What does a resurrection look like?
In film, it’s often pretty spectacular. There are the literal resurrections, of course: E.T.’s heart flaring to life again in “E.T. the Extraterrestrial” (1982), or Neo in “The Matrix” (1999) rising from the floor and stopping bullets in midair. Even the more metaphorical resurrections tend to be moments of great triumph: the washed-up athlete wins one final game, the down-and-out performer plays their greatest show in years. The score swells, the crowd roars and the movie ends with our hero victorious and vindicated.
But in Bruce Beresford’s “Tender Mercies” (1983), resurrection is a quiet thing. There is no stadium full of screaming fans, no gold medal, no jubilant score (or much score at all, for that matter). The film, written by Horton Foote, is the story of one man’s hesitant, modest steps towards a second chance that he’s not sure he deserves. It’s an everyday resurrection, which makes it no less extraordinary.
Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall) was a successful country singer-songwriter before his drinking tanked his career. We meet him years later, divorced, long out-of-touch with his only daughter, and waking up hungover on the carpet of a West Texas motel room. Broke, he offers to do odd jobs around the motel/gas station for the owner, the young widow Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), who lives on the grounds with her son, Sonny (Allan Hubbard). She agrees, provided that he stops drinking. Before long, their professional arrangement turns personal, and Mac and Rosa Lee marry. After so much hard living, Mac seems satisfied to settle into quiet domesticity.
But the past keeps calling. People recognize him on the street (“Were you really Mac Sledge?” a woman asks him. Mac’s reply: “Yes ma’am, I guess I was.”) and a van full of fans turn up at the gas station to pay tribute. He reconnects with his ex-wife, country star Dixie (Betty Buckley) and old manager, Harry (Wilford Brimley), which leads to a reunion with his now-adult daughter, Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin). And despite not missing stardom, he finds that he does miss the music. He begins writing songs again, this time just for the love of it, and a new chapter in his artistic life begins.
Robert Duvall, who passed away last month, plays Mac with both grit and vulnerability. This is a man who has been beaten up by life, but is clear-eyed about how much he contributed to his own ruin. He admits as much through Foote’s spare dialogue, but what sells it is Duvall’s gentle, grounded performance. At the time, Duvall hoped for a revival of his own career, aiming for more starring roles instead of supporting parts (a 1977 People article described him as “Hollywood’s No. 1 No. 2 lead”). It worked: “Tender Mercies” earned him his first Oscar win for Best Actor, and bigger roles followed.
Duvall’s great talent as an actor was his honesty, his ability to embody a character with so much authenticity. “Tender Mercies” shares the same strength. It would be easy to ramp up the drama with shouted monologues and harrowing flashbacks. They could even have given Mac a more grandiose goal: to reclaim his faded fame, or to prove himself to all of those who abandoned him.
But resurrection often looks much more ordinary than that, and Mac’s is no exception. We see it in Rosa Lee’s simple generosity and love for him, her willingness to both understand him and to demand that he give her his best. We see it in the faith community he finds at Rosa Lee’s church, where he eventually is inspired to get baptized. And of course, there’s the music: separated from the corrosive effects of fame, it becomes a pure conduit of grace.
Mac’s resurrection remains a work in progress. He still makes mistakes and has to seek reconciliation. He attempts to heal some of the pain he caused in the past, but also has to accept that some of those wounds will never close. And a tragic event late in the film shows him that happiness will not insulate him from heartbreak. But the love and grace he has found make him more capable of bearing that heartbreak and whatever else might come. After his baptism, Sonny asks Mac if he feels different. “Not yet,” he responds, with a small smile. These things, he’s learned, take time.
“Tender Mercies” is streaming on Tubi and available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime.
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