Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

bkoganbing Red State America never got treated better than in Tender Mercies. It's a simple and sublime story of a former country singing star trying to pick up the pieces of his life.At one time Robert Duvall was one of the biggest names in country music with an appetite for life's pleasures to match. There's an opening flashback scene where we see a frightened Betty Buckley both trying to get away from a raging and drunken Duvall and protecting their little girl at the same time.As Duvall has drifted into obscurity Buckley has grown into a big country Loretta Lynn/Patsy Cline type superstar. Now with her taking her tour into the area of Texas the two are destined to meet.Duvall is now married to a woman who owns a small motel and filling station and he's a loving stepdad to young Allyn Hubbard. Tess Harper and Duvall are happy but both have a lot of stuff that is unsaid that gets said during the course of the film. Duvall also has now reunited with his daughter Ellen Barkin who may have inherited talent from both ends of the gene pool.Tender Mercies is simple and profound with not a false note struck either in the singing or the acting. You will rarely see a performance as profound and as underplayed as Duvall's is this side of Spencer Tracy. Small wonder he was the Best Actor Oscar winner. Horton Foote's original screenplay also won the other Oscar that Tender Mercies took home.If you're a country music fan you'll love this film and for Robert Duvall fans it's a must.

bigverybadtom I saw it in the library and noticed it was an award winner, so I checked it out and watched it with my mother. Neither of us were impressed.The story is about a former country music star who has collapsed into alcoholism and vagrancy, and ultimately winds up at a rural motel/gas station run by a young widow and her young son. He offers to work for her, and she accepts, telling him he could not drink. But he is still a country music legend, and he is first visited by a reporter, then a garage band who want to meet him. Also in the region are his ex-wife, also a country music star, and their daughter. The rest of the story, of course, has Mac's past catching up to him.While the performances and characters are all credible, especially of the little boy who acts like a genuine little boy and not a precocious stereotype, the story is predictable and holds little in the way of surprises. The song that makes a major part of the story isn't even very good. We don't even learn much of anything about the country music industry or culture.Not bad but not good either. It must have been a lean year at the Oscars.

Michael_Elliott Tender Mercies (1983)*** (out of 4) Robert Duvall picked up the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Mac Sledge, a country music singer who finds himself broke due to alcohol. He ends up working at a small Texas gas station owned by a widow (Tess Harper) and her young son. Soon Max and the woman are married and he tries to get his life back in order and that includes trying to start a relationship with his own daughter (Ellen Barkin) who he had left years earlier. It's well known that this films original studio (Universal) were pretty much dead-set against this film and didn't bother to promote it, try to push it in theaters or anything else because they felt the film was a lost cause. I guess you could understand that because the movie is about as low-key as they come so I'm sure many people in 1983 would have been turned off by it but at the same time it's rather shocking that the studio didn't see how great Duvall was in it. The picture eventually got some Oscar nominations and became better known but I guess we should be thankful that the studio didn't completely give up on it. The main reason to see the movie is due to the performances with Duvall easily leading the way. Like Spencer Tracy before him, Duvall never gets the credit he deserves because I think he makes acting seem so easy. It rather amazing to watch someone like Duvall because of how easy they make acting seem and because of how terrific he is acting without words. There's a lot of range going on here but just watch the way Duvall doesn't use words to explain how he's feeling but instead he simply uses his eyes. The supporting cast is also very impressive with Harper standing terrific against Duvall as she too is very quiet in the film but we also know what she's feeling. The young Barkin doesn't have too many scenes here but she's impressive when on screen. Betty Buckley is wonderful as Duvall's ex-wife and Wilford Brimley is good as usual. The film's strong performances are certainly the main reason to check it out but I do think the film falls well short of being a great movie. I think the low-key nature works to a point but in the end there are a couple major turns in the story that I felt should have more of an impact but they didn't. I think the emotional range isn't quite there and at times it seems as if the movie is just too simple for its own good. I'm going to guess that the simple nature of country music is what they were trying to give us but I think it's just a tad bit too laid back. With that said, it's easy to see why Duvall won all the acclaim he did as he's certainly one of the greatest actors of all time and this is a perfect example for anyone needing to see proof of that.

giora77 This is the kind of film you leave with a new appreciation for life. The story focuses on Mac Sledge, a retired Country singer who had lost faith in everything- life, love, success, and hope. He moves to a motel in plans of drinking himself to death. Just then, perhaps of unbearable loneliness and his destructive state, he befriends with the motel's manager, and she agrees to let him stay and help her run her gas station.Slowly but gradually, Sledge begins to fall in love with her, and his appreciation of the tender mercies in life is sparked. The quite lifestyle he now conducts makes him give up his major bad habit- the drinking.Horton Foote, the screenwriter, does brilliant work in weaving Sledges experiences and inner thoughts into an inspiring story. Using no cheap Hollywood manipulations, he subtly constructs a sincere and deeply moving portrayal of a man who wouldn't easily give up on his past demons- only to find out life had different plans for him. We slowly get to know Sledge, one piece at a time, and by the end of the film we identify with the character to such a level, that we wish we could feel the empowering impact of life, just as he did.Robert Duvall is fantastic in his honest portrayal, mastering the smallest of nuances and brilliantly conveying Sledge's inner feelings and dilemmas.This is a movie for the patient watcher. Especially in this modern era where the watcher's eye can't focus on an image if it's still for more than five seconds. I assure you, however, that as this film unfolds, you will find yourself having a similar fulfilling journey just like the one the main character goes through. And how many modern films are able to grant you the same experience?