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quiet, thought provoking

Customer Rating:
"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.

Solid performance. Beautiful scenery. Loneliness.

Customer Rating:
What a sleeper this movie is!

I have only recently discovered the versatile talents of Robert Duvall and bought this because of his Oscar winning role in this movie. The Oscar is well-deserved but so are the performances of everyone else: Tess Harper in her theatrical debut, young Ellen Barkin and Texas-born child actor Allen Hubbard also round out the story.

Duvall plays a recovering alcoholic who tries to hide from his past. His past is filled with hard drinking, violence and carelessness. This behavior results in his divorce from his country-singing wife (Betty Buckley) who is still making her Opry rounds with great success.

But this is not just a movie about a former alcoholic fighting for redemption. You don't see Duvall drink in this movie. This is about lost love, war, internal personal struggles, faith and second chances. This is an emotional movie. One realizes early in this slow-moving film that there are secrets that will be revealed. It takes a tragic death for the main characters to come together, all which come to surface in the last ten minutes when Duvall's character talks emotionally to Tess Harper in her small garden patch as the wind blows her hair and dress wayward. Very touching.

Duvall is a convincingly good singer. There is no dubbing his voice in this film.

This movie was filmed in around Parker and Waxahachie, Texas, two isolated and lonely small towns that are constant backdrops of the story. The dry flat prarie, the blowing sand, the wide blue skies, the wind-blown traffic signs and the gentle demeanor of the characters make this truly a good Texas movie.

A bonus to this copy is the 32-minute extra "Miracles and Mercies" of the director and the main characters talking about their feelings of making this movie nearly 20 years after this movie was made. This was a harmonious cast of actors and directors who got together to make this masterpiece.

2nd time

Customer Rating:
I don't know how I missed this movie when it first came out, but it was such a surprise to me when I finally watched it. Not being a fan of country music may have made me hesitant, but enjoyed this movie the first time I watched it (through Netflix on my computer) and ordered a DVD for my home collection and one for my sister so we could watch it together and she could take one home with her. Every time I have watched it I like it better. This movie has launched several of us into long discussions of "what makes a successful life". Wonderful movie that hasn't become dated with time.

Careful of this one...

Customer Rating:
Not listed as anamprphic. Anchor Bay version is. Main actor (Robert Duvall) not even mentioned in blurb. Movie is 4 star. Tess Harper is the weak link here. Duvall sings...sounds pretty good too!

Lord, have mercy...

Customer Rating:
I understand why Robert Duvall won the Oscar for this riveting and very beautifully restrained performance, but I fail to see why any other aspect of this movie is regarded as worthy of our praise. Personally I found the film a missed opportunity, and that upsets me since it had so much promise.

`Tender Mercies' tells the story of Mac Sledge, a famous country singer turned drunk who squandered his fame and fortune, lost his wife and child and wound up broke, working off his room and board at a motel/service station. He cleans up his act and falls in love with the owner of the motel, widow Rosa Lee, whose husband died in Vietnam. Mac marries Rosa Lee and all seems well until the urge to get back into music comes knocking on their front door. Mac attempts to write new songs, interact with his ex-wife and now teenage daughter, and fight the urge to fall back into drinking.

He finds God, he finds love and he finds himself.

Like I said, this sounds great, but it falls short in just about every area. The biggest issue I have is the films construction. I skips around so much that we never really get to understand the characters. Months go by in a few seconds, if just feels rushed. The film is under two and a half hours, which is a shame because more time was needed to flesh out these people without making them feel like caricatures. This method of delivery really takes its toll on the characters of Rosa Lee and her young son Sonny. Because so little time is spent getting to know them they come off rather uninteresting, and when they attempt to fill us in on who they are it comes off forced. It just doesn't feel natural some of their conversations; those spur of the moment "mommy, how did daddy die" conversations feel out of place.

Another issue I have is the poor acting. Like I mentioned, I understand the love for Duvall. His turn is devastatingly understated. He really understood this character and delivers a memorable and remarkable performance here. There is a passion in Duvall, a passion that is made apparent in characters he feels adjacent to. I saw it in `The Apostle' and I saw it here as well. Aside from Duvall though, the acting is very spotty. Tess Harper and Allan Hubbard suffer mostly because of the scripting of their characters, but that aside Hubbard especially is very bad. Betty Buckley is uneven as Dixie, Mac's ex-wife. I loved her first few scenes, but her final nervous breakdown was way too over the top. Ellen Barkin was stunning in her few scenes, I won't fault her a thing. Her conversation with Duvall has the perfect mix of adoration and uncomfortable confusion.

A lot of people love this movie. It was Oscar nominated for almost every big award, including Best Director and Best Picture, but honestly, Duvall is all this movie deserves. It had so much potential, but its poor construction and spotty supporting cast leave for a very underwhelming film.