"Tender Mercies" (1983) is about a former successful musician named Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) who lost everything good in his life due to alcohol. When the film opens, he and a friend are staying in a motel, getting drunk and fighting while the proprietor, Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), and her young son, Carl (known as Sonny, played by Allan Hubbard), watch from their porch. When the friend skips out before paying the bill the next day, Mac offers to work for Rosa Lee in order to compensate for the room. She agrees, but tells him that he can’t drink while he’s working there.
Thus begins Mac’s slow streak of improving his life. He sticks with sobriety, marries Rosa Lee, and starts writing music again. It’s the kind of movie that’s not really plot-driven … more slice of life, at arm’s length, character study about Mac’s quiet redemption. Other highlights are Betty Buckley, who plays Mac’s successful country star ex-wife, Dixie, and Ellen Barkin as Mac’s estranged teen daughter, Sue Ann. The screenplay is written by Horton Foote, who won the best adapted screenplay Oscar for “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 1962. He also won a best original screenplay Oscar for “Tender Mercies” in 1983 and has a Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play, “The Young Man From Atlanta” and an Emmy for a TV adaptation of William Faulkner’s “Old Man.” The director, Bruce Beresford (who we completely forgot to mention by name — sorry, Bruce), is probably best known for “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989), although my personal favorite film of his is “Double Jeopardy” (1999).
Here are some things we mentioned during the episode and/or that we think you should check out: