Rating: 
Summary: One of the best movies I've ever seen in my lifetime.
Review: I've probably seen this movie at least 20 times and every time I do I still get an empty feeling in my stomach when the movie is over. I feel that if Patsy Cline wouldn't have died in that plane crash she would still be singing today and would be snatching up many music awards.
Rating:
Summary: One of my all-time favorite movies!
Review: I've seen this movie several times. I'm not even a "country" fan, but I love Patsy Cline and I love this movie. It's a tear-jerker! I had it in Beta, but have tried for the longest time to find it in VHS, with no luck until today! I was told it was no longer available. Now I'll finally have my own copy. Jessica Lange is superb in this movie. You'll hear all Patsy Cline's greatest hits. This is a great movie!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Sweet sounds on Sweet Dreams
Review: It's just a waste of time to quibble about the minor boosts given to dramatization at the expense of absolute accuracy regarding this film. (The most notable fact being that Cline looked much more like Bette Midler than Jessica Lange.)
But the point was never about how she mistakenly married a wife-beating weasel or what she said just before she made a big smudge on a mountain somewhere. (By the way, why was there a "benefit for a disc jockey" that Cline's ill-fated plane had to go to, anyway? Didn't DJ's make enough big money even back then?) But all that matters is that this movie points new fans to the incredible sound stylings of Cline herself.
And the producers thankfully opted to keep only Cline's original tunes in this one, instead of putting Lange through some forced vocal training to imitate her. Cline could never be completely imitated anyway, and decades later we can see that her quality still endures. Sure, we'll never forget other swingin' young '50s and early '60s country and/or pop stars, like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Bobby Darrin. And Patsy was one of 'em too!
Maybe one other point does need restating anyway, at the risk of being too obvious - hey, entertainers - whenever possible, stay the heck out of airplanes! If your career demands that you always get flown to your gigs instead of driven, then it's going way too fast. Nobody should be in that much of a hurry. You've got decades of a very rich life ahead of you - don't blow it all on a fiery crash in some crazy contraption invented by those nutty Wright brothers.
This lesson is shown by the following Top 10 music legends who all also died in those "new-fangled flying machines":
Buddy Holly
Ritchie Vallens
Big Bopper
Jim Reeves
Otis Redding
Ricky Nelson
Jim Croce
Bill Graham
Stevie Ray Vaughan
John Denver
Rating:
Summary: Good Movie - Missed DVD Opportunity
Review: Okay, I have to make an admission up front: This is one of my wife's DVDs - not one that I chose - but I watched it and I did enjoy the movie. However, this is not so much a review of the movie as it is a review of the DVD.The feature movie is quite good quality - the best version available to date - so I have no complaints there. My main complaint is that this DVD CRIES OUT for extras and there are none. This DVD could have footage of Patsy's old TV performances or interviews with the people who knew her or SOMETHING! But another DVD opportunity is wasted. Oh well! If you are a lifelong Patsy Cline fan, you will want this DVD. Otherwise rent it. Jeremy
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT PERFORMANCES
Review: One of Jessica Lange's very best films with outstanding performances by Ed Harris & everyone in the cast. Note to Barbara Thompson-Tommy Lee Jones IS NOT IN THIS MOVIE-you may have confused him with his portrayal of Loretta Lynn's husband Mooney in Coal Miner's Daughter.
Rating:
Summary: Country songs by a country singer, at movie.
Review: Patsy Cline is one of the most famous country singer at all.
At this movie, you can see her life, and enjoy several very good songs, which made her famous.
Very good performance of Jessica Lange.
Rating:
Summary: Patsyfans are gonna buy this no matter what...
Review: Patsyfans are gonna buy this no matter what... But it coulda been better. Everything about this production says "TV Movie"...except for the movie-level stars - Ed Harris and Jessica Lange. There's a lack of chemistry between them, and Lange, 36 years old when this film was made, is too old and worn to portray the young Patsy. In some scenes where Patsy has shorter curly black hair she looks like Chita Rivera!! Important details about her life are glossed over, abstracted, or downright fabricated. Was it necessary to recreate what happened on board the plane during its last moments? Did Patsy really cry out "Charlie" moments before the crash? Showing something like this is so tabloid, and not as artfully depicted as in Coal Miner's Daughter. It only makes you wonder what she really cried. ("Awwww Sheeeiittt!!" was probably more like it) Didn't the plane go down on a hill, and not smack dab into a stone mountain face that looks like future expansion for Mt. Rushmore? Didn't Patsy's car crash head on into another car , not get blind-sided by a big truck? Did Charlie really drag Patsy out in the middle of the night to dance in the rain in front of the bar where they first met? Very little emphasis is given to the mechanics of Patsy's rise to the top, which was handled so well in "Coal Miner's Daughter". Patsy is seen cooking as much as singing..Her career is treated as some sort of factory job to provide a background to fights with her husband. We never get much of a sense of life on the road, or Patsy's legendary interaction with audiences. It's strange watching her sit in a broken down house wearing a bathrobe, smoking a cigarette, and talking about her hit records.. And at the end, there was no epilogue saying what happened to her children..did her husband ever remarry. Even "American Graffitti" provided an epilogue, and those characters weren't even real. Typical of the way this film's lack of artistry is one scene where a Buddy Holly song is playing in the background unrelated to the action other than just being background music. Was the irony lost on somebody somewhere? If it wasn't, did someone think that throwing one of his songs onto the soundtrack would provide some dramatic effect all on its own? Think of how powerful one strategically placed Buddy Holly song could have been in this film. You didn't have to know who Loretta Lynn was to enjoy Coal Miner's Daughter...but you have to be a very devoted Patsyfan to get anything out of this film. Patsy deserved better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Performances Make The Film Work
Review: Reality is generally more complicated than any motion picture can possibly convey--and such is the case with SWEET DREAMS, the 1985 bio-pic of singer Patsy Cline, which ran into a firestorm of criticism at the time of its release. For Patsy Cline was not a figure from the remote past. She and her life were extremely well recalled by family, friends, and co-workers, and one and all attacked the film as an extremely inaccurate portrait of her, her husband Charlie, and her life and career. To a certain extent, the validity of these complaints about the film are a matter of opinion. But it does seem likely that the script softened Cline's harder edges and over-emphasized the stormy nature of her marriage in order to cast her in the role of victim. What isn't opinion is the way the film treats her career: it didn't happen like that, and while the film presents her as a great star at the time of her death in truth she had released only a handful of widely distributed records by 1963--and while some of them were big hits, they weren't quite as big as you might think. Even the celebrated "Sweet Dreams" never made it to the top spot on any music chart, and it was not until well after her death that she received full recognition for her remarkable work. So instead of truth, or even a good approximation of it, SWEET DREAMS gives us the legend, the folk tale of the rough-and-tumble girl with the big, emotional voice who came from no where, married an abusive husband, and leaped into stardom that was cut short by an untimely death. And as legend, the film works very well. The weak point of the film is the script, which plays largely to a "domestic drama" aspect and tends to smooth out the characters in a "santized for your protection" sort of way. The direction and cinematography are no great shakes either, and ultimately SWEET DREAMS looks very much like a made-for-television movie. But the cast carries it off in fine style. Jessica Lang looks no more like Patsy Cline than I do, and her lip-scynchs to Cline's work is rather hit-and-miss, but she gives a truly memorable performance; Ed Harris equals her in the role of husband Charlie, and together they create a synergy that has tremendous power. The supporting cast is also quite good, with Ann Wedgeworth a standout in the role of Cline's mother Hilda. And then there is that soundtrack. Even if you've heard all these songs a thousand times, they're still worth hearing again. Patsy Cline was truly an amazing artist. But the film does something odd with them: the bulk of the story is set during the 1950s, but there is not a 1950s-era Cline vocal to be heard in the entire film, everything is taken from her glory years at MCA between 1960 and 1963. And very often it seemed to me that the original scoring of Cline's songs had been replaced with new arrangements. And that, ultimately, is rather typical of the film as a whole. Just a little change here, just a little inaccuracy there, and while they all seem slight individually, they add up to a fairly significant distortion collectively. The performances make it worth watching, and they bring it in at a solid four stars. But if you're expecting anything more than the glossy legend of Patsy Cline, you won't find it here. --GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--
Rating:
Summary: Excellent portrayal of Pasty Cline by Jessica Lange.
Review: Sweet Dreams offers an entertaining yet touching look at the rise and subsequent tragic death of country singer Patsy Cline. Lange's performance is exceptional. She lip-sync's original Cline songs throughout the film. Ed Harris and Ann Wedgeworth turn in stellar performances as well. I was absolutely thrilled to see that this film was being re-released on video on December 29, 1998. This is definetely a must have for the video library.
Rating:
Summary: A sad love story
Review: The beauty of this film, accurate or not, lies in the love story at its core and Jessica Lange's unforgettable portrayal of Patsy Cline as an ideal character. Lange's Patsy Cline is a human being who loves so much that she is willing to stay with an abusive husband. Her heart was so big and yet in her lifetime she was hurt so much. The heart of this movie lies in its belief in the ideal, and there are people out there who love much more than others, unconditionally, and sadly many times they pay in heartache for the flaws in those they love. Whether the character in the film is the real Patsy Cline or not, it is a sincere and unforgettable portrayal by Jessica Lange, and that Patsy was a romantic is something that most of her fans want to believe. Sweet Dreams is a glorious film that will have you thinking back to it and contrasting the themes to those in your life long after it is finished, much like Jessica Lange's Frances. Somehow, Lange always manages to convey true inner beauty, which is what you will find in this film. What we can learn from this film is that if we are ever lucky enough to find someone in our life who can love so fully and unconditionally, we must never take them for granted.
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