By Dan Skip Allen 

Robert Duvall came on the scene in Hollywood when he played the shy yet spooky Boo Radley in “To Kill A Mockingbird” The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from author Harper Lee turned major motion picture. Since then, he has had notable roles in the Godfather franchise as Tom Hag, the consigliari/lawyer to Don CoCorleone (Marlon Brando). and he played Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore, famous for the quote “I Love the Smell of Napalm in the Morning”, in Apocalypse Now, both directed by Francis Ford Coppola and in The Great Santini as Bull Meachem. Along with roles in THX 1138 from director George Lucas and many other performances as well, I think the best performance of his career is as Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies.

Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) is an aging ex-country music singer in Texas. He was an alcoholic and abusive husband to his ex-wife Dixie (Betty Buckley), also a singer. He decides to start a new life for himself when he drives to a country motel in his green and white Chevy truck. After staying the night, he asks if the owner, Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), needs a handle man and / or has a job available. She tells him he she does have a job available for two dollars an hour and room and board as well. Little does she know he’s an ex-country music singer trying to lay low and start over. The towns folk recognize him and want him to write and / or perform with them, but he’s given all that up for a quiet life. He can’t get away from his past, though.

As a man who had a daughter of his own, Sue Anne (Ellan Barkin), now a teenager he realizes the hotel owner has a son who needs a father figure in his life. His father died shortly after he was born. Duvall’s character tries to be a father to the young boy Sonny (Alan Hubbard). He teaches him how to play music using his guitar, which is something his mother likes. He becomes a man they can count on in their lives. He works hard around the motel and draws people to town because of who he was in his past. Settling down is what he wants, and these two are the family he wished he had all along instead of squandering his past relationship because of alcoholism and abusive behavior. He has the opportunity to start over now.

This type of character he played in “Tender Mercies “ reminded me a lot of myself to some extent and my father to a bigger extent. We both were alcoholics and we had issues in our lives with relationships and anger issues. More of my father than me, but I tried being a good man after I gave up alcohol.  I’ve been 12 years old, going on 13 years sober. I gave it up because of the mistakes I made when I was younger. I lost track of who I was and where I wanted to go in my life. Similar in tone to the character in this film. Duvall brought those aspects to his character, and it hit me hard. The emotion he’s able to bring to his performances is a special ability not many actors have. 

One aspect of “Tender Mercies” that I wasn’t as big a fan of going into the film was the country music elements. I’m not a big country music fan, but films like “Coal Miners Daughter” and “Walk the Line” made me more of a country music fan than I thought I ever would be. The songs sung by Duvall and others in the movie are very good. Country music brings a level of humanity to the songs and those who sing this genre of music. It’s kind of personal style not all musicians can muster. The music in this film was part of its DNA. You couldn’t have had this story without the soundtrack and / or original songs. 

Duvall gives an Academy Award winning performance as this man who is trying to start over after making mistakes in the past. This was his first Oscar win after having been nominated 7 times in total, in his career, spanning 5 decades. Duvall has been in Award winning television shows like Lonesome Dove as well. He has acted in Westerns, war films, courtroom dramas, and many other genres. I’ve been a fan of his my entire life. Ever since I saw him in the first two Godfather films. And later in Apocalypse Now. He had an innate ability to turn the littlest role into a big one. With his bigger than life personality on screen. He demanded the viewer’s attention. Even later, in his career, when younger actors took the spotlight in movies like A Civil Action and the Judge, he found a way to stand out because of who he was as an actor. 

4 ½ stars