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“It’s all worth it to have her notice me”

Like many other documentaries before it, Tai Uhlmann’s For The Love Of Dolly explores the extremes some fans will go to in an effort to show their love for a particular person or hobby.  The object of their affection this time is country musician Dolly Parton, famous singer of hits like Jolene and I’ll Always Love You, star of such films as 9 To 5 and The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, owner of the Dollywood theme park in her hometown of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and all around gracious lady if this film and her fans accounts tell any kind of truth.

The film tells the story of five of her fans as the town gears up for the opening of Dollywood and the parade that Dolly grand marshal’s through town.  The fans stories are told in asides from the rainy parade route as they wait to see their beloved singer.

We first meet Harrel and Patric, a gay couple from Texas who have their home packed with Dolly memorabilia, even going so far as to make their own hand-crafted dolls of her.  Jeanette is a middle aged woman who is good friends with a younger woman named Melisa; they’ve bonded over their shared love of the country icon and are on the parade route dressed in matching outfits and wigs, emblazoned in loud butterfly colors in hopes of catching Dolly’s attention.  Finally, we meet David, a physically challenged young man who has met Dolly on several occasions and hopes to give a small gift to her at the parade today.

The film gives glimpses into the lives of these fans, which are all painfully honest about their devotion to the star, which can be at first a little wince-inducing to the uninitiated who might want to write them off as nutty fringe types.  But as David’s parents tell about how his interest in the singer has given him something to focus on, something to be inspired by, going from a boy the doctors told them would never walk to a young man with a job in spite of his disabilities and an ever-growing shrine to his idol, you might change your tune a bit.  Melisa reveals how her abusive childhood at the hands of an older brother has driven a wedge between her and her family, and that she’s moved to the area in hopes of drumming up Dolly sightings.  She also confesses to fantasies as a child of having Dolly take her away from the horrible circumstances in which she was being raised, which is sad and touching at the same time.

Harrel and Patric live inside their house-wide shrine to the woman, and Patric tells about how Dolly helped him get through the death of his wife as he and Harrel were first getting together, the words from her songs taking on special meaning to him.  Harrel’s dolls are a two-fold investment: they showcase his love of the woman that inspired them, and he hopes to possibly curry her favor and have them sold in the gift shops in Dollywood.  The final fan featured is Jeanette, who has created a replica of Dolly’s oft sung about Tennessee Mountain Home in her backyard, even going so far as to color-match it with a small chip of wood taken from the original home when she visited it as a tourist. 

Interestingly, the fans tell of how the Dolly fanclub was disbanded in 1997, due to complaints from some more demanding fans that Dolly wasn’t prepared to deal with anymore.  This has cut out a lot of the one on one interaction that some of the more devoted were accustomed to, so now the Dollywood opening is more of a free for all as the devoted scramble and vie for attention.

I have to say that For The Love Of Dolly made me laugh several times, because it’s hard to take this type of devotion to any pop star serious, but one thing that came across was the kindness that Dolly obviously feels towards her fans, as she knew most of these people by name when she saw them on the parade route, quite a feat when you consider the number of hands the woman has to have shaken over the years.

The screener of For The Love Of Dolly that I watched featured no bonus material except for the trailer for the film.  The feature itself runs just under an hour.

I’d recommend this to fans of Dolly herself or to the curious who want to know why some folks go so overboard in their devotion to pop stars, this film will give you some interesting clues.

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