# Sweet Dreams (1985 film)
**Sweet Dreams** is a 1985 American biographical drama directed by Karel Reisz, written by Robert Getchell, and produced by Bernard Schwartz, portraying the country singer [Patsy Cline](https://www.edgepedia.org/patsy-cline) from her honky-tonk beginnings to her death in a plane crash at the height of her fame.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) • [2](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/42045-sweet-dreams) [Jessica Lange](https://www.edgepedia.org/jessica-lange) stars as Cline and [Ed Harris](https://www.edgepedia.org/ed-harris) as her husband Charlie Dick; the supporting cast includes Ann Wedgeworth as Hilda Hensley, David Clennon as manager Randy Hughes, James Staley as Gerald Cline, and John Goodman.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090110/fullcredits/) The film was an HBO Pictures production with Silver Screen Partners, released by TriStar Pictures on October 2, 1985.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_dreams)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | October 2, 1985 (Los Angeles and New York openings); 115 minutes; PG-13[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) |
| Lead roles | Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline, Ed Harris as Charlie Dick[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090110/fullcredits/) |
| Production | HBO Pictures and Silver Screen Partners; distributed by TriStar Pictures[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_dreams) |
| Music | Lange lip-syncs to Cline's original recordings made between 1960 and 1963[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sweet-dreams-1985) |
| Filming | October 29, 1984 to February 15, 1985, in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Nashville, Tennessee, and Los Angeles[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) |
| Box office | $9.1 million domestic; opening weekend of $80,418 in seven theaters[6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Sweet-Dreams) |
| Reception | 90% Tomatometer from 21 critics; 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_dreams) |
| Recognition | Jessica Lange nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, 1986[7](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/en-us/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=875251) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film traces Cline from the gin palaces of [Winchester, Virginia](https://www.edgepedia.org/winchester-virginia), to the [Grand Ole Opry](https://www.edgepedia.org/grand-ole-opry).[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/10/11/movies/c3ecd3b6-0c29-4ae3-b19d-86a0d45310c2/) In the opening, set in [Winchester](https://www.edgepedia.org/winchester) in 1956, Charlie Dick meets Patsy at a dance where she is performing while still married to her first husband, Gerald.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) She leaves that marriage to marry Charlie, temporarily shelves her performing career to be a mother, then returns to singing and finds success under manager Randy Hughes, reaching a string of hit singles before tragedy strikes.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_dreams)
The marriage is the film's emotional center. Charlie is a heavy drinker who cheats on Patsy and beats her, and the story follows the toll her success takes on a proud southern man.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/10/11/movies/c3ecd3b6-0c29-4ae3-b19d-86a0d45310c2/) Common Sense Media describes the film as presenting a relationship in which passion and fury live side by side, dramatized as Cline's music plays throughout.[9](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/sweet-dreams)
## Production
[Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began on October 29, 1984, with locations in [Martinsburg, West Virginia](https://www.edgepedia.org/martinsburg-west-virginia), Nashville, Tennessee, and Los Angeles, California.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) Although Cline grew up in Winchester, Virginia, filming took place in nearby Martinsburg because it looked more like Winchester had twenty years earlier, the film's time setting.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) After three and a half weeks in Martinsburg, production moved to Nashville and concluded in and around Los Angeles, with interiors shot at Hollywood Center Studios; the picture was completed on February 15, 1985.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS)
Rehearsals began three weeks before production in Nashville, where Lange worked one-on-one with Cline's record producer, Owen Bradley, to prepare for the role.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) Bradley also served as producer of the Patsy Cline songs used in the film.[10](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-02-ca-16258-story.html)
## Music
Lange does not sing in the film; she lip-syncs to Cline's actual recordings.[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sweet-dreams-1985) The end credits state that the songs are from original recordings made between 1960 and 1963 by Patsy Cline.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS) The Los Angeles Times review noted that some songs were re-balanced with more modern arrangements behind Cline's voice, while others, including her slow version of "Crazy," "She's Got You," and "Sweet Dreams," were left untouched.[10](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-02-ca-16258-story.html) The score is by Charles Gross, with costumes by Ann Roth and cinematography by Robbie Greenberg.[10](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-02-ca-16258-story.html)
## Reception
The film earned $80,418 in its first three days from a limited release in seven theaters, then expanded to 778 theaters in its second week and finished with a domestic gross of $9.1 million.[6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Sweet-Dreams) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 90% Tomatometer from 21 reviews and an 81% audience score.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_dreams)
**Critical views.** Roger Ebert, the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) critic who won the [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize) for criticism in 1975, judged the performances good but found the film structurally weak, writing that there was no clear idea of what the filmmakers thought about Patsy Cline.[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sweet-dreams-1985) Pauline Kael of The New Yorker called Lange's performance one of real authority and the film an honest tearjerker.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_dreams) The Washington Post's Paul Attanasio found the movie nearly irresistible despite containing no surprises, crediting the rapport between Lange and Harris and Getchell's dialogue.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/10/11/movies/c3ecd3b6-0c29-4ae3-b19d-86a0d45310c2/) Metacritic's collected reviews compared Lange's portrayal favorably with [Sissy Spacek](https://www.edgepedia.org/sissy-spacek)'s Oscar-winning Loretta Lynn in *Coal Miner's Daughter*.[11](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sweet-dreams-1985/critic-reviews/)
## Relationship to Coal Miner's Daughter and accuracy
*Sweet Dreams* followed producer Bernard Schwartz's 1980 film *Coal Miner's Daughter*, about Cline's friend [Loretta Lynn](https://www.edgepedia.org/loretta-lynn), in which [Beverly D'Angelo](https://www.edgepedia.org/beverly-dangelo) had played Cline in a few scenes.[5](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sweet-dreams-1985) • [12](https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2002260755/1985-10-31/ed-1/seq-5.pdf) Schwartz anticipated mixed reaction to the new film from people who had known Cline and Dick, because it emphasized the stormy marriage.[13](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1985/BB-1985-01-05.pdf)
Contemporary reviewers questioned the film's fidelity to the record. The Washington Post reported that Charlie Dick was apparently far worse in life than the sometime wife-beater shown on screen, and that the career challenges Cline faced were more complex than the rags-to-riches arc depicted.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/10/11/movies/c3ecd3b6-0c29-4ae3-b19d-86a0d45310c2/) A companion Washington Post piece noted that in the decade before the film's story begins, Cline had already been a seasoned performer on concerts and television and a regional star, and cataloged dozens of minor factual mistakes alongside the larger judgment that the film reduced the music to incidental status.[14](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/10/13/whose-life-was-that-anyway/da743287-9de9-4d21-b31d-53b7383de4d7/) A St. Martin's Press paperback published alongside the film was marketed as a novel because, as a publicist told the Los Angeles Times, its writer made up dialogue and drama involving Cline's life with her husband.[15](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-20-ca-13793-story.html)
## References
1. [Sweet Dreams (1985), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/58382-SWEET-DREAMS)
2. [Sweet Dreams (1985), The Movie Database](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/42045-sweet-dreams)
3. [Sweet Dreams (1985) full cast and crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090110/fullcredits/)
4. [Sweet Dreams, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sweet_dreams)
5. [Sweet Dreams movie review and film summary, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, October 4, 1985](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sweet-dreams-1985)
6. [Sweet Dreams (1985) box office information, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Sweet-Dreams)
7. [Sweet Dreams (Dulces sueños), ICAA Film Database, Spain](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/en-us/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=875251)
8. [One From the Honky-Tonk: Very Sweet Dreams with Lange and Harris, Paul Attanasio, The Washington Post, October 11, 1985](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1985/10/11/movies/c3ecd3b6-0c29-4ae3-b19d-86a0d45310c2/)
9. [Sweet Dreams parents' guide and review, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/sweet-dreams)
10. [The 'Sweet Dreams' of a Country Love Song, Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1985](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-02-ca-16258-story.html)
11. [Sweet Dreams critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sweet-dreams-1985/critic-reviews/)
12. [Sweet Dreams review, Oregon newspaper archive, October 31, 1985](https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/2002260755/1985-10-31/ed-1/seq-5.pdf)
13. [Producer Has 'Sweet Dreams' for Patsy Cline Film, Billboard, January 5, 1985](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1985/BB-1985-01-05.pdf)
14. [Whose Life Was That, Anyway, The Washington Post, October 13, 1985](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1985/10/13/whose-life-was-that-anyway/da743287-9de9-4d21-b31d-53b7383de4d7/)
15. [De-Clining Truth, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 1985](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-20-ca-13793-story.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Biographical films of musicians, artists, and writers › Biographical films about visual and performing artists*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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