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Rosa Lee's church. Eventually, Sue Anne visits Mac—their first encounter since |
she was a baby. Mac asks whether she got any of his letters, and she says her |
mother kept them from her. She also reports that Dixie tried to keep her from |
visiting Mac, and that, despite her mother's objections, she is eloping with |
her boyfriend. Mac admits that he used to hit Dixie and that she divorced him |
after he tried to kill her in a drunken rage. Sue Anne asks whether Mac |
remembers a song about a dove he sang to her when she was a baby. He claims he |
does not, but after she leaves, he sings to himself the hymn " On the Wings of |
a Dove ," which refers to a dove from the Lord saving Noah, and to the Holy |
Spirit descending in the form of a dove at Jesus' baptism. I don't know why I |
wandered out to this part of Texas drunk, and you took me in and pitied me and |
helped me to straighten out, marry me. Why? Why did that happen? Is there a |
reason that happened? And Sonny's daddy died in the war, my daughter killed in |
an automobile accident. Why? See, I don't trust happiness. I never did; I |
never will. Mac, to Rosa Lee [2] Boys at school bully Sonny about his dead |
father, and he and Mac grow closer. The members of the local country band ask |
Mac permission to perform one of his songs, and he agrees. Mac begins |
performing with them and they make plans to record together. His newfound |
happiness is interrupted when Sue Anne dies in a car accident. Mac attends his |
daughter's funeral at Dixie's lavish home in Nashville and comforts her when |
she breaks down. He also complains to Rosa Lee that, during their marriage, |
Dixie kept saying she would give up her career but never did. Back home, Mac |
keeps quiet about his emotional pain, although he wonders aloud to Rosa Lee |
why his once sorry existence has been given meaning and, on the other hand, |
his daughter has died. Throughout his mourning, Mac continues his new life |
with Rosa Lee and Sonny. In the final scene, Sonny finds a football that Mac |
has left as a gift for him. Mac is watching the motel from a field across the |
road, singing "On the Wings of a Dove" to himself. Sonny thanks him for the |
football and the two play catch together in the field as Rosa Lee watches them |
from inside the motel through a window. Cast [ edit ] Robert Duvall as Mac |
Sledge Tess Harper as Rosa Lee Betty Buckley as Dixie Wilford Brimley as Harry |
Ellen Barkin as Sue Anne Allan Hubbard as Sonny Lenny Von Dohlen as Robert |
Paul Gleason as Reporter Michael Crabtree as Lewis Menefee Norman Bennett as |
Reverend Hotchkiss Production [ edit ] Writing [ edit ] Playwright Horton |
Foote reportedly considered giving up on film writing, due to what he regarded |
as a poor adaptation of his 1952 play The Chase into a 1966 film of the same |
name , in which Robert Duvall had a supporting role. Following what Foote saw |
as a far more successful adaptation of his 1968 play Tomorrow in the 1972 |
feature film of the same name starring Duvall (who had his movie debut as Boo |
Radley in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird that was scripted by Foote), his |
interest in filmmaking was rekindled, with the condition that he maintain some |
degree of control over the final product. Foote said of this stage in his |
career, "I learned that film really should be like theatre in the sense that, |
in theatre, the writer is, of course, very dominant ... If we don't like |
something, we can speak our minds. ... It is always a collaborative effort. |
... But in Hollywood it wasn't so. A writer there has in his contract that you |
are a writer for hire, which means that you write a script, then it belongs to |
them." [3] This renewed interest in cinema prompted Foote to write Tender |
Mercies , his first work written specifically for the screen. [4] In the view |
of biographer George Terry Barr, the script reflected "Foote's determination |
to battle a Hollywood system that generally refuses to make such personal |
films." [3] The story was inspired partially by Foote's nephew, who struggled |
to succeed in the country music business. Foote was initially interested in |
writing a film based on his nephew's efforts to organise a band, which he saw |
as paralleling his own youthful attempts to find work as an actor. During his |
research, however, he met an experienced musician who had offered to help his |
nephew's band, and Foote found himself growing more interested in a story |
about him, rather than the band itself. [5] Foote said, "This older man had |
been through it all. As I thought about a storyline, I got very interested in |
that type of character." [4] The moment in the film where a woman asks, "Were |
you really Mac Sledge?" and he responds, "Yes ma'am, I guess I was," was based |
on an exchange that Foote overheard between a washed-up star and a fan. Foote |
said the entire film pivots on that statement, which he believed spoke volumes |
about Mac's personality and former status. [6] Foote based Sledge's victory |
over alcoholism on his observations of theatre people struggling with the |
problem. He sought to avoid a melodramatic slant in telling that aspect of the |
story. [4] [5] Foote described his protagonist as "a very hurt, damaged man |
... silence was his weapon". [7] He chose the title Tender Mercies , from the |
Book of Psalms , for its relation to the Rosa Lee character, who he said seeks |
only "certain moments of gentleness or respite, [not] grandness or largeness". |
[4] Foote sought to portray each character as realistic and flawed, but not |
unsympathetic. [5] Although the script conveyed a strong spiritual message |
with religious undertones, Foote felt it was important to balance those |
religious elements with a focus on the practical challenges of everyday life. |
[8] Film historian Gary Edgerton said the Tender Mercies script "catapulted |
Horton Foote into the most active professional period in his life." [3] Film |
director and producer Alan J. Pakula credited the script with helping define |
the American independent film movement of the late 1980s by initiating a trend |
of personal filmmaking that often looks beyond Hollywood conventions. [9] |
Development [ edit ] Duvall, who had appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), |
which Foote adapted from the Harper Lee novel, was involved in Tender Mercies |
as an actor and co-producer from its earliest stages. He said the script |
appealed to him because of the basic values it underlined and because the |
themes were universal even though the story was local. Duvall felt it |
portrayed people from the central region of the United States without |
parodying them, as he said many Hollywood films tend to do. [10] Duvall's |
early involvement led to rumors that he had requested Foote write the script |
for him, something that both men denied. [5] Foote took the script to Philip |
and Mary Ann Hobel, a married couple who ran Antron Media Production and had |
produced more than 200 documentaries between them. Foote felt their background |
in documentaries would lend Tender Mercies the authenticity he and Duvall were |
seeking. The Hobels agreed to produce it after reading and liking the script; |
it would become their feature film debut as producers. The Hobels approached |
EMI Films , a British film and television production company, which agreed to |
provide financing for Tender Mercies as long as Duvall remained involved, and |
under the condition the Hobels find a good director. [11] The script was |
rejected by many American directors, creating concerns for Foote and the |
producers that the film would never be made. Foote later said, "This film was |
turned down by every American director on the face of the globe." [7] The |
Hobels eventually mailed the script to Australian director Bruce Beresford |
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