TENDER MERCIES: RELIGION AND REDEMPTION DAVID ANTHONY POETDANTHONY@GMAIL.COM Tender Mercies is a 1983 film, directed by Bryce Beresford. Horton Foote wrote the screenplay which starred Robert Duvall and Tess Harper. Horton Foote and Robert Duvall were both born in Texas and share a long film legacy. The film tells the story of Max Sledge, a washed-up country and western singer who rebuilds his life after marrying Rosa Lee, who lives with her young son and runs a run-down motel in a West Texas town. Foote wrote the screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an Academy Award in 1963. To Kill a Mockingbird also marked Robert Duvall’s first film appearance, playing Boo Radley. Foote and Duvall worked on many projects over the years, and in 1983 Foote won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for Tender Mercies, while Duvall won Best Actor. Foote is also a 3rd cousin of Shelby Foote, best known for participating in Ken Burns’ documentary, The Civil War. During an interview with Gerald C. Wood and Terry Barr, Foote explained that he didn’t attend college, but he was “an eclectic reader.” (Foote, p. 226) As might be expected, he was passionate about Southern writers, including Willa Cather and Mark Twain, but Flannnery O’Connor, and William Faulkner were among his greatest influences. “With Flannery and with Faulkner I can hear them, I mean, I can go on.” (Foote, p 229) The themes of Southern literature drove Foote to choose very particular themes and settings for his work. He lived and wrote in Texas and that scenery defined his work. From To Kill a Mockingbird to Tender Mercies, Foote has built a remarkable career based on films which were often described as a “southern religious experience” (Wood, p. 245) Tender Mercies has a number of themes, including family, music, loss, fame, wealth, and abandonment, but the primary themes are alcoholism and religion. Rosa Lee (Tess Harper) is able to save Mac Sledge from his “sin” of alcoholism, exemplified by his baptism and return to his musical career; but neither Mac or Rosa Lee can save Mac’s daughter, Sue Ann, from a fiery death–in a car driven by her alcoholic husband. The chaos of Max and Dixie’s marriage is thus visited upon their daughter. As Shaw wrote, “the film does create a spiritualized landscape out of everyday west Texas that helps us more clearly understand what Flannery O’Connor had in mind when she described the South as ‘Christ-haunted.’” (Shaw, p. 447) Tender Mercies is distant enough from To Kill a Mockingbird to avoid the Gothic label, and there is no Boo Radley character to avert the consequences of the film’s narrative. The film begins with Mac terrorizing Rosa Lee (Tess Harper) and her son, Sonny (Allan Hubbard), as he and another man have a drunken brawl in one of her motel rooms. When he awakes three days later, his companion has left without paying for the room. He has enough shame to offer to work off the money he owes, and then asks if he can stay on as a worker. She agrees, but tells him there is no drinking allowed. He agrees, and within a few minutes of screen time, Mac has been healed of his alcoholism by the kindness of Rosa Lee. The film bypasses the inevitable relapses Max would face during his struggle, such as the mental crises and delirium tremens which often accompany alcohol withdrawal. Instead, we find a bucolic scene where Mac is working in the garden and asks “would you think about marrying me?” Rosa Lee answers, “Yeah, I will.” After they marry, a reporter comes to the motel. He had been looking for Mac, who we learn was at one time a famous country singer and musician, married to the famous Dixie Lee. Mac fills the reporter's gas tank as he is bombarded with unwanted questions. The camera has a wide shot, catching the dusty dirt road and the two men talking near the gas pumps. “You were married to Dixie Scott, weren’t you?” “I got nothing to say about that.” “She never married again, did she? Are you remarried?...” “I got nothing to say to anybody.” “Well are you doing any singing anymore? I heard your daughter is singing at the Baptist Church. Say, I guess your daughter by your first wife has got to be going on 18 by now…” Mac keeps walking toward the door and then we see a closeup as he climbs the steps. The shot moves between closeups as the reporter continues asking him questions. Mac seems to be controlling his anger intently, not responding with coarse words or violence. He walks through the house and out of the back door. The reporter stands outside the screen door, out of focus and vaguely threatening. Max pauses as the reporter tells him that Dixie will be playing in Austin. “Maybe your daughter will come along. Maybe she’ll come over here and see you. Does she know where you are?” Mac turns away from the door without responding. The reporter is framed in a wide shot as he walks to his car, and Mac exits the back of the house. As the reporter drives away, Mac walks to the edge of a turned field. From the back, we see Mac framed in a wide shot. The blue sky and furrowed rows seem to challenge Mac, calling him to escape from his own past, as he has done many times before. A closeup shows Mac scanning the distance. This scene is pivotal to the plot. Rosa Lee is not there to guide him, and the audience understands without any dialogue that Mac’s sobriety and future is being threatened by having his past brought out in the newspapers. The next scene shows us that Mac has survived his moment of despair, as he is in the kitchen with Rosa Lee and Sonny. In a close family scene, Mac is showing Sonny how to play chords on the guitar while answering Sonny’s questions. “They say you were a rich man once,” Sonny said. “I-I don’t know if I was what you’d call rich, but I had a few dollars.” … “What happened to your money? “I lost it.” “How?” “Too much applejack.” The interior life of the small family kitchen is played out for the audience, but for many alcoholics it might take years to years to gain the level of sobriety presented by Mac. In fact, people familiar with alcoholism might easily mock the idea that a few months of not-drinking has cured Mac. A 1989 article, “Reading Tender Mercies: Two Interpretations” looks at the portrayal of alcoholism in Tender Mercies. The author asks a simple Sociological query: “How do cultural representations shape lived experience.” (Denzin, p. 37) As readers in 2022, we might question Norman Denzin’s earnest proposal to “offer an interpretive-feminist reading of the film”, but he does offer some valid comments about the interpretation of alcoholism in popular film, particularly focusing on the textual “statements on women, the alcoholic and nonalcoholic family, adult children of alcoholics, and recovery from alcoholism.” (IBID, p. 40) Denzin particularly looks askance at the cartoon depiction of recovery from alcoholism as described in the story of Mac Sledge, even while admitting that “the film appears to speak to alcoholics.” (IBID) Tender Mercies has been used in alcoholic treatment centers, suggesting that the film can provide a teaching experience for alcoholics, though Denzin says the film might be shown simply because it is popular among alcoholics. (IBID) Denzin places Tender Mercies among the genre of “alcoholism films,” (IBID, p. 41) though he highlights two distinct eras of alcoholic films. Film Noir provided bleak but powerful narratives such as The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1954), Days of Wine and Roses (Blake Edwards, 1962), and Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock, 1946), but the new form of alcoholism films was launched around 1980, which portrayed people seeking to overcome alcoholism. Denzin places Tender Mercies in that category, as an “inspirational film that holds out hope for the male alcoholic who has lost work, family, and career to alcoholism.” (Denzin, p. 46) Later films erased the male focus on alcoholic films, and the new category includes films such as 28 Days (Betty Thomas, 2000), Smashed (John Polsoldt, 2012), and Clean and Sober (1988, Glenn Gordon Caron). Tender Mercies is a narrative about addiction and redemption. The movie passes very quickly over Mac’s recovery, denying the reality that “Alcoholics are prone to relapse, especially in their first year of recovery.” (Denzin, 1987) The film is interested in Mac’s post-alcohol life, so we might forgive the time-lapse coverage of his path to sobriety. The impetus in his recovery was Rosa Lee, who provided a stable home for him. We never see Mac attending AA meetings or visiting a counselor. He and Sonny are both baptized on the same day, strengthening the role of Rosa Lee as the matriarch of the family, and the savior of souls. Foote portrays Rosa Lee as providing both a religious experience and stable home for Mac. The focus of the film turns on the women in Mac’s life: his new bride, Rosa Lee, his former wife Dixie, and his daughter with Dixie, Sue Ann. Horton Foote explains Rosa Lee’s relationship with Mac. Rosa Lee “holds these religious beliefs where she talks about God and wanting to get saved. And yet she has an intuitive sense that the man needs to find himself. And to me that’s a very intelligent interpretation of how a man and a woman should interact.” (Foote, p. 231) Rosa Lee gives Mac security and autonomy, while guiding him toward a positive destination. Mac is first seen living outside of society, and Rosa Lee gives him an entrance to a healthy life. His desire to renew his relationships with Dixie and Sue Ann will challenge his sobriety, and create chaos for all. John learns that Dixie is playing at a nearby venue, and he goes to see her, hoping she will allow him to see his daughter. He first meets Dixie’s manager, and gives him a song he has written for Dixie to perform. When Dixie sees him, refuses to let him see Sue Ann and she demands he be thrown out. “You stay away from her… All she remembers about you is a mean drunk trying to beat up her mama.” In a short scene, we see the toxic relationship which caused their marriage to fail. Even though Mac is not drunk, he is immediately pulled into his old patterns of behavior. His sobriety has provided a thin stability, but the event almost pushes him back to drinking. The next day, Dixie’s manager tells Mac that his song was no good. “It’s a different game now,” he says. Rosa Lee tries to pacify Mac, explaining how she thanks God for his tender mercies, but John’s brush with his toxic past is too strong. He leaves and we see him buying alcohol at a store. He returns that night, announcing to Rosa Lee “I’m not drunk. I bought a bottle, but I poured it all out. I ain’t drunk.” Returning to Rosa Lee, he has found strength to maintain his sobriety, despite powerful temptations. Mac Slade apparently overcame his alcoholism without any external support, except for his wife’s solicitations. But most alcoholics have support from self-help AA groups or professional care. In many cases, alcoholics often adopt a neo-religious understanding of recovery. “Rather than excising ‘the familiar ecclesiastical impedimenta’ or treating Mac Sledge’s story of ‘redemption’ and ‘mercy’ with a wink and a nudge of caricature, Foote and Duvall (along with director Bruce Beresford) wave the fabric of Southern Evangelical Protestantism into the understated realism of Tender Mercies.” (Shaw, p. 49) Shaw disagrees with those (like myself) who place Tender Mercies outside the Southern Gothic genre, suggesting that the film “expanded the possible range of what could be accomplished in the Southern Gothic mode. While exploring the redemption of Mac Slade, the film also follows the tragic path of Mac’s daughter, Sue Ann. Dixie prevents Mac from seeing Sue Ann, but she goes on her own to visit him. Their dialogue is abrupt and awkward, as if both were looking for a way to discuss the past. Sue Ann says “You’ve changed. You don’t look like your pictures anymore,” and Mac replies “Well, God knows when the last picture of me was taken.” Mac says “I did try to get in touch with you. I wrote you a few letters,” though Sue Ann says she never received them. His secure world with Rosa Lee did not allow him to answer the need in Sue Ann’s words. Mac stands, while Sue Ann sits on the edge of the couch, holding her hands clenched. “Mama says you tried to kill her once.” “I did.” “Why?” “Well, she got me mad some way. I was drunk. I don’t know.” Their terse conversation cannot overcome the lost years. When Sue Ann asks if Mac would like to meet her boyfriend he declines, saying “I really don’t want your mama to think we was ganging up on her,” but he agrees when she says that she’ll ask her mother’s permission. Sue Ann asks him why he didn’t call her by her name, and Mac replies, “I used to call you little sister... I didn’t know if that’d mean anything to you or not.” As Sue Ann is leaving, she asks Mac if he remembers a song he used to sing to her. “It was something about a dove? … I think it went something about, un, on the wings of a snow-white dove, He sends his something something love.” Mac replies “I don’t remember that. I don’t.” When she is leaving, Mac stands away from her, and we can see that Mac never touched his daughter physically or emtionally. As he stands by the window watching her drive away, he sings the song he told Sue Ann he didn’t remember. The next day, Mac’s former manager tells him Sue Ann had eloped. Mac had thought her boyfriend was a young musician in his mother’s band, but … says “No boy. 30 years old, been married 3 times already.” Later, Sue Ann arrives at Rosa Lee’s motel. She asks to cash a check, and tells Rosa Lee that her boyfriend was a drinker. Rosa Lee did not have the same broken relationship Mac and Sue Ann shared, and was able to offer her a place to stay if she needed, though Sue Ann denied the offer. As Mac and Rosa Lee are listening to his new song playing on the radio. Mac gets a call that Sue Ann was killed in a car crash. This ending connects the ending of the film to the beginning. Mac had terrorized Rosa Lee when he first met her, and in the same way Sue Ann had fallen into a relationship with an alcoholic, mirroring her mother and father’s failed relationship. Denzin sometimes explains the roles of Rosa Lee, Dixie, and Sue Ann in strict terms. “Rosa Lee is the good woman. She sings in the church choir. She believes in God. Her voice is raised to God’s glory… Dixie and Sue Ann live on the margins of society, They buy their gaudy respectability, such that it is, through Sledge’s royalties...” (Denzin, 46) His commentary often focuses on identifying people as “good and bad.” (IBID, 47) In less judgemental tones, Denzin describes Sue Ann as being “drawn to a man who is like her father used to be: an over 30, heavy-drinking, country musician who has been married three times. She is the adult child of an alcoholic, a product of violent alcoholic marriage, doomed to repeat the errors of her mother. (IBID, p 47) Mac’s “easy” path to sobriety makes the death of his daughter more painful. He expresses his own confusion to the audience: “I don’t know the answer to nothing, not a blessed thing.” It might be well to let Foote have the last word, “I am very religious, but really don’t like to get into that because it would give you the wrong idea. I don’t ever really write from that point of view. I say I am religious because I am deeply religous. Yes, I am. But, um, it would never occur to me to proselytize. And it must be more deeply rooted into my make-up than I realize. (Foote, p. 231) SOURCES Denzin, N. K. (1989). Reading “Tender Mercies”: Two Interpretations. The Sociological Quarterly, 30(1), 37–57. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4121451 Foote, H., Wood, G. C., & Barr, T. (1986). “A Certain Kind of Writer”: An Interview with Horton Foote. Literature/Film Quarterly, 14(4), 226–237. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43797529 SHAW, B. (2010). Baptizing Boo: Religion in the Cinematic Southern Gothic. The Mississippi Quarterly, 63(3), 445–476. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26477298 Wood, G. C. (1996). Old Beginnings and Roads to Home: Horton Foote and Mythic Realism. Christianity and Literature, 45(3/4), 359–372. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44312462