted encourages his wife, Clary, to do her squaw dance. Ted sings along with Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" while Clary dances. While everybody is watching and listening, Doo knocks on the door, but they don't hear him, so he comes in anyway. Once they realize he's in the cabin, Clary stops dancing and goes into another room and Ted turns off the radio and leaves the cabin. Once Loretta and Doo are alone, he shows her the money he had saved from his Army paychecks. He reminds her that the next day is their anniversary (he doesn't say anniversary of what), so he thinks it would be good time to get married. Loretta likes the idea, but tells him to ask her Daddy, who tells him to ask Clary, who tells him to ask Ted - back and forth. Finally, Doo waits until they are in bed and goes into their bedroom to ask them both at the same time. Ted asks him to promise two things: don't hit her and don't take her far away from home. Doo promises. The next day at their wedding there are two ladies sitting in the pews of the rustic church. Ted finally walks in the back door, stands there long enough to answer "I do" when the preacher asks who gives this woman to be married to this man, and then leaves. They don't have wedding rings to exchange. At the motel on their wedding night, it is freezing. Loretta puts her night gown on over her other clothes, partly because she's so cold but also because she's afraid of sex. Doo forces himself on her, which frightens and disgusts her. The next morning she won't go into the adjoining restaurant because she's sure people will stare and know what they've been doing. Doo tells her she better get used to it. When she says, "I ain't gonna get used to you gettin' on me and sweatin' like an ol' pig," Doo breaks one of the promises he had made her Daddy; he slaps her. Doo goes to work at the coal mine while Loretta tries to learn how to be a house wife. Doo loses his patience with her lousy cooking, her lack of house cleaning and her innocence about how to love her man, so he gives her a book, "Sex for Newlyweds." In the following scene, Loretta trudges up the holler towards her folks' cabin; Doo has thrown her out. When her Daddy says, "I believe married life's makin' you fat, girl," her mother immediately realizes her daughter is pregnant. Loretta goes to the doctor and sure enough, before her fourteenth birthday, she is pregnant. When she leaves the doctor's office, she sees a girl flirting with Doo so she picks up a stick and runs her off. Doo tells Loretta he's leaving Kentucky. He's going to Washington (state) to find a job; he refuses to be buried alive in the coal mine. He plans to send for her as soon as he saves enough money. She reminds him of his promise not to take her far away from home. Well, he says, she'll just have to choose which is more important: being her Daddy's daughter or his wife. He gives her a ride home and on the way she tells him she's going to have a baby. He laughs and says, "You know, you might have found something that you know how to do." Months later Loretta receives a letter from Doo with enough money for the trip to Washington. The film skips ahead to Loretta's life in Washington. She's now the seventeen-year-old mother of four. Doo, who is now known as "Mooney" because of his moonshine days back in Kentucky, works as a logger. One night Loretta sings the children to sleep with a song about the sinking of the Titanic. Mooney listens intently. Afterwards, he asks what she'd like for her anniversary present. She reminds him she still doesnt have a wedding ring. Mooney goes to the local pawn shop to look for an anniversary present. He comes home late that evening drunk with a guitar for her gift. Even though she can't play it, he bought her a guitar because he likes the way she sings. While she sits on the front porch washing clothes in a decrepit washing machine, she picks out the chords and sings "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?" As she improves, she makes her kids sit and listen and also sings while Mooney washes the supper dishes. Mooney suggests they get a babysitter and go honky-tonkin'. On Saturday night they go to the local Grange Hall. Mooney seems to have something on his mind and Loretta thinks he must be going to finally give her a ring. Instead, Mooney talks to the bandleader about auditioning Loretta to sing with his band. When she realizes what her husband is doing, she runs to the bathroom. He follows and finally talks her into the audition. The next week Loretta is introduced as the new girl singer of the Westerneers. At first, she sings "There He Goes," a song popularized by Patsy Cline, very timidly, but quickly loses her inhibitions and performs the song so well that the audience applauds lustily. While she is gardening one day, she makes up her first original song, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl." Mooney wants Loretta to cut a record, so they go to a small local recording studio. After she flubs a take, Mooney places the kids in the studio so she can sing to them like she does at home. After a few bars, the recording engineer stops the session to get more and better pickers because "that little lady sings her hind end off." Back home, Mooney takes a publicity photo with their bedspread as the backdrop. After work, he stays up all night addressing envelopes with Loretta's photo and her record to country DJs. Mooney and Loretta don't have a telephone, so a neighbor comes to tell Loretta she has a long distance emergency phone call - her Daddy has died. Back in Kentucky for the funeral, friends and family sing "Amazing Grace" at the wake. It took Loretta quite a while to recover from her Daddy's death. Mooney finally convinces her if she wants to be a singer they have to see DJs in person to make certain they play her record. Grandma keeps the kids while they travel from station to station in eastern Kentucky. One of them claims to have received her record, played it and it flopped, but they find the envelope they sent unopened. She rants so vociferously, the DJ relents and plays it. On an interview segment a DJ tells her she has to pay her dues before she can sing on the Opry. Despite all the obstacles, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" becomes a hit. After an all-night drive, Loretta wakes to find they're parked in front of the Ryman Auditorium, the home of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. She's in awe. On her first appearance on the Opry, Ernest Tubb (himself) opens the show by singing "Walkin' the Floor Over You." Loretta is scared; she doesn't think she belongs on such a prestigious stage; she hasn't suffered enough to be this far this fast. (The film shows a glimpse of two country music legends, Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff, in the wings of the theater.) Tubb introduces Loretta who sings "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl." After her performance, Tubb invites her to return the following week. After Loretta appeared on the Opry seventeen straight weeks, she sings "I Fall to Pieces" at Ernest Tubb's Record Shop in downtown Nashville. During an instrumental break, she dedicates the song to Patsy Cline, who made it a hit. She tells the listening audience that Patsy is in the hospital recovering from a car wreck. Afterward, Charlie Dick (Bob Hannah), Patsy's husband, meets them outside and tells Loretta that Patsy (Beverly DAngelo) would like to meet her. Loretta accompanies Charlie to the hospital and she and Patsy become bosom buddies. When Patsy returns to the Opry, she sings "Sweet Dreams" while Loretta watches from the wings. Later on Patsy's tour bus on the way to an appearance at a fair, Patsy sings a little of Kitty Wells' hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." In the pouring rain, Patsy and Loretta sing a duet of "Back in Baby's Arms" while each holds an umbrella. After the show Loretta catches Mooney in the back seat of a car with a carnival floozie. She drags him out and threatens that she better never catch him with trash like that again. Later, on the bus she writes the song "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)" about that incident. After a shopping trip with Patsy, Mooney and Loretta fight over her use of makeup (he doesn't like it and never has). Loretta hits his hand with her purse and then drives away with Charlie and Patsy. When Mooney comes home late, his hand is all bandaged. He's decided to get a job (he feels like a kept man and that was a serious male ego problem in the country community if not in the nation at large). She offers to quit if her being the bread winner is going to cause them to split. During their conversation, he finally gives her a wedding ring. Mooney gets a job as a mechanic in a garage where we hear Loretta sing "You Ain't Woman Enough" over the radio. Loretta visits Patsy and tells her she's pregnant again, but she doesn't want this baby. Patsy cheers her up by promising to give her the biggest baby shower in Nashville. Then Patsy gives her a box of her old maternity clothes. Patsy is leaving for a benefit performance in Kansas City, but she promises to call when she returns on Monday and they'll go shopping. Loretta wakes on Monday morning to the sounds of Patsy's voice singing "Sweet Dreams" on the radio. The announcer speaks over her singing and says, "You're listening to a tribute to the late Patsy Cline, tragically killed early this morning in a plane crash near Dyersburg, Tennessee." In the next scene, Loretta has given birth to twin girls that she names Peggy and Patsy (of course, Patsy is named after Patsy Cline). Back on stage at the Opry, Loretta sings "You're Lookin' at Country." As the song continues, she tours, writes songs on her tour bus, and signs autographs. The Opry announcer introduces her as having twenty-one No. 1 records. While she sings "Sweet Dreams," Mooney drives his jeep up to their mansion in Hurricane Hills, Tennessee and later bathes the twins. While she sings "You Ain't Woman Enough" we see her touring again and spending lonely nights in hotel rooms. When the Opry announcer introduces her as the first lady of country music, she sings "Your Squaw Is on the Warpath," while Mooney and the twins watch on TV. Her relentless schedule finally catches up with her. She's having throbbing headaches and medicine doesn't help. She wants Mooney on the road with her to take care of her. Out on the road again, Loretta sings "Lovin' Country Style." Later, she can't remember the lyrics to a new song, "One's on the Way," so one of her band members feeds the lyrics to her, but they soon give up and switch to the more familiar "You Ain't Woman Enough." At her next concert, she doesn't want to go on, but Doo convinces her not to let her fans down. When she goes on stage, she doesn't come in after the band plays the introduction for her first song. Instead, she talks to the audience - her friends and fans and tells them that Patsy told her, "you got to run your own life," but she feels like her life is running her. As she walks off the stage she collapses into her husband's arms (she suffered a nervous breakdown brought on by physical exhaustion and marital stress - her marriage miraculously survived). After her recuperation back at their ranch, she returns to the Opry and sings "Coal Miner's Daughter," which is her very autobiographical song. That song segues into the closing credits which recaps scenes from the film. Further into the closing credits, we hear excerpts from "One's on the Way," "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," "You Ain't Woman Enough," "You're Lookin' at Country," "Fist City," "Your Squaw Is On the Warpath," and "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)."

The film begins in the locker room full of teenage girls, including Carrie White (Sissy Spacek). Carrie gets her first period, and after becoming distressed, cries out for help. Instead of helping, the other girls ridicule and harass her, throwing out tampons, sanitary towels and toilet paper to her. Teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) rushes in to stop the commotion. White, who appears to be bottling extreme rage, snaps a light bulb. After questioning Carrie, Miss Collins realizes that Carrie is unaware of the concept of menstruation. Because of this, Miss Collins asks the school principal to excuse Carrie from gym class for a week because of the trauma. Upon her way home, Carrie uses her recently discovered telekinesis to stop a boy from teasing her. While at home, Carrie is tormented by her delusional mother (Piper Laurie), who locks Carrie in a closet and forces her to pray--she believes that Carrie received her period due to sinning. Miss Collins, still livid about the incident, berates the other girls and forces them through a detention, deliberately physically exhausting them. The leader of the clique, Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen), refuses to participate, and as punishment, is banned from the upcoming prom. Furious, she blames Carrie for her misfortune. Meanwhile, another one of the girls, Sue Snell (Amy Irving), feels guilty about her part in teasing Carrie, so she asks her boyfriend, Tommy Ross (William Katt), to take Carrie to the prom. Tommy begrudgingly agrees. After Tommy asks her to the prom, Carrie refuses, thinking that yet another trick is being played on her. After a comforting pep talk with Miss Collins, and after Tommy's further insistence, Carrie finally agrees to go to the prom with Tommy. While everyone else is getting ready for the prom, Chris schemes with her boyfriend Billy Nolan (John Travolta) and best friend Norma (P.J. Soles) to get revenge on Carrie. They go to a farm and slaughter some pigs, drain their blood into a bucket, and place the bucket on one of the rafters in the school gym. Carrie asks her mother's permission to go to the prom. Her mother becomes unhinged at the suggestion, commenting that Tommy is only after her for sex and that this will lead her down a road to perpetual sin. This leads to a violent argument between Carrie and her mother; who uses her telekinesis to slam windows and doors in her home. After another fight between Carrie and her mother the night of the prom, Carrie uses her powers to push her mother into a bed and tells her that she must stop worrying. Carrie and Tommy arrive at the prom, and Carrie begins to feel accepted by Tommy's peers. Miss Collins relates to Carrie the story of her own prom, telling her she should cherish the memory forever. Carrie and Tommy dance together; Tommy has since fallen for Carrie and kisses her. As per Chris' instructions, Norma and some of Billy's friends fix the ballots so that Carrie and Tommy are elected prom king and queen. They make their way to the stage, and Carrie finally feels what it's like to be accepted. Meanwhile, Sue sneaks into the prom and sees Chris and Billy under the stage. She realizes their plan: Chris is going to yank a cord and dump the pig's blood all over Carrie as she is declared prom queen. Sue rushes toward the stage frantically but is intercepted by Miss Collins, who thinks that Sue is out to make trouble for Carrie after seeing that Carrie and Tommy are together. Miss Collins throws her out of the gym, thinking that she was to spoil Carrie's moment. At that exact moment, Chris yanks the cord, drenching Carrie in pig's blood. The students gasp and look on in horror. Tommy is furious, but the bucket falls and knocks him unconscious. Carrie snaps and imagines that all of the students and faculty are actually laughing at her, which her mother had warned her would happen. Carrie uses her telekinesis to destroy the gym and kill her peers and teachers, including Miss Collins. As Carrie walks home, a firetruck is seen passing her. Chris and Billy, who safely witnessed Carrie cause the death of the entire student body, attempt to run Carrie over with Billy's car. Carrie uses her telekinesis to destroy the car. When Carrie returns home, she draws a bath. After she cleaned herself, her mother appears and tells her she was the result of a strange marital rape. Then, convinced that her daughter is an evil witch, she takes out a chopping knife and stabs Carrie in the back. Carrie falls down the stairs and stumbles away from her mother. When her mother corners her in the kitchen, Carrie uses her power to crucify her mother with kitchen knives & tools. After the death, Carrie becomes wrought with guilt and using the lit candles, sets her house ablaze. The home eventually collapses and Carrie dies amongst the debris. Sometime later, Sue, having survived the prom night catastrophe, is suffering from depression over the death of her peers. She experiences a nightmare in which she visits the location of Carrie's house. As she reaches down to put flowers on the burnt lot, Carrie's blood-stained hand reaches up from the rubble and grabs her. Sue then wakes up screaming in the arms of her mother.

Set in the late 1950s outside a small town of Fort Dupree, South Dakota, 15-year-old Holly Sargis (Sissy Spacek), is a teenage girl living with her sign painter father (Warren Oates), although their relationship has been strained since her mother died of pneumonia some years earlier. One day Holly meets the 25-year-old garbage collector Kit Carruthers (Martin Sheen). Kit is a young, troubled greaser, who resembles James Dean, an actor Holly admires due to her reading pop music and movie magazines. Kit charms Holly, and she slowly falls in love with him. Holly's narration, describing her adventures with Kit in romantic clichés, is juxtaposed with the gradual revelations of Kit's increasingly antisocial and violent behavior. Holly's stern father disapproves of Holly and Kit's relationship, and shoots her dog in cold blood as a punishment for spending time with him. Kit then comes to Holly's house and, after hearing what Holly's father did, shoots her abusive father dead with a pistol. The couple fakes suicide by burning down the house and go on the run together, making their way towards the badlands of Montana. Kit and Holly build a tree house in a remote area and live there happily for a few weeks, fishing and stealing chickens for food, but are eventually discovered by bounty hunters. Kit shoots the three bounty hunters dead, and the couple flees again. They next seek shelter with Kit's friend Cato (Ramon Bieri), but when Cato attempts to deceive them and go for help, Kit shoots him; he also shoots a teenage couple who arrive to visit Cato shortly thereafter. An interstate APB is now listed across the USA Midwest as Kit and Holly are hunted by law enforcement. They stop at a rich man's mansion and take supplies, clothing, and his Cadillac, but spare the lives of the man and his housemaid. By this time, as the two fugitives drive across the so-called "badlands" of Montana, Holly has tired of Kit and no longer pays attention to him, preferring to spend her time as she narrates: "spelling out entire sentences on the off of my mouth". They continue to drive on hoping to get to Canada where Kit tells Holly about wanting to join the Mounties. When they stop for at an oil rig, a police helicopter swoops toward them from above. Kit kills a policeman in the hovering helicopter and rides off in the Cadillac. Holly, who refuses to go with him anymore, turns herself in. A sheriff and his deputy chase Kit at high speeds across the dusty roads. Kit gets away. Kit then stops his car, makes a stone monument of himself and on that spot allows himself to be captured. The deputy tells the sheriff, "He's no bigger then I am" about the now-legendary prisoner. At a local military base where Kit is now confined, he is regarded as a celebrity by soldiers, policemen and reporters. It is here that Kit is reunited with Holly who is also in custody. He tells her, "it's too bad about your dad. We're going to have to sit down and talk about that sometime." In the final scene, Kit and Holly are flown away on a military plane to stand trial for the murders and robberies. A text at the end states that Kit was tried, convicted and executed the following year for his crimes, while Holly (being a minor) only received probation and later married the son of the lawyer who defended her.