The legendary character actor had memorable roles in a number of classics including To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, but it was for his part as washed-up country singer Mac Sledge in Bruce Beresford's 1983 film Tender Mercies that he won his only Oscar.
The most curious aspect of Tender Mercies is not that it did so much for Robert Duvall, but that it didn’t do more. In every way but one it was extremely successful, not least for Duvall himself.
All in all that’s a pretty impressive record which, added to the fact that previously Duvall had been nominated twice as best supporting actor (for The Godfather and Apocalypse Now) and once for best actor (The Great Santini), should finally have established him as a star. That it failed to do so is at least partly due to Tender Mercies’ one area of failure – at the box office.
View Green Video on the source websiteMind you, at the time it was made it was always going to be a difficult film to sell to a mass audience.
It tells, in a gentle, low-key manner, the story of an alcoholic country and western singer (and, incidentally, Duvall recorded all the songs himself) who finds his road to redemption when he marries a young widow, Tess Harper, and acquires a stepson. It’s a picture that depends on mood, observation and character, the theme being that no matter how much we may have messed up our lives we all deserve a second chance.
So in the end, despite the praise and the Oscars, all that Tender Mercies really did for Robert Duvall was to confirm what we already knew, what he had proved a score of times – that he was an extremely fine character actor. It did not, however, raise him from the ranks of character actors and into stardom.
Now perhaps it could be argued that he simply doesn’t look like a star, but I don’t think that argument bears scrutiny. Dustin Hoffman doesn’t look like a star either, but he is one. Yes, you could say, but unlike Hoffman, Duvall is unashamedly bald. True, but then so is Sean Connery and Connery is a star.
But personality is the trademark of the star, even one like De Niro, who is also a fine actor. However accurate the portrayal you are always aware that De Niro lurks behind it. You cannot, though, say the same of Duvall. In all his films Duvall vanishes and in his place emerges a Mafia consigliere or a mad colonel or a country and western singer.
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