the leading man is my tpye

Very well executed

the audience applauded

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Red State America never got treated better than in Tender Mercies. It's a simple and sublime story of a former country singing star trying to pick up the pieces of his life.At one time Robert Duvall was one of the biggest names in country music with an appetite for life's pleasures to match. There's an opening flashback scene where we see a frightened Betty Buckley both trying to get away from a raging and drunken Duvall and protecting their little girl at the same time.As Duvall has drifted into obscurity Buckley has grown into a big country Loretta Lynn/Patsy Cline type superstar. Now with her taking her tour into the area of Texas the two are destined to meet.Duvall is now married to a woman who owns a small motel and filling station and he's a loving stepdad to young Allyn Hubbard. Tess Harper and Duvall are happy but both have a lot of stuff that is unsaid that gets said during the course of the film. Duvall also has now reunited with his daughter Ellen Barkin who may have inherited talent from both ends of the gene pool.Tender Mercies is simple and profound with not a false note struck either in the singing or the acting. You will rarely see a performance as profound and as underplayed as Duvall's is this side of Spencer Tracy. Small wonder he was the Best Actor Oscar winner. Horton Foote's original screenplay also won the other Oscar that Tender Mercies took home.If you're a country music fan you'll love this film and for Robert Duvall fans it's a must.

Toward the end a character asks a number of why questions; why did this happen, why that? We don't always know why things work out the way they do; but that's life, for everyone. That's kind of the theme of this slow-developing character study of a damaged man named Mac (Robert Duvall), former country songwriter and singer.The script tells the story of Mac and his life in the slow lane, and his relationship to Rosa (Tess Harper) and others around him. It's a story of simple but genuine folks whose lives center on basic human values like dignity, honesty, and absence of pretense The lonely, barren spaces of West Texas provide the backdrop for the story. As such, the film reminds me of three other films about down home folks set in the rural South: "Gilbert Grape", "Silkwood" and "The Last Picture Show".There's not much in the way of high drama here; there's no suspense; nor is there any mystery. The entire plot plays out in a natural sort of way, as does life for most people. Things just happen; we ponder why; we move on.Visuals look realistic with natural lighting and lots of wide-angle camera shots. Also adding to the sense of realism is detailed production design appropriate to rural Texas. Film direction, casting, and acting are fairly competent.My only real complaints relate to the slow pace and the music. If the pace had been any slower, the story would have stopped; and with the absence of high drama or anything startling in the plot, some viewers will become bored, as I did during a few segments. Also, I was disappointed with the country songs that were sung. None were memorable. As such, the film's tone was less evocative than it could have been.Slow-moving and very low-key, "Tender Mercies" offers viewers a plausible and deeply thematic story of life in a rural setting with characters that are believable and fairly likable. Too bad they don't make many films like this anymore.

Greetings again from the darkness. What a cinematic treat to revisit this movie on the big screen some 30 years after its release. Standing in stark contrast to the superhero and graphic novel special effects extravaganzas of today, this little film takes a slow, simmering approach as it deals with real emotions of life.Robert Duvall won his only (so far) Oscar (he's been nominated 6 times) for playing Mac Sledge, a divorced former C&W singer/songwriter who spends each day trying to kill the pain by draining bottles of booze. The similarities to Jeff Bridges' 2009 film Crazy Heart are unmistakable, but this film is much quieter with emotions being relayed through the eyes and body language of the key characters.Mac's gradual path to redemption comes courtesy of war-widow Rosa Lee, played exceedingly well by Tess Harper (her first feature film). Rosa Lee runs a gas station/hotel while raising her young boy named Sonny (Allan Hubbard in his only screen appearance). As the story develops, we meet Mac's ex-wife Dixie, played by a bombastic Betty Buckley (the mom from TV's Eight is Enough, a Tony winner, the helpful teacher in the original Carrie) as she lives a life of luxury and insecurity courtesy of a career singing Mac's songs. Their daughter is played by Ellen Barkin in only her second screen appearance (Diner, 1982). Dixie's manager offers us a chance to see the always superb Wilford Brimley with his drawling charm.The story was written by the remarkable Horton Foote (a native Texan), who also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Mr. Foote also won an Oscar for adapting Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird for the screen, was nominated for The Trip to Bountiful, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1955, and was nicknamed the "American Chekov". His works always captured the essence of what makes people tick, and how they deal with adversity. He passed away in 2009 at age 92.Australian director Bruce Beresford was coming off the masterful Breaker Morant (nominated for his screenplay) and was surprised to be chosen to direct his first American film. He would later go on to direct Driving Miss Daisy, winner of the Best Picture Oscar. Mr. Beresford is now in his 7th decade of film work spanning his 1959 short film and his TV mini-series Bonnie & Clyde from 2013.This is such a no-frills, down-to-earth presentation that it's easy to be tricked into thinking it's a simple story about simple people. Instead, these are complicated folks leading complicated lives in a seemingly quiet manner. Mostly they are re-assembling the pieces as best they can ... some are better at it than others. The core of these people is captured in Mac's line: "I don't trust happiness. I never did. I never will".

As the story opens, washed-up country singer Mac (Robert Duvall) is dead drunk in a shabby Texas motel room. With no money to pay the bill, he starts working for the widow (Tess Harper) who runs the place. Once he stops drinking, he starts liking life again and becomes close to the woman and her young son. Not one to talk about himself or the past, she doesn't know that he was once a big star.This is a wonderful, beautiful story. Duvall excels at playing honest, straightforward characters that are completely lacking in artifice and is convincing as the silent, pained has-been. His compelling performance won the Oscar in 1984. This was Tess Harper's first movie but she acts like a pro; she effortlessly portrays the simple, hardworking woman who is grateful for the tender mercies, or blessings, in her life. The two stars make you feel like you've really been to rural Texas and gotten to know and care about the folks there. The movie is quite similar in mood to "The Last Picture Show," with characters that say what they mean and know who they are.This is a quiet, touching, and utterly engaging movie about interesting people. Heartily recommended.