Tender Mercies

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Sometimes everything comes together in a movie and it becomes something so much greater than the sum of its parts that it can only be described as a miracle. That's the case with Tender Mercies, a quietly luminous character piece about an alcoholic, washed-up country singer named Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall in an Oscar-winning performance) who hits bottom in a motel room one night and then slowly finds his way back into the land of the living with the help of the widow (Tess Harper) and her young son. It's a low-key, contemplative film that feels like a rural American family comedy in the vein of the great Japanese director, Yasujiro Ozu. Tender Mercies was directed by Australian Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Morant), written by Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird), who won an Oscar for his screenplay, and has an unbeatable cast. This is one of Duvall's most intimate and deeply personal performances, matched only by his debut 14 years later as actor-writer-director in The Apostle. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews:

A Drama With Realism, Heart & Dignity.......2007-09-05

This is a movie with a lot of "dignity." It has such realistic people, it kept me fascinated because it seemed so different from most films I've watched.

There aren't a lot of dramatic things that happen in the story yet, as a whole, it's a wonderful tale that stays with you. It's a lot more than just seeing an Oscar-winning performance by Robert Duvall as Texan and former C&W singer and writer, "Mac Sledge." It's simply good storytelling I can't say I am a fan of Duvall's country singing, but that is the only thing I didn't like. Well, maybe "Dixie" (Betty Buckley), who played a bitter ex-wife of Duvall's in here. She was not pleasant, but others were really nice, likable people. Yet, this is not some sappy movie just because most of the people are good folks.

As in film noirs in which the viewer has a sense of dread, knowing something bad is around the corner, I felt the same thing in this film, even though it didn't necessarily happen. I mean with the main characters: Mac, Rosa Lee and Sonny. There was underlying tension, probably because of Sledge's alcoholic and violent past, that made me fear that any minute he was going to ruin the nice setup he had with a good woman and nice stepson.

Duvall, as usual, makes his role a fascinating and unpredictable one. With many of the people he has played over the years, you never am sure what his characters are going to do next. Tess Harper, as Mac's new wife, and Alan Hubbard, as her son, are two of the most realistic characters I've ever seen on film. It helped they were from the area so their accents were real.

This is a just straight drama, with a solid screenplay by Horton Foote and direction by Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy"). In addition, actors Buckley (who can sing, too), Wilford Brimley and Ellen Barkin all give memorable supporting performances. It was an interesting tale of something I have rarely seen on film in the past 50 years: a good Christian woman lifting up a man to her level. She never had to do it verbally, never nagged or preached to the man, just set example of how to act and be a loving, supportive spouse. There is a lesson for people here with how well "Rosa Lee" handled situations. Nice.....very nice.

Tender Mercies.......2007-08-01

Didn't care much for the plot. I think Duvall was sort of mis-cast in that kind of movie but obviously I am far from being an authority on the subject

Deep in the heart of Texas. . ........2007-07-25

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.

Great movie @ a great price.......2007-05-30

Have been looking for this movie for years and finally found it on DVD. It is a good story line with a great performance from Duvall. A good family movie.

Gentle, dignified love story.......2007-05-29

I appreciate the gentle, dignified writing style of Horton Foote. I first experienced his unique style of writing in his Oscar-winning screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird. In that film, he confronted racial injustice, and in the end challenged our answer to the question, "What is justice?" without clunking us over the head. Robert Duvall made his big screen debut in Mockingbird.

In Tender Mercies, Foote and Duvall team up again, and both men win Oscars. This time Foote takes us on the journey of a famous country singer/songwriter, Mac Sledge (Duvall), down on his luck due to years of alcohol abuse. Broke, and with a motel room to pay for when a friend skips out, Mac experiences the tender mercies of the kindly innkeeper, Rosa Lee (Tess Harper in her big screen debut). Again, Foote doesn't clunk us over the head with overt displays of affection, but this is a love story nonetheless, and a good one.

Average customer rating:

A Drama With Realism, Heart & Dignity
Tender Mercies
Deep in the heart of Texas. . .
Great movie @ a great price
Gentle, dignified love story

Tender Mercies
Starring: Robert Duvall , Tess Harper , Betty Buckley , Wilford Brimley , and Ellen Barkin
Director: Bruce Beresford
Manufacturer: Republic Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0782010679
Release Date: 1999-06-22

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Customer Reviews:

A Drama With Realism, Heart & Dignity.......2007-09-05

Tender Mercies.......2007-08-01

Didn't care much for the plot. I think Duvall was sort of mis-cast in that kind of movie but obviously I am far from being an authority on the subject

Deep in the heart of Texas. . ........2007-07-25

Great movie @ a great price.......2007-05-30

Have been looking for this movie for years and finally found it on DVD. It is a good story line with a great performance from Duvall. A good family movie.

Gentle, dignified love story.......2007-05-29

Great Performances (Frances / Plenty / Tender Mercies)

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Great Performances (Frances / Plenty / Tender Mercies)
Starring: Jessica Lange , Kim Stanley , Sam Shepard , Bart Burns , and Jonathan Banks
Director: Graeme Clifford , Fred Schepisi , and Bruce Beresford
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000844JG
Release Date: 2003-04-29

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Frances
Jessica Lange gives a career performance in a role she was born to play: the talented and troubled Frances Farmer. Farmer's awful trajectory travels from bright Seattle girl to 1930s Hollywood starlet to degraded (eventually lobotomized) mental patient. Lange, who has the blond, clean look of Farmer's heyday, goes into these places with the fierce abandon of a true believer. Her performance, the lush John Barry score, and the period re-creation are all worth applauding; almost everything else fails. Everyone except Farmer is grotesquely caricatured to fit the movie's thesis, which is that if you are intelligent and nonconformist, the system will resolutely destroy you. (The medical establishment is evil incarnate.) This simple conclusion seems inadequate and disrespectful of Frances Farmer's tragic problems. For a radiant glimpse of what the real Farmer had to offer, see Howard Hawks's Come and Get It, which bristles with excitement over a new discovery. --Robert Horton

Plenty
David Hare's Broadway play--about political idealism and the way some people always need to be fighting for a cause--was credibly transferred to the screen by director Fred Schepisi from Hare's screenplay. Meryl Streep (in the midst of a streak of movies that required accents) plays a British woman who fought for the French Resistance during World War II. When she returns to normal life in post-war England and marries a diplomat, she becomes something of a terror--speaking her mind when, of course, diplomacy dictates otherwise. Did she leave the best part of herself in France, where life was more meaningful and immediate? Hare's comment on Great Britain's post-war slide into Thatcherism, this film features a tough-minded (and not particularly likable) performance by Streep, who is actually quite good. It's a hard movie to embrace, but a well-made one nonetheless. --Marshall Fine

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Customer Reviews:

A Drama With Realism, Heart & Dignity.......2007-09-05

Tender Mercies.......2007-08-01

Didn't care much for the plot. I think Duvall was sort of mis-cast in that kind of movie but obviously I am far from being an authority on the subject

Deep in the heart of Texas. . ........2007-07-25

Great movie @ a great price.......2007-05-30

Have been looking for this movie for years and finally found it on DVD. It is a good story line with a great performance from Duvall. A good family movie.

Gentle, dignified love story.......2007-05-29

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose (January 29, 1998)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Educational | Genres | DVD | Video

Amazon.com

An hour with actor Robert Duvall. Over the years, Duvall has created some of the most memorable film characters, from Major Frank Burns in M*A*S*H and Tom Hagen in The Godfather to Lt. Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now and Max Sledge in Tender Mercies. Tonight, he talks to Charlie about telling the story of a character he created in a film he produced. In the new film, The Apostle, Duvall plays a Pentecostal preacher from the south who puts his wife's lover into a coma, then flees, in an effort to rediscover himself.

Charlie Rose with Robert Duvall (March 11, 1998)

Average customer rating:

A good accompaniment to movie The Apostle (1997)

Charlie Rose with Robert Duvall (March 11, 1998)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Description

A rebroadcast of a discussion with actor Robert Duvall about his films, "The Apostle" and "The Gingerbread Man" (from January 29, 1998)

Customer Reviews:

A good accompaniment to movie The Apostle (1997).......2007-05-24

For fans of The Apostle (1997) with Robert Duvall, this is a great accompaniment. A thoughtful interview, as always, by Charlie Rose. The Apostle - Collector's Edition

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