Tender
Mercies by Horton Foote
10 out of
10
Tender Mercies
may be the perfect example of a cinematic masterpiece that is simple,
conservative, does not have car chases – although there are a couple of tragic
accidents – and anything that keep the franchises of the Avengers, Transformers,
X Men and so many others going for ever.
By a strange
coincidence – albeit if we make the effort to see great films and avoid the
mass market Avengers and Fast Furious one to twenty five, we are likely to see
films by the same geniuses – this viewer has just seen on Cinemax Breaker
Morant and after two days there comes another spectacular feature helmed by the
same outstanding director: Bruce Beresford.
Tender Mercies
has won two Oscars and Horton Foote, who has written the screenplay for To Kill
a Mocking Bird, has won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Written Directly
for the Screen.
It is included
on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list:
Robert Duvall
has the main role, for which he won a very well deserved Academy Award – one of
the seven he was nominated for, this being the artist that has had some of the
best performances ever in iconic films like The Godfather – if not the best,
then one of the five best ever made – Apocalypse Now, the Apostle and sometimes
lesser films like The Judge.
This wonderful
performer has won four Golden Globes, Emmy, BAFTA and another 56 prestigious
prizes.
The iconic
master talks in videos you can find on YouTube about the experience of working
with various other legends, Marlon Brando and the manner in which the filmmakers
had to write his lines on the walls, the ceiling and sometimes the other members
of the cast because the titan would not learn his part by heart, at least from
one stage in his career on.
Robert Duvall
is Mac Sledge, the main character that in the opening scenes seems to be a
drunkard – well, he is for a good part of his life – and the public is thinking
that this might be a personage that will teach us lessons along the lines of
what not to do with our lives.
Destitute as
he is, broke and without perspectives, he walks to the gas station nearby and asks
the owner, Rosa Lee played with grace, skill and charm by Tess Harper, to give
him a job.
Rosa Lee is
a widower, her husband has died as a very young man – they had married when she
was just sixteen – in the Vietnam War, although she does not know how, for when
she asked, she was told that they just found his cadaver in a zone where three
battles where ongoing, he might have died in one of those or he could have been
shot by a sniper while walking.
She has a
son, Sonny, who seems to be about six, who would get along well with Mac
Sledge, although the relationship of the man with his only daughter is not as
good, indeed, he had not seen her in seven years and she is now a beautiful,
grown up woman who will try to re-establish their natural connection.
We learn
that the character that seemed to be just an alcoholic was once a star of
country music, admired by many people – once in a while he is stopped and with
humor, one fan asks if he really “was” Mac Sledge – to the fury of his former wife,
Dixie, who upon being told that he was the greatest, she throws whiskey in the
face of the one who had said that – just to spite her, she claims.
Dixie still
sings and is very appreciated as a country musician, but the marriage has ended
up in acrimony – when Sue Anne, their daughter played by the formidable Ellen
Barkin, asks if it is true that her father had once tried to kill her mother,
Mac admits it is true, for when drunk, which he was so often, he lost his
senses.
Mac Sledge
and Rosa Lee become very attached and their love leads to matrimony, with the former
alcoholic gradually getting rid of his awful addiction and eventually writing
again songs, one of which he brings to his ex-spouse that rejects it as lousy
and so does Harry, her manager – only to regret it later.
Sue Anne
comes to her estranged father’s new home one day and the reunion is touching,
albeit without any spoiler alerts let us just say the new found warmth does not
last for long.
Meanwhile,
a band of amateur country musicians – in the sense that they have regular jobs
to be able to put food on the table – comes to pay their respects to the legendary
Sledge and they love his new composition, play it and this attracts the interest
of a record company.
The former
great singer is not sure he wants to try a comeback – perhaps because his
former fame was associated with a dissolution, the violence of his fights with
his former partner – we learn that he had had another, first wife when he was
just seventeen – and he does not want to repeat that – for he has found bliss
and happiness, he is baptized in the local church.
The title
of this fabulous motion picture probably refers to the Tender Mercies as
provided by the Lord – obviously, for those who believe in him, which is not the
case for this viewer, but Rosa Lee uses the term in connection with the church,
where she sings in the choir.
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