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There are so few people on whom we can all agree, and that list has gotten smaller with the passing of Dolly Parton. While she’d suggested health struggles for some time, the death of Dolly always seemed impossible—or maybe just too cruel an outcome in a world with enough heartbreak already. But here we are, and even though there are going to be a lot of tears, there’s a lot to celebrate.
It’s her music, of course, that will live on, but her persona wasn’t entirely built on songs. A larger-than-life personality with an outsized look (very much by design), her film presence is indelible, in spite of a relatively brief filmography. Her roles in two of the best films of the 1980s are so important to our cultural memories of that decade—and are so darn good—that it’s hard to remember that she made that impact in just a handful of films (and a few more cameos) over the course of her career. Dolly may well have thrived in character parts and cameos, but she won and broke our hearts in movies like 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias. It’s easy to wish she’d acted more, but instead, we’ll just be grateful for the absolute gems she left us.
9 to 5 (1980)
The title song nearly overtakes the film in cultural currency, but the film itself opened the 1980s on a high note, ultimately promising a better decade than we actually got. The generational team-up of Dolly, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin—three women with wildly different screen personas who played off of each other marvelously—grounds the uneven silliness of the movie with real heart and soul. The three office workers inadvertently poison their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss (a very game Dabney Coleman) and, in the process, bring down the office patriarchy and usher in a female-driven workers’ paradise. Dolly as sexy secretary Doralee Rhodes is seen by the other women, initially, as a bimbo sleeping with the boss to get her way before they discover that she’s just as smart, capable, and pissed off as they are, boobs and big hair notwithstanding. The related album is just as interesting, a rare case of Dolly tipping her political hand and offering up songs about workers’ rights and immigration. This is where Dolly’s film career began, and it’s a doozy. Stream 9 to 5 on Prime Video.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
This doesn’t sound like a movie to win awards, and it didn’t, but Dolly did pick up her second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. The movie, a musical with Dolly as the proprietor of a Texas brothel, finds her in a relationship with the local Sheriff (Burt Reynolds, who else?) while a local news personality (played by Dom DeLuise) plans an expose that will bring the Miss Mona’s Chicken Ranch down. Dolly largely plays to type here, but it’s all in good fun and not entirely devoid of substance: The hypocritical and puritanical reporter presages the increasingly loud and puritanical style of reporting that was soon to take over the news. Rent The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas from Prime Video.
Steel Magnolias (1989)
Nearly a decade after 9 to 5, Dolly joined another all-time great ensemble of women, this time with Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, and Julia Roberts. Hannah’s mousy Annelle Dupuy, new in town, introduces us to Chinquapin Parish in Louisiana, and the daily lives of some of its residents. Dolly plays hairdresser (sorry: glamour technician) Truvy Jones, and there’s a rather brilliant contrast between her physical performance (this is very much the extravagantly big-haired Dolly we know and love) and her character, who’s very much the calm center of the film’s various storms. She’s the exuberant town gossip, but she’s also everyone’s rock during hard times. Stream Steel Magnolias on Paramount+.
Straight Talk (1992)
As a rom-com, Straight Talk is…perfectly fine, though the pairing of Dolly and James Woods is hardly one for the ages. But the movie shines when we’re not dealing with any of that and are focusing on Dolly as a plain-spoken radio host who is, as one of the songs on the memorable soundtrack reminds us, Livin’ a Lie. She’s dance instructor Shirlee Kenyon, divorced and fired from her job for running her mouth when she ought to be teaching. On her first day at her new job as a receptionist, she wanders into the studio and is mistaken for the clinical doctor who’s meant to be giving advice—which she winds up doing on an increasingly popular talk show, even though her credentials are entirely fake (Woods is the reporter trying to expose her who later becomes a love interest). Dolly offering up plainspoken advice is such an appealing proposition that it’s hard to fault the movie even where it doesn’t work. Rent Straight Talk from Prime Video.
Joyful Noise (2012)
Two women battle, and ultimately join together, to save a small-town church choir in Pacashau, Ga. Dolly plays G. G. Sparrow, widow of longtime choir director Bernard (Kris Kristofferson), who believes herself to be his natural successor—at least until she’s pushed aside by Vi Rose Hill (Queen Latifah). But, when the choir is pushed out of the annual “Joyful Noise” competition, funding begins to dry up, and the two have to put aside their differences and blend their styles to save the day. The movie rides almost entirely on its music and the chemistry of its central pairing—but, when we’re talking about Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah (alongside Keke Palmer and Jeremy Jordan), that’s very nearly enough. Rent Joyful Noise from Prime Video.
Christmas on the Square (2020)
Dolly has a key, if entirely supporting, role in this Christmas confection. It’s the holidays, and Regina Fuller (Christine Baranski) is on her way home to evict a bunch of people so she can sell the land they live on to a mall developer. Naturally, she’s got some seasonal learning to do, with help from erstwhile bestie Margeline (Jenifer Lewis) and Dolly herself, playing to type as an all-singing angel. Dolly wrote all the musical numbers, Debbie Allen did the choreography, and the results are pretty darn delightful, especially during the chilly holiday months. Stream Christmas on the Square.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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