Tender Mercies (1983) on Netflix
Country singer Mac Sledge, his career wrecked by drink, offers maintenance work at a Texas motel for a room. Widow Rosa Lee agrees, if he does not drink while he works.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.3/1014,693 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
Country singer Mac Sledge, whose career and family were wrecked by alcohol, wakes after a night of heavy drinking at a run-down Texas motel and gas station. He offers the owner, Rosa Lee, maintenance work in exchange for a room, and she agrees on the condition that he does not drink while he works. Rosa Lee is raising her son, Sonny, alone; her husband died in the Vietnam War. Mac gives up alcohol, and he and Rosa Lee marry and start attending a Baptist church. A newspaper reporter then visits the motel to ask whether Mac has stopped recording music and has chosen to live anonymously, and mentions that Mac's former wife, the country star Dixie Scott, is performing nearby.
Cast
- Allan Hubbardas Sonny
- Norman Bennettas Reverend Hotchkiss
- Andrew Scott Hollonas Larue
- Rick Murrayas Jake - Slater Mill Boys Member
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Tender Mercies (1983)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bruce Beresford became so frustrated during a phone conversation with Robert Duvall that he said, "Well if you want to direct the film, go right ahead," and walked off the set; he flew to New York and reportedly was ready to quit, until Duvall flew out to speak with him.
- Robert Duvall drove about 680 miles to research the part, often asking people to speak into his tape recorder so he could practice their inflections and other vocal habits; upon finding one man with the exact accent he wanted, Duvall had him recite the entire script into the recorder.
- Bruce Beresford was hired to direct only after receiving final approval from Robert Duvall, who had a clause in his contract allowing him such approval - the first time he had this power on a film.
- Director Bruce Beresford said preview audiences seemed so engaged that the theaters were silent - "if you flicked a piece of paper on the floor, you could hear it fall" - but the post-screening feedback was "absolutely disastrous", and Universal executives lost faith and made little effort to promote the film.
- Robert Duvall was the only American actor nominated for the Best Actor Oscar that year; his competition were the Britons Michael Caine, who had co-starred with Duvall in the 1976 The Eagle Has Landed, Tom Conti, Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney.
- Tess Harper was performing on stage in Texas when she attended a casting call for a minor role in the film, and Beresford was so impressed with her that he cast her in the lead.
- The film was given a budget of $4.5 million, modest by Hollywood standards at the time, and Philip Hobel said it took about a year to secure the financing from EMI Films, whose major 1981 release, Honky Tonk Freeway, had done poor box office.
- The Hobels mailed the script to Australian director Bruce Beresford because they were impressed by his 1980 film Breaker Morant; what they saw in it, Philip Hobel said, was "an attention to the environment, a straightforward presentation; it's almost a documentary approach."
