Tender Mercies

Name: Tender Mercies
Genre: Classic, Music, Drama
Released: 1983
Duration: 92 min
Cast: Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, Betty Buckley, Wilford Brimley, Ellen Barkin

Bruce Beresford19831h 32mClassic, Music, Drama

Why we chose it

Robert Duvall won an Oscar, and wrote his own songs, as a washed-up country singer who lands at a motel without a cent. The screenplay won too, out of five nominations. Bruce Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy”) keeps it quietly tender, and the widow who runs the place offers him work on one condition.

Synopsis

Mac Sledge wakes up on the floor of a roadside motel in Texas after a night of drinking, with no money to settle the bill. He used to fill halls as a country singer, but nobody wants to book him now. So he offers to work off what he owes, and Rosa Lee, the young widow who owns the place, agrees on one condition: not a drop of alcohol while he’s working.