{"id":3055,"date":"2007-04-25T09:30:20","date_gmt":"2007-04-25T16:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3055"},"modified":"2021-02-01T13:14:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T20:14:44","slug":"tender-mercies-1983","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3055","title":{"rendered":"Tender Mercies (1983)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Every night when I say my prayers and I thank the Lord for his blessings and his tender mercies, you and Sonny hit the list.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-23464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Poster.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA former country music star (Robert Duvall) starts a new life with a young widow (Tess Harper) and her son (Allan Hubbard).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Character Studies<\/li>\n<li>Has-Beens<\/li>\n<li>Musicians<\/li>\n<li>Robert Duvall Films<\/li>\n<li>Romance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary seems less than impressed with this Oscar-winning film, directed by Bruce Bereford and written by Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Horton Foote. In his review, he argues that &#8220;the attempt at realistic dialogue between common people who aren&#8217;t pretentious often comes across as pretentious&#8221;, but I disagree: <em>Tender Mercies<\/em> is a fable-like, episodic character study rather than an exercise in realism, and I find the sparse dialogue to be appropriate. Duvall is both sympathetic and believable as a man so burnt-out on fame and fortune that he gladly finds redemption in the form of a sweet, simple, religious woman; his interactions with Hubbard (a wonderfully natural child actor) are especially poignant. Even more impressive, however, is the way in which Foote&#8217;s screenplay never takes obvious turns: we fully expect Mac to start drinking again once he steps back into the world of country music, but our expectations are foiled.  Although it ends on a melancholy note, <em>Tender Mercies<\/em> is a surprisingly <em>feel-good<\/em> film, one which is guaranteed to leave a lasting impression. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Robert Duvall&#8217;s sympathetic performance as Mac<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Duvall.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Duvall-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-47453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Duvall-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Duvall-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Duvall-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Duvall-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Duvall-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Duvall.png 1709w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Betty Buckley as Mac&#8217;s ex-wife<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Buckley.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Buckley-1024x573.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"358\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-47454\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Buckley-1024x573.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Buckley-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Buckley-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Buckley-768x430.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Buckley-1536x859.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Buckley.png 1725w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Beautiful cinematography of Texas landscapes<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Landscapes2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Landscapes2-1024x574.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-47455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Landscapes2-1024x574.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Landscapes2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Landscapes2-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Landscapes2-768x431.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Landscapes2-1536x861.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/Tender-Mercies-Landscapes2.png 1707w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Horton Foote&#8217;s refreshingly uncliched screenplay<\/li>\n<li>Some genuinely touching country music songs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply for Duvall&#8217;s Oscar-winning performance. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Noteworthy Performance(s)<\/li>\n<li>Oscar Winner or Nominee<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0086423\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1983\/03\/04\/movies\/tender-mercies-robert-duvall-as-texan.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/21354\/tender-mercies#articles-reviews?articleId=140891\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/79052.html\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Every night when I say my prayers and I thank the Lord for his blessings and his tender mercies, you and Sonny hit the list.&#8221; Synopsis: A former country music star (Robert Duvall) starts a new life with a young widow (Tess Harper) and her son (Allan Hubbard). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Character Studies Has-Beens Musicians Robert Duvall Films Romance Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: Peary seems less than impressed with this Oscar-winning film, directed by Bruce Bereford and written&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3055\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3055"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67737,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3055\/revisions\/67737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}