Additional information for Tender Mercies, which has a domestic theatrical release set for March 4, 1983. The film is being distributed by Universal Pictures and has not yet been rated. Tender Mercies has a total running time of 100 minutes.
Atp
Argentina
PG
Australia
TE
Chile
S
Finland
Btl
Sweden
PG
USA
PG
UK
PG
Singapore
L
Iceland
PT
Peru
M/12
Portugal
100min
92min
El precio de la felicidad
Argentina
El precio de la felicidad
Uruguay
A Força do Carinho
Brazil
Amor e Compaixão
Portugal
Az Úr kegyelméből
Hungary
Comeback der Liebe
West Germany
Den sidste drøm
Denmark
Gracias y favores
Spain
Kantrin kaipuu
Finland
Längtan efter country
Finland
Nezno milosrdje
Serbia
På nåd och onåd
Sweden
Pod czula kontrola
Poland
Sangen til livet
Norway
Sevecenlik
Turkey
Tendre bonheur
Canada
Tryferes sheseis
Greece
Un tenero ringraziamento
Italy
March 04, 1983
USA
June 10, 1983
Australia
July 04, 1983
Denmark
September 08, 1983
Netherlands
February 02, 1984
Argentina
March 01, 1984
Spain
March 29, 1984
Uruguay
April 27, 1984
Finland
May 04, 1984
Portugal
October 26, 1984
Sweden
No taglines exist for this title.
A broken-down, middle-aged country singer gets a new wife, reaches out to his long-lost daughter, and tries to put his troubled life back together.
Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a washed up, alcoholic country singer, awakens at a run-down Texas roadside motel and gas station after a night of heavy drinking. He meets the owner, a young widow named Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), and offers to work in exchange for a room. Rosa Lee, whose husband was killed in the Vietnam War, is raising her young son, Sonny (Allan Hubbard), on her own. She agrees to let Mac stay under the condition that he does not drink while working. The two begin to develop feelings for one another, mostly during quiet evenings sitting alone and sharing bits of their life stories.Mac resolves to give up alcohol and start his life anew. After some time passes, he and Rosa Lee wed. They start attending a Baptist church on a regular basis. One day, a newspaper reporter visits the hotel and asks Mac whether he has stopped recording music and chosen an anonymous life. When Mac refuses to answer, the reporter explains he is writing a story about Mac and has interviewed his ex-wife, Dixie Scott (Betty Buckley), a country music star who is performing nearby.After the story is printed, the neighborhood learns of Mac's past, and members of a local countrywestern band visit him to show their respect. Although he greets them politely, Mac remains reluctant to open up about his past. Later, he secretly attends Dixie's concert. She passionately sings several songs that Mac wrote years earlier, and he leaves in the middle of the performance. Backstage, he talks to Dixie's manager, his old friend Harry (Wilford Brimley). Mac gives him a copy of a new song he has written and asks him to show it to Dixie. Mac tries to talk to Dixie, but she becomes angry upon seeing him and warns him to stay away from their 18-year-old daughter, Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin).Mac returns home to a jealous Rosa Lee and assures her he no longer has feelings for Dixie, who he describes as "poison" to him. Later, Harry visits Mac to tell him, seemingly at Dixie's urging, that the country music business has changed and his new song is no good. Hurt and angry, Mac drives away and nearly crashes the car. He buys a bottle of whiskey but, upon returning home to a worried Rosa Lee and Sonny, he tells them he poured it out. He admits he tried several times to leave Rosa Lee, but found he could not. Some time later, Mac and Sonny are baptized together in Rosa Lee's church.Eventually, Sue Anne visits Mac, their first encounter since she was a baby. Mac asks whether she got any of his letters, and she says her mother kept them from her. Sue Anne also reports that Dixie tried to keep her from visiting Mac and that she plans to elope with her boyfriend despite her mother's objections. Mac admits he used to hit Dixie and that she divorced him after he tried to kill her in a drunken rage. Sue Anne asks whether Mac remembers a song about a dove he sang to her when she was a baby. He claims he does not, but after she leaves he sings to himself the hymn "On the Wings of a Dove."Boys at school bully Sonny about his dead father, and he and Mac grow closer. The members of the local country band ask Mac permission to perform one of his songs, and he agrees. Mac begins performing with them and they make plans to record together. His newfound happiness is interrupted when he learns Sue Anne has been killed in a car accident. Mac attends his daughter's funeral at Dixie's lavish home in Nashville and comforts her when she breaks down.Mac returns to Rosa Lee in despair. He says, "I don't know why I wandered out to this part of Texas drunk, and you took me in and pitied me and helped me to straighten out, marry me. Why? Why did that happen? Is there a reason that happened? And Sonny's Daddy died in the war, my daughter killed in an automobile accident. Why? See, I don't trust happiness. I never did; I never will."Back home, Mac keeps quiet about his emotional pain, although he wonders aloud to Rosa Lee why his once sorry existence has been given meaning and, on the other hand, his daughter died. Throughout his mourning, Mac continues his new life with Rosa Lee and Sonny. In the final scene, Sonny finds a football Mac has left him as a gift. Mac watches the hotel from a field across the road and sings "On the Wings of a Dove" to himself. Sonny thanks him for the football and the two play catch together in the field.
Bruce Beresford
Director(s)
Horton Foote
Writer(s)
Robert Duvall
co-producer
Horton Foote
co-producer
Mary-Ann Hobel
associate producer
Philip Hobel
producer (as Philip S. Hobel)
Producer(s)
George Dreyfus
Composer(s)
Mac Sledge
Robert Duvall
Rosa Lee
Tess Harper
Dixie
Betty Buckley
Harry
Wilford Brimley
Sue Anne
Ellen Barkin
Sonny
Allan Hubbard
Robert (as Lenny Von Dohlen)
Lenny von Dohlen
Reporter
Paul Gleason
Lewis Menefee
Michael Crabtree
Reverend Hotchkiss
Norman Bennett
Larue
Andrew Scott Hollon
Jake - Slater Mill Boys Member
Rick Murray
Bertie - Slater Mill Boys Member
Stephen Funchess
Steve - Slater Mill Boys Member
Glen Fleming
Henry - Slater Mill Boys Member
James Aaron
Man in Bar
Jerry Biggs
Concessionaire
Sheila Bird
Boy at Dance
Robert E. Blackburn III
Doorman
Eli Cummins
Man at Motel
Tony Frank
Man at Dixie's House (as Berkley H. Garrett)
Berkley Garrett
Woman with Groceries
Helena Humann
Nurse
Suzanne Jacobs
Country Woman
Barbara Jones
Country Man
Jerry Jones
Waiter
Harlan Jordan
Choirmaster
Robert P. Kelley
Man in Bar / Restaurant
Ray LePere
Man at Dixie's Douse
Pat Minter
Ada - Dixie's Driver
Terry Schoolcraft
Man at Dixie's House
Oliver Seale
Concessionaire
Denise Simek
Concessionaire
Robert Stewart
Woman at Dance
Susan Aston
Woman at Dance
Vicki Neff
Woman at Dance
Pamela Putnam
Piano - Country Blues Band Member
Jerry Abbot
Drums - Country Blues Band Member
Bobby Hibbitts
Steel Guitar - Country Blues Band Member
Buddie Hrabal
Guitar - Country Blues Band Member
Jerry Matheny
Director(s)
Writer(s)
co-producer
Horton Foote
co-producer
Mary-Ann Hobel
associate producer
Philip Hobel
producer (as Philip S. Hobel)
Producer(s)
Composer(s)
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