Tender Mercies

"Tender Mercies" (1983, color, 92 minutes) is one of Roger Ebert's "Great Films." It won Oscars for leading male actor (Duvall) and screenplay (Foote). It had several other Oscar nominations and many film awards. We chose this for our December movie in our "Great Films at the Cathedral" series. Horton Foote wrote this screenplay specifically for Robert Duvall. He'd previously won an Oscar for "To Kill a Mockingbird." IMDb.com's bio of Foote said his "....success can be attributed to his honest examination of the human condition, and why some people survive tragedies while others are destroyed. His central themes of the sense of belonging and longing for home have resonated with audiences for 60 years." And "Tender Mercies" is such a movie. It's definitely not an action film; it's character studies of Duvall and those close to him. Duvall plays the role of Mac Sledge -- a former C&W star, now middle aged, broke, alcoholic. He wakes up one morning in a marginal small motel on the empty Texas plains run by a young widow, Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), who has a pre-teen son. Mac has no money to pay for his lodging so he offers to work it off; she accepts on the condition he not drink. Mac has problems with his anger which alcohol sometimes pacified, sometimes enflamed. Alcohol and anger led to the divorce from his previous wife, Dixie (Betty Buckley), still a famous C&W star, and her prohibiting Mac from having any contact with their daughter (Ellen Barkin). "TM" deals with themes of broken parent-child relations (the widow's son and his deceased father; Mac and his daughter), longing for their restoration, and the building of others. And the gradual development over time and trials of the five central characters. It's a quiet, perceptive movie in which tensions are generated by Mac's desire to see his daughter, his anger, his battle to stay sober, questions about his handling his previous fame and will he sing again. After several months of working for/with the widow, while they're both weeding the garden, Mac says, (IIRC) 'I guess there's no secret how I feel about you. Would you consider marryin' me?' and she says, 'I reckon I would' Typical scenes of the wedding and nuptial bed aren't in the movie -- Foote's got more important issues to present and the story deals with those. IMO, the casting was perfect -- not a single one would be better if replaced by someone else. One professional reviewer said Tess Harper's role as Rosa Lee was weak; I disagree. I thought she was perfect as the young widow, trying to hang on -- insecure and inexperienced in dealing with all that life dealt her -- but trying to use her faith to sustain her. Psychologically, everything was true to life -- no false, implausible notes, and it even includes the realistic, seldom-seen way that problems can cascade through the generations despite efforts to prevent that happening. While some disappointments, tragedies, minor triumphs are experienced, by the movie's end one is uplifted. A perfect movie. Read more

Robert Duvall just breaks your heart in this wonderful, low-keyed film about a recovering alcoholic who was once a country-western star. The gentleness of Horton Foote's story, set in Texas in the aftermath of Vietnam, makes it seem like it came from some other Hollywood than the one that turns out the noisy, special-effects belabored product that fills today's movie screens. The opening scenes of the film, which set the film's tone and pace, are elliptical and spare, and while much of the story concerns writing and performing music, the soundtrack is typically quiet - like the night-time crickets we hear as the film starts. When Duvall finally fronts a local band to sing one of his songs at a bar, you hang onto the words like they come from the heart - which they do. Make no mistake, I loved this film when I first saw it in 1983, and it brought tears to my eyes when I saw it again in 2007. It's all the family values you hear in country and western songs about simple people and rural roots, yet it's no rose-colored portrayal of lives lived without mistakes made, disappointments, or trials by fire. The film is made up of small moments that carry the weight of all that the heart bears, and they stay with you, like Duvall standing at a window and softly singing "On the Wings of a Snow White Dove." Director Bruce Beresford brings a sensibility to Horton Foote's story that makes these characters spring to life (including brief appearances by Ellen Barkin and Wilford Brimley) while placing them in a Texas prairie that is both welcoming and lonesome. I'd trade everything currently showing at the local multiplex for another film like this. Read more

Robert Duvall won the Oscar and you can see why. Great movie with an even better storyline! Read more

Prompt delivery. Item as described. Would buy from the seller again. I am a satisfied customer. Thanks. Read more

Good movie, not sophisticated but realistic. Robert Duvall is very good, as usual. Read more