Christian Ethics and the Movies
By David A. Thomas,1
Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Emeritus, University of Richmond
Tender Mercies (1983)
Tender Mercies remains one of the best Christian conversion movies. Made on a low budget in defiance of Hollywood wisdom, the movie featured a signature acting performance by Robert Duvall. Horton Foote`s screenplay also was an Oscar winner that year. Combine that film
with The Apostle (1994), and Duvall has earned his spot as my favorite actor. In addition, the Academy nominated Bruce Beresford as Best Director and the movie as Best Picture.
Not bad for a movie that almost did not get made. Bruce Beresford was not the first choice to direct the film. Any film project based on an explicit Christian theme was poison in Hollywood in those days. No A-list director would have anything to do with it. The film was produced mainly because of Duvall`s faith in the screenplay by Horton Foote. In 1962, Duvall had made his screen debut in To Kill A Mockingbird. Horton Foote also won an Oscar for adapting the screenplay. Duvall had Foote`s respect as an actor and made sure that Duvall had roles in other projects of his.
Tender Mercies is a story about a has-been, broken-down country-and-western singer named Mac Sledge. He is an alcoholic. As the movie opens, Sledge is drunk and passed-out in a rural motel near Waxahachie, Texas. The next morning, Sledge`s drinking buddy has vanished, leaving him with the unpaid bill, which he cannot cover. Embarrassed, he reports to the office manager and offers to work off his debt.
Tess Harper, a local Texas stage actress making her movie debut, plays Rosa Lee, a single mom with a young son. Rosa Lee is the owner and operator of the small motel. She is lonely but pragmatic. She made a deal with Sledge to allow him to do enough handyman chores to pay off his debt, provided he would agree not to drink on the job.
An unusual love story ensued between the two. Sledge came to terms with his failings as a person. He accepted the fact that he would never be a big celebrity in the C&W world again. Willing to start over to rebuild a new and more modest life, he stayed on at the motel as an employee. One day he shyly proposed, "You wouldn`t think about marrying me, would you?" Rosa Lee responded matter-of-factly, "Yes, I would."
A touching feature of the movie is its original C&W sound track. One of the songs received an Oscar nomination. Duvall sang all of his own songs and actually wrote every one of them, except for On the Wings of a Dove.
The power of the movie does not come just from their cautious midlife romance. Rather, it is the portrayal of Mac Sledge`s spiritual journey from the depths to a redemptive transformation. The movie depicts it as a surprise baptism in the local Baptist Church on the day when Rose Mary`s son joins the church. (You know it is a Baptist Church because the ritual is by immersion, and the pastor intones the Trinitarian baptismal formula.) Rosa Lee thanks the Lord for His blessings and tender mercies.
The setting for the film is the wide-open blacklands of central Texas during the fall and winter months. The cotton fields are bare, and the terrain is chilly and bleak. All you can see is level land to a distant horizon, topped by a cloudless blue sky, with straight furrows stretching away in the distance. Every time a road is shown, it is a country crossroads, as Mac decides which turn he should take in his broken-down pickup truck.
Sledge`s life story was gritty and realistic. At the peak of his career, he had succumbed to the temptations of fame and fortune. As a consequence, his first wife, also a country musical artist, left him and took their daughter with her. He became alienated from both of them for years. Now, he realizes it is time to make amends. His ex-wife is unreceptive to his overtures. In a touching scene, he manages to reconnect with his daughter anyway. She`s now a young woman on the verge of her own rebelliousness. Tragedy ensues when, shortly afterwards, the young woman loses her life in a car accident while running away with an older man.
The climax of the movie comes about in a magic moment as Mac and Rosa Lee are weeding their tiny garden behind the motel. Mac has a rare introspective moment, and he begins to review his life`s losses to Rosa Lee. "I prayed last night to know why I lived and she died. But I got no answer to my prayer. I still don`t know why she died and I lived. I don`t know the answers to nothing. Not a blessed thing…. My daughter killed in an automobile accident. Why? You see I don`t trust happiness. I never did, and I never will."
The scene is a gem of understatement. It was shot in one take, uncut, at medium long range. Duvall even spoke with his back to the camera. Director Beresford allowed no schmaltz, no ham, no close-ups. At its conclusion, Rosa Lee makes no overt response except to turn away stoically; but you can sense that his deep pain is killing her, too.
Despite all his disappointments, grief, and smoldering anger, he stays with Rosa Lee. In the final scene, he is in the driveway with his stepson, in his jeans and cowboy boots, playing a game of touch football.
Tender Mercies is itself the story of a country music song with a rural Gospel twist. It shows, but it does not preach. Duvall does not identify himself personally with this kind of religious expression, but in his work he has always paid homage to the dignity and worth of faith, including the simple faith of common folks with real human faults.
