Although I saw this at the cinema, it is very much a television program for PBS. This could have been really great, but it was pretty much fan mag stuff all the way through. I enjoyed it, but it didn't really go into much depth. I liked the way it stressed young Sarah Colley's early ambition and the steps she took to achieve it. I wish they had gone into more detail about HOW Sarah created and developed her alter-ego "Minnie Pearl." Despite the hick character, she was quite savvy. Her career didn't just happen by accident. Basically, this film is a broad outline of her Sarah/Minnie's story interspersed with testimonials from such country music stars as Garth Brooks, Dolly Parton, Rheba McIntyre, Tanya Tucker, and Brenda Lee, among others professing their love and admiration for her. But because this is PBS, you can bet your bottom dollar that before it's over that Minnie will have morphed into "Super Minnie, Crusader for Social Justice." She's a friend to people of color and to gay people, too. (This is attested to by k.d. Laing and one of the show's producers, a pretty young woman who describes herself as "a queer person.") Minnie is inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame before being diagnosed with breast cancer that proved to be fatal. She left money for a breast cancer hospital which was named in her honor. The final segment is mostly a song performed by Rodney Crowell that has a lyric that alludes to "Jesus and Buddha and Krishna and Minnie Pearl," which serves as a kind of apotheosis. I found it unexpectedly moving.
I enjoyed this show, but it's quite superficial and omits a few things that were basic to Sarah Colley/Minnie Pearl. There is very little mention of her deep and abiding Evangelical Christian faith. Perhaps this is why there is no mention of the only movie she starred in, THAT TENNESSEE BEAT, in which she played a lady preacher. I've always wondered why that character was in a wheelchair. Was it written that way? Or had Minnie broken her leg before filming started?
Fans of Minnie Pearl and/or "rural comedy" will certainly like this film.
I enjoyed this show, but it's quite superficial and omits a few things that were basic to Sarah Colley/Minnie Pearl. There is very little mention of her deep and abiding Evangelical Christian faith. Perhaps this is why there is no mention of the only movie she starred in, THAT TENNESSEE BEAT, in which she played a lady preacher. I've always wondered why that character was in a wheelchair. Was it written that way? Or had Minnie broken her leg before filming started?
Fans of Minnie Pearl and/or "rural comedy" will certainly like this film.