Tender Mercies is a 1983 American drama film directed by Bruce Beresford, featuring Robert Duvall as singer-songwriter Mac Sledge in a performance that won him an Academy Award. The Oscar-winning screenplay by Horton Foote focuses on Mac Sledge (Duvall), a former country music star whose career and relationship with his ex-wife and daughter were wrecked by alcoholism. Recovering from his affliction, Sledge seeks to turn his life around through his relationship with a young widow and her son in rural Texas. The supporting cast includes Tess Harper, Betty Buckley, Wilford Brimley, Ellen Barkin and Allan Hubbard.
Theatrical release poster
The central setting of Tender Mercies was chosen largely due to the lack of physical structures in the barren landscape around it. A sense of loneliness was crucial to how director Bruce Beresford wanted to tell the story.
Tess Harper as Rosa Lee, Robert Duvall as Mac Sledge, and Allan Hubbard as Sonny, in costumes designed by Elizabeth McBride
Bruce Beresford is an Australian film director and screenwriter. He has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career, both locally and internationally in the United States.
Beresford in 2016
