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Tender Mercies

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.

Financed by EMI Films, Tender Mercies was shot largely in Waxahachie, Texas. The script was rejected by several American directors before the Australian Beresford accepted it. Duvall, who sang his own songs in the film, drove more than 600 miles (1,000 km) throughout the state, tape recording local accents and playing in country music bands to prepare for the role. He and Beresford repeatedly clashed during production, at one point prompting the director to walk off the set and reportedly consider quitting the film.

The film encompasses several themes, including the importance of love and family, the possibility of spiritual resurrection amid death and the concept of redemption through Mac Sledge's conversion to Christianity. Following poor test screening results, distributor Universal Pictures made little effort to publicise Tender Mercies, which Duvall attributed to the studio's lack of understanding of country music.

The film was released on March 4, 1983, in a limited number of theatres. Although unsuccessful at the box office, it was critically acclaimed and earned five Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture. At the 56th Academy Awards. Tender Mercies won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay for Foote and Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Plot
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 perform maintenance work at the motel in exchange for a room. Rosa, 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 on condition that he does not drink while working. The two begin to develop feelings for each other, mostly during quiet evenings sitting alone and sharing parts of their life stories.

Mac resolves to give up alcohol and start his life anew. After enough days of keeping his word and doing his work, he is comfortable enough in his new life that he and Rosa Lee wed. They start attending a Baptist church on a regular basis. One day, a newspaper reporter visits the motel and asks Mac whether he has stopped recording music and if he has deliberately chosen to lead an anonymous life. When Mac refuses to answer, the reporter explains he is writing a story about him and has interviewed his ex-wife, Dixie Scott (Betty Buckley), a country music star who is performing nearby.

After the story is published, the neighbourhood learns of Mac's past, and members of a local country–western 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 her but she becomes angry on seeing him and warns him to stay away from their 18-year-old daughter, Sue Anne (Ellen Barkin).

On his return home, Mac assures Rosa Lee he no longer has any feelings for Dixie, whom 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 truck. He buys a bottle of whiskey but, returning home to a worried Rosa Lee and Sonny, he tells them he poured it out. He says he tried to leave Rosa Lee, but found he could not. Some time later, Mac and Sonny are baptised 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. She also reports that Dixie tried to keep her from visiting Mac, and that, despite her mother's objections, she is eloping with her boyfriend. Mac admits that 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," which refers to a dove from the Lord saving Noah, and to the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove at Jesus' baptism.

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 Sue Anne dies in a car accident. Mac attends his daughter's funeral at Dixie's lavish home in Nashville and comforts her when she breaks down. He also complains to Rosa Lee that, during their marriage, Dixie kept saying she would give up her career but never did.

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 has died. Throughout his mourning, Mac continues his new life with Rosa Lee and Sonny. In the final scene, Sonny finds a football that Mac has left as a gift for him. Mac is watching the motel from a field across the road, singing "On the Wings of a Dove" to himself. Sonny thanks him for the football and the two play catch together in the field as Rosa Lee watches them from inside the motel through a window.

Cast

 * Robert Duvall as Mac Sledge
 * Tess Harper as Rosa Lee
 * Betty Buckley as Dixie
 * Wilford Brimley as Harry
 * Ellen Barkin as Sue Anne
 * Allan Hubbard as Sonny
 * Lenny Von Dohlen as Robert
 * Paul Gleason as Reporter
 * Michael Crabtree as Lewis Menefee
 * Norman Bennett as Reverend Hotchkiss

Writing
Playwright Horton Foote reportedly considered giving up on film writing, due to what he regarded as a poor adaptation of his 1952 play The Chase into a 1966 film of the same name, in which Robert Duvall had a supporting role. Following what Foote saw as a far more successful adaptation of his 1968 play Tomorrow in the 1972 feature film of the same name starring Duvall (who had his movie debut as Boo Radley in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird that was scripted by Foote), his interest in filmmaking was rekindled, with the condition that he maintain some degree of control over the final product.

Foote said of this stage in his career, "I learned that film really should be like theatre in the sense that, in theatre, the writer is, of course, very dominant ... If we don't like something, we can speak our minds. ... It is always a collaborative effort. ... But in Hollywood it wasn't so. A writer there has in his contract that you are a writer for hire, which means that you write a script, then it belongs to them." This renewed interest in cinema prompted Foote to write Tender Mercies, his first work written specifically for the screen. In the view of biographer George Terry Barr, the script reflected "Foote's determination to battle a Hollywood system that generally refuses to make such personal films."

The story was inspired partially by Foote's nephew, who struggled to succeed in the country music business. Foote was initially interested in writing a film based on his nephew's efforts to organise a band, which he saw as paralleling his own youthful attempts to find work as an actor. During his research, however, he met an experienced musician who had offered to help his nephew's band, and Foote found himself growing more interested in a story about him, rather than the band itself. Foote said, "This older man had been through it all. As I thought about a storyline, I got very interested in that type of character." The moment in the film where a woman asks, "Were you really Mac Sledge?" and he responds, "Yes ma'am, I guess I was," was based on an exchange that Foote overheard between a washed-up star and a fan. Foote said the entire film pivots on that statement, which he believed spoke volumes about Mac's personality and former status.

Foote based Sledge's victory over alcoholism on his observations of theatre people struggling with the problem. He sought to avoid a melodramatic slant in telling that aspect of the story. Foote described his protagonist as "a very hurt, damaged man ... silence was his weapon". He chose the title Tender Mercies, from the Book of Psalms, for its relation to the Rosa Lee character, who he said seeks only "certain moments of gentleness or respite, [not] grandness or largeness". Foote sought to portray each character as realistic and flawed, but not unsympathetic. Although the script conveyed a strong spiritual message with religious undertones, Foote felt it was important to balance those religious elements with a focus on the practical challenges of everyday life.

Film historian Gary Edgerton said the Tender Mercies script "catapulted Horton Foote into the most active professional period in his life." Film director and producer Alan J. Pakula credited the script with helping define the American independent film movement of the late 1980s by initiating a trend of personal filmmaking that often looks beyond Hollywood conventions.

Development
Duvall, who had appeared in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), which Foote adapted from the Harper Lee novel, was involved in Tender Mercies as an actor and co-producer from its earliest stages. He said the script appealed to him because of the basic values it underlined and because the themes were universal even though the story was local. Duvall felt it portrayed people from the central region of the United States without parodying them, as he said many Hollywood films tend to do. Duvall's early involvement led to rumors that he had requested Foote write the script for him, something that both men denied.

Foote took the script to Philip and Mary Ann Hobel, a married couple who ran Antron Media Production and had produced more than 200 documentaries between them. Foote felt their background in documentaries would lend Tender Mercies the authenticity he and Duvall were seeking. The Hobels agreed to produce it after reading and liking the script; it would become their feature film debut as producers. The Hobels approached EMI Films, a British film and television production company, which agreed to provide financing for Tender Mercies as long as Duvall remained involved, and under the condition the Hobels find a good director. The script was rejected by many American directors, creating concerns for Foote and the producers that the film would never be made. Foote later said, "This film was turned down by every American director on the face of the globe." The Hobels eventually mailed the script to Australian director Bruce Beresford because they were impressed by his 1980 film Breaker Morant. Philip Hobel said, "What we saw in Breaker Morant is what we like as filmmakers ourselves — an attention to the environment, a straightforward presentation; it's almost a documentary approach."

Beresford was attracted to the idea of making a Hollywood film with a big budget and powerful distribution. Following his success with Breaker Morant, Beresford received about 150 Hollywood scripts as potential projects; although he went weeks before reading many of them, Beresford read Tender Mercies right away. It immediately appealed to him, in part because it dealt with aspects of American rural life he had seldom encountered in film scripts. Several of those involved with Tender Mercies had reservations about an Australian directing a film about a country music star. Beresford also found the decision strange, but kept his thoughts to himself because of his desire to direct the film. He contacted EMI Films and asked for one month to visit Texas and familiarize himself with the state before committing to direct, to which the company agreed. Beresford said of the trip, "I want to come over and see if this is all true, because if it's not really a true picture of what it's all like, it wouldn't be right to make it." During his visit to Texas, he saw parallels between the state and his homeland: the terrain reminded him of the Australian bush country, and the Texans he met in the isolated areas reminded him of residents of the Outback. He met Foote and discussed the script with him. The screenwriter, who gave Beresford tours of small Texas towns, felt the director's Australian background made him sensitive to the story's rural characters and would help him achieve the sought-for authenticity. Beresford agreed to direct and was hired after receiving final approval from Duvall (the actor had a clause in his contract allowing him such approval, the first time he had this power on a film).

The film was given a budget of $4.5 million ($ in dollars), modest by Hollywood standards at the time. Philip Hobel said it took about a year to secure the financing from EMI Films, whose major 1981 release, Honky Tonk Freeway, had done poor box office. For the primary location, Rosa Lee's home and motel/gas station business, Beresford imposed one requirement: that no other buildings or large manmade structures be visible from it. The filmmakers eventually decided on a property that had been sitting abandoned by a Waxahachie highway. Mary Ann Hobel said the owner, when approached about its availability, immediately handed over the keys: "We said, 'Don't you want a contract, something in writing?' And he said, 'We don't do things that way here.

Beresford, known for carefully planning every shot in his films, drew his own storyboards as well as detailed drawings of how he envisioned the sets. Jeannine Oppewall was hired as art director. Beresford praised her as "absolutely brilliant", especially for her attention to very small details, "going from the curtains to the color of the quilts on the floors." It was Oppewall who named the motel Mariposa, Spanish for "butterfly", which symbolizes the spiritual resurrection Mac Sledge would experience there. Beresford chose Australian Russell Boyd as cinematographer and Irishman William Anderson, who had worked on all of the director's previous features, as editor. He selected Elizabeth McBride as costume designer. It was her first time in the position on a feature film, and she went on to build a reputation for costuming Texan and other Southern characters.

Casting
Duvall had always wanted to play a country singer, and Foote was rumored to have written the role of Mac Sledge specifically for him. Foote denied the claim, claiming he found it too constraining to write roles for specific actors, although he did hope Duvall would be cast in the part. Tender Mercies became a very important personal project for Duvall, who contributed a significant number of ideas for his character.

Duvall was director Robert Altman first choice for the role of country superstar Haven Hamilton (subsequently played by Henry Gibson) in his 1975 film Nashville), but was not in the film due to a scheduling conflict. Reportedly, Duvall dropped out of the movie when Altman would not let him sing his own compositions.

In preparing for the role, he spent weeks roaming around Texas, speaking to strangers to find the right accent and mannerisms. He also joined a small country band and continued singing with them every free weekend while the film was being shot. In total, Duvall drove about 680 mi to research the part, often asking people to speak into his tape recorder so he could practice their inflections and other vocal habits. Upon finding one man with the exact accent he wanted, Duvall had him recite the entire script into the recorder.

Tess Harper was performing on stage in Texas when she attended a casting call for a minor role in the film. Beresford was so impressed with her that he cast her in the lead. He later said that the actresses he had seen before her demonstrated a sophistication and worldliness inappropriate for the part, while she brought a kind of rural quality without coming across as simple or foolish. Beresford said of Harper, "She walked into the room and even before she spoke, I thought, 'That's the girl to play the lead. Harper said she knew she won the role when Beresford appeared on her doorstep with a bottle of champagne in each hand. Tender Mercies was Harper's feature film debut, and she was so excited about the role she bit her script to make sure it was real. When filming ended, Duvall gave her a blue cowgirl shirt as a gift with a card that read, "You really were Rosa Lee".

Beresford visited several schools and auditioned many children for the role of Sonny before he came across Allan Hubbard in Paris, Texas. Beresford said Hubbard, like Harper, was chosen based on a simple, rural quality he possessed. The boy was able to relate easily to the character because, like Sonny, his father died at an early age; later, some media reports falsely claimed that his father was killed during the Vietnam War, just as Sonny's was in the film's backstory. None of the filmmakers knew Hubbard's father had died until after filming began. Duvall developed a strong, trusting relationship with Hubbard, which Foote felt improved the duo's on-screen chemistry. Hubbard would often play guitar with Duvall during breaks from filming.

Betty Buckley attended a casting session in New York City and was chosen largely based on the quality of her singing voice; Beresford said that few of the actresses who auditioned for the role were able to sing. Buckley was originally from Fort Worth, Texas, near the Grapevine Opry; when her concert scenes were filmed there, her whole family participated as extras. Duvall said he thought Buckley perfectly conveyed the underlying frustration of a country singer and "brought a real zing to [the] part." The actual location of the bar scenes was in Seven Points, Texas, in a club called the Cedar Creek Opry House. Seven Points is just east of Ellis County, across the Trinity River in western Henderson County, Texas. The Opry House as it was known then, was a two-story building that used to be a skating rink in its earlier life. The old rink was upstairs and became the dance floor of the Opry House, where the concert and bar scenes were filmed. One scene of the movie shows the front of the building with its name visible.

Ellen Barkin was cast after impressing Beresford during a New York audition. At the time, she had appeared only in television movies; Diner, her feature film debut, was not yet in theaters. When filming on Diner wrapped, Barkin joked to her agent about future roles, "No more troubled teenagers, unless the movie is with Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall or Robert Redford." Duvall said of Barkin, "She brings a real credibility for that part, plus she was young and attractive and had a certain sense of edge, a danger for her that was good for that part." Some media outlets reported that Duvall and Barkin were involved romantically for a brief time during filming.

Wilford Brimley was cast at the urging of his good friend Duvall, who was not getting along well with Beresford and wanted "somebody down here that's on my side, somebody that I can relate to". Beresford felt Brimley was too old for the part, but eventually agreed to the casting.

Filming
Most of Tender Mercies was filmed in Waxahachie and Palmer, two towns in Ellis County in north central Texas. Beresford largely avoided the Victorian architecture and other picturesque elements of Waxahachie and instead focused on relatively barren locations more characteristic of West Texas. The town portrayed in the film is never identified by name. Foote said when he wrote the script he did not have the same isolated and lonely vision for the setting Beresford did, but he felt the atmosphere the director captured served the story well.

Principal photography took place between November 2 and December 23, 1981. The plants used in the gardening scenes were brought inside at night to keep them from freezing. Due to the tight schedule, the cast and crew worked seven days a week with very long hours each day. Although the Australian filmmakers and the crew, who were mostly from Dallas, got along very well both on and off the set, Beresford and Duvall were at odds during the production. Beresford, in his usual approach, meticulously planned each scene, and Duvall, who preferred a free-form give-and-take on set, felt restricted by the director's methods. Although Duvall regularly acknowledged his talent as a director, he said of Beresford, "He has this dictatorial way of doing things with me that just doesn't cut it. Man, I have to have my freedom." Although he had no problem with Duvall's acting methodology, the actor's temperament infuriated Beresford. While filming one scene with Harper and Barkin, he became so frustrated during a phone conversation with Duvall that he said, "Well if you want to direct the film, go right ahead," and walked off the set. Beresford flew to New York and reportedly was ready to quit, until Duvall flew out to speak with him. After further arguments, the two made amends and returned to work on the film.

Beresford also clashed on set with Brimley. On the very first day of filming, he asked the actor to "pick up the pace", prompting Brimley to reply, "Hey, I didn't know anybody dropped it." On another occasion, when Beresford tried to advise Brimley on how Harry would behave, Duvall recalled Brimley responding, "Now look, let me tell you something, I'm Harry. Harry's not over there, Harry's not over here. Until you fire me or get another actor, I'm Harry, and whatever I do is fine 'cause I'm Harry." Duvall said he believed the on-set wrangling resulted in a combination of the director's and actors' visions and ultimately improved the picture. Likewise, Beresford said he did not feel the fights negatively affected the film because he and Duvall never disagreed on the interpretation of the Mac Sledge character.

Harper described the extent to which Duvall inhabited his character: "Someone once said to me, 'Well, how's Robert Duvall?' and I said, 'I don't know Robert Duvall. I know Mac Sledge very well. Beresford, too, said the transformation was so believable that he could feel his skin crawling up the back of his neck the first day of filming. Duvall made an effort to help Harper, who was making her film debut. While preparing to shoot a scene in which Mac and Rosa Lee fight, he yelled at a make-up artist in front of Harper to make her angry and fuel her performance; he apologized to the make-up artist after the scene was shot.

Cinematographer Russell Boyd largely used available light to give the movie a natural feel, which Beresford said was crucial to its sense of authenticity. Harper said Boyd was so quiet during filming that he mostly used just three words: Yeah', 'right' and 'sure. Beresford, Foote and Duvall considered the climactic scene to be the one in which Mac, tending the family garden, discusses with Rosa Lee his pain over his daughter's death. Beresford and Boyd filmed the scene in a long take and long shot so it could flow uninterrupted, with the lonely Texas landscape captured in the background. When studio executives received the footage, they contacted Beresford and requested close-up shots be intercut, but he insisted on keeping the long take intact. Duvall said he felt the scene underscored Mac's stoicism in the face of tragedy and loss.

Music
Tender Mercies includes no original film score, and the musical soundtrack is limited to the performances of country songs and the domestic guitar playing that occur as part of the story. A score was composed for the movie, but Beresford had it removed because he felt it was "too sweet" and sounded phony in the context of the film, although he acknowledged it as "very skillful". Duvall sang his own songs, a right he insisted be part of his contract. He commented, "What's the point if you're not going to do your own [singing]? They're just going to dub somebody else? I mean, there's no point to that." The film's financial backers were initially concerned about whether he could sing well enough for the role. Those concerns were allayed after Duvall produced a tape of himself singing a cappella "On the Wings of a Dove", a Bob Ferguson country song featured in the film. Duvall collaborated with Beresford in deciding on the unusual staging of the emotional scene in which Mac sings it after reflecting on the reunion with his daughter. The song is performed with Mac looking out a window with his back to the camera, his face unseen. Horton Foote thought the choice made the scene more moving and called it "an extraordinary moment" in the film. Duvall wrote two of Mac's other songs, "Fool's Waltz" and "I've Decided to Leave Here Forever". Several leading country singers, including Willie Nelson, George Jones and Merle Haggard, were believed to have inspired Mac and Duvall's portrayal of him, but Duvall insisted the character was not based on anyone in particular. Another country star, Waylon Jennings, complimented his performance, saying he had "done the impossible."

Betty Buckley also sang her own songs, one of which, "Over You", written by Austin Roberts and Bobby Hart, was nominated for an Academy Award. Although Buckley performed it in the film, country singer Lane Brody was chosen to record it for radio release, and Mac Davis later sang it at the 1984 Academy Awards ceremony. Other songs in the film include "It Hurts to Face Reality" by Lefty Frizzell, "If You'll Hold the Ladder (I'll Climb to the Top)" by Buzz Rabin and Sara Busby, "The Best Bedroom in Town" and "Champagne Ladies & Barroom Babies" by Charlie Craig, "I'm Drinkin' Canada Dry" by Johnny Cymbal and Austin Roberts, and "You Are What Love Means To Me" by Craig Bickhardt.

Love and family
Mac Sledge finds redemption largely through his relationship and eventual marriage with Rosa Lee. This is in keeping with the motif of fidelity common in the works of Foote, inspired, said the writer, by his marriage to Lillian Vallish Foote. He told The New York Times that she "kept me goin'. She never lost faith, and that's a rare thing. I don't know now how we got through it, but we got through it." The lyrics of "If You'll Hold the Ladder", which Mac performs with his new country band in the second half of the film, suggest what love has done for him. He sings of someone holding the ladder for him as he climbs to the top; this is symbolic of Rosa's love and guidance, which has allowed Sledge to improve himself and build a new life. The desultory romances that defined his past are represented by the more promiscuous lyrics of Dixie Scott's songs, such as those of "The Best Bedroom in Town": "The best part of all / the room at the end of the hall / That's where you and me make everything alright ... We celebrate the happiness we've found / Every night in the best bedroom in town". His storming out of her concert symbolizes his rejection of that earlier life. In contrast, Rosa Lee sings the humble church hymn, "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me". In a related way, the film emphasizes the importance of the woman's role in domestic life - although Mac takes on the role of patriarch in his new family setting, it is only through the support and care of Rosa Lee that he is able to settle into this role. Sociologist Norman K. Denzin points out that Tender Mercies embodies many of the ideas of recovery from addiction that are part of the twelve-step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous. Both the film and the support group's program advocate the idea of hitting rock-bottom, making a decision to stop drinking, dealing with the past and adopting a spiritual way of life.

Tender Mercies also emphasizes the father–child theme common in the works of Foote, a theme that operates on both transcendent and temporal levels. Mac is reunited not only with his spiritual father through his conversion to Christianity, but also with his biological daughter, Sue Anne, when she pays him a surprise visit. Scholar Rebecca Luttrell Briley suggests that although Mac begins to plant new roots with Rosa Lee and Sonny in earlier scenes, they are not enough to fully satisfy his desire for redemption, as he is nearly driven to leave the family and return to his alcoholic ways. According to Briley, Sue Anne's visit prompts Mac to realize that reconciliation with her and a reformation of their father–daughter relationship is the ingredient that had been lacking in his quest for redemption. This is further demonstrated by Mac's singing "On the Wings of a Dove" to himself after their meeting; the lyrics describe God the Father and God the Holy Spirit's involvement in the baptism of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This connects Sledge's spiritual reconciliation with the divine, to the earthly reconciliation with his own child. However, the death of Sue Anne also demonstrates that, according to Briley, "all relationships cannot be mended, some by choice and some by chance, and the poignancy of missed opportunities between fathers and their children on this earth is underlined in this scene."

The relationship between Mac and Sonny, whose name derives from "son", is central to the film's exploration of the father–child theme. Sonny tries to conjure an image of his biological father, whom he never had the chance to know, through old photographs, his mother's memories and visits to his father's grave. Sonny finds a father figure in Mac. When another young boy asks Sonny if he likes Mac more than his real father, Sonny says that he does, because he never knew the other man; Briley says that this "emphasizes the distinction between companionship and blood relationship Foote has pointed out before." The final scene, in which Mac and Sonny play catch with a football Mac bought him as a gift, symbolizes the fact that, although Mac has lost the chance to reconcile with his daughter, he now has a second chance at establishing a father–child relationship with Sonny. The father–child theme also plays out through Mac's relationship with the young band members, who say that he has been an inspiration to them, playing a paternal role in their lives before they even met him. Sledge eventually teams up with the musicians, offering them fatherly counsel in a much more direct way.

Religion
Mac's redemption and self-improvement run parallel with his conversion to Christianity. Briley argues that "the emphasis on the Christian family is stronger in this script than in any other Foote piece to this point." At the urging of Rosa Lee, Mac begins to attend church regularly and is eventually baptized for the first time, along with Sonny. During a church scene, he also sings the hymn "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me", which serves as a symbol for his new direction in life. After they are baptized, Sonny asks Mac whether he feels any different, to which Mac responds, "Not yet." According to scholars, this response indicates Mac's belief that his reunion with God will lead to meaningful changes in his life. It is after this moment, Briley points out, that Mac is able to forge other relationships, such as those with his young bandmates, and "develop his own potential for success as a man." Briley also proposes that Mac's response — "Yes, ma'am, I guess I was" — to a fan who asks if he was really Mac Sledge suggests that he has washed away his old self through baptism.

During one scene, Rosa Lee tells Mac, "I say my prayers for you and when I thank the Lord for his tender mercies, you're at the head of the list." Scholar Robert Jewett compares this line to the first verse of Romans 12, in which Paul the Apostle appeals to Christians to live out their lives in service to others "through the mercies of God". Many of the elements of Mac's redemption, conversion to Christianity and budding relationship with Rosa Lee occur off-camera, including their wedding. Jewett writes, "This is perfectly congruent with the theme of faith in the hidden mercies of God, the secret plot of the life of faith in Romans. ... It is a matter of faith, elusive and intangible." Jewett compares Mac's story to that of Abraham, because "just like Sledge's story, [it] centers on the provision of a future through the tender mercies of God". As told in Romans 4, Abraham and his wife Sarah are too old to produce a son, but Abraham develops the faith that God will provide them an heir, which is exactly what occurs, though — as Paul describes — Abraham did nothing practical to guarantee or deserve such a miracle. Jewett describes Mac as similarly undeserving of redemption, based on his selfish and abusive past, typified by his condition in his first encounter with Rosa Lee: in a drunken stupor following a motel room fight. She takes him in and eventually falls in love with him, despite his having done nothing to deserve her care or his redemption: "It is an undeserved grace, a gift of providence from a simple woman who continues to pray for him and to be grateful for him."

However, in the face of the loss of his daughter, Mac learns, in Briley's words, that "his life as a Christian is no more sheltered from this world's tragedies than it was before." Before finding redemption, Sledge questions why God has allowed his life to take the path it has and, in particular, why his daughter was killed instead of him. Commentators have described this as a prime example of theodicy, the question of why evil exists that is commonly faced by Christians. Scholar Richard Leonard writes, "For all believers, the meaning of suffering is the universal question. ... No answer is completely satisfying, least of all the idea that God sends bad events to teach us something." Following the death of his daughter, Mac moves forward with uncertainty as the film ends. Jewett writes of this conclusion, "The message of this film is that we have no final assurances, any more than Abraham did. But we can respond in faith to the tender mercies we have received."

Death and resurrection
Mac experiences his spiritual resurrection even as he wrestles with death, in both the past — Sonny's father in the Vietnam War — and present — his own daughter in a car accident. The latter threatens to derail Mac's new life, captured in the moment when he learns of it and turns off the radio that is playing his new song. Leonard writes of this resurrection, "Depression hangs like a pall over Tender Mercies, [but] what makes this film inspiring is that it is also about the joy of being found. ... Mac finds the way, the truth, and the life he wants." In a climactic scene, Mac tells Rosa Lee that he was once nearly killed in a car crash himself, which forces him to address the question of why he was allowed to live while others have died. Jewett writes of this scene, "Mac Sledge can't trust happiness because it remains inexplicable. But he does trust the tender mercies that mysteriously led him from death to life."

Mac is portrayed as near death at the beginning of the film, having woken up in a drunken stupor in a boundless, empty flatland with nothing in his possession, a shot that scholar Roy M. Anker said "pointedly reflects the condition of his own soul". The dialogue in other scenes suggests the threat of mortality, including a moment when Mac has trouble singing due to his bad voice and says, "Don't feel sorry for me, Rosa Lee, I'm not dead yet." In several lasting shots, the vast sky dwarfs Mac, Rosa Lee and Sonny, starkly symbolizing their isolation, as well as the fragility of human existence. The fact that Mac sustains his newfound life with Rosa Lee and Sonny after his daughter's death, rather than reverting to his old pattern of alcoholism and abuse, is consistent with a recurring theme in Foote's works of characters overcoming tragedy and finding in it an opportunity for growth and maturation.

Distribution
Philip and Mary Ann Hobel spent a long time seeking a distributor for Tender Mercies without any success. Duvall, who began to doubt the film would be widely released, was unable to help the Hobels because he was busy trying to find a distributor for Angelo My Love, a film he had written, directed and produced. Eventually, Universal Pictures agreed to distribute Tender Mercies. Test screenings for the film were held, which Beresford described as the most unusual he had ever experienced. The director said that the preview audiences appeared to be very engaged with the picture, to the point the theaters were so silent, "if you flicked a piece of paper on the floor, you could hear it fall." However, the post-screening feedback was, in Beresford's words, "absolutely disastrous." As a result, Universal executives lost faith in the film and made little effort to promote it. Foote said of the studio, "I don't know that they disliked the film, I just think they thought it was inconsequential and of no consequence at all. I guess they thought it would just get lost in the shuffle." Others in the film industry were equally dismissive; one Paramount Pictures representative described the picture as "like watching paint dry".

Festivals and theatrical run
Tender Mercies was released on March 4, 1983, in only three theaters: one in New York City, one in Los Angeles, and one in Chicago. New York Times critic Vincent Canby observed that it was released during "the time of year when distributors usually get rid of all of those movies they don't think are worth releasing in the prime moviegoing times of Christmas and the midsummer months". The simultaneous release of Angelo My Love led to some more publicity for Duvall himself, but was of no help to Tender Mercies. Duvall also believed that Universal's lack of familiarity and comfort with southern culture and the country music genre further reduced their faith in the film. When country star Willie Nelson offered to help publicize it, a studio executive told Duvall she did not understand how the singer could contribute to the promotion, which Duvall said was indicative of the studio's failure to understand both the film and the country music genre.

Tender Mercies was shown in competition at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, where it was described as a relatively optimistic alternative to darker, more violent entries like One Deadly Summer, Moon in the Gutter and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. It was also shown at the 1983 International Film Festival of India in New Delhi. A jury headed by director Lindsay Anderson determined that none of the films in contention, including Tender Mercies, were good enough to win the Golden Peacock, the festival's top prize. Film critic Jugu Abraham said the jury's standards were higher than those of the Academy Awards, and that Tender Mercies' lack of success at the festival was a "clear example of what is good cinema for some, not being so good for others".

Home media
Following its brief theatrical run, Universal Pictures quickly sold the film's rights to cable companies, allowing Tender Mercies to be shown on television. When the film unexpectedly received five Academy Award nominations nearly a year after its original release, the studio attempted to redistribute the film to theaters; however, the cable companies began televising the film about a week before the Oscar ceremony, which essentially halted any attempts at a theatrical re-release. When the film first played on HBO in March 1984, it surpassed the three major networks in ratings for homes with cable televisions. Tender Mercies was released on VHS some time later, and was first released on DVD on June 22, 1999.

Box office
Tender Mercies was not considered a box office success. In its first three days, March 4–6, the film grossed $46,977 from exclusive engagements at the Tower East Theater in New York ($21,183), the Fine Arts Theater in Los Angeles ($18,254) and the Carnegie Theater in Chicago ($7,540). Tender Mercies eventually played at a total of 37 theaters and grossed $8,443,124.

Critical response
Tender Mercies received mostly positive reviews. Richard Corliss of Time declared it the "best American movie of the new year". Carol Olten of The San Diego Union-Tribune declared Tender Mercies the best movie of 1983, and "the most poignant, but forthright, film of the year, with a brilliant performance by Robert Duvall". Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "This is a small, lovely and somewhat overloaded film about small-town life, loneliness, country music, marriage, divorce and parental love, and it deals with all of these things in equal measure. Still, the absence of a single, sharply dramatic story line is a relatively small price to pay for the plainness and clarity with which these other issues are defined." She also praised Beresford's direction, which she said lent the movie a light touch. The Times' Canby wrote, "In all respects Tender Mercies is so good that it has the effect of rediscovering a kind of film fiction that has been debased over the decades by hack moviemakers, working according to accepted formulas, frequently to the applause of the critics as well as the public." Leonard Maltin gave it three out of four stars, applauding Duvall in particular and describing it as a "winning but extremely low-key film", though he characterized Foote's screenplay as "not so much a story as a series of vignettes". David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor praised the film for its values, for underscoring the good in people and for avoiding flashiness and quick cuts in favor of a subtle and deliberately paced story, while maintaining a PG rating and omitting sex, drugs and violence. He also felt, however, that it tended toward melodrama on a few occasions and that the soundtrack had "a bit of syrupy music ... especially at the end".

Some reviews were less favorable. David Ansen of Newsweek said, "While one respects the filmmaker's small-is-beautiful philosophy, this story may indeed be too small for its britches. ... Beresford's nice little movie seems so afraid to make a false move that it runs the danger of not moving at all." Linda Beath of The Globe and Mail said Duvall's performance was "fabulous," but that the film was "very slight" compared to Beresford's Australian pictures. Gary Arnold of The Washington Post panned the film, criticizing its mood and tempo and describing Buckley as its only true asset: "Tender Mercies fails because of an apparent dimness of perception that frequently overcomes dramatists: they don't always know when they've got ahold of the wrong end of the story they want to tell."

Many critics specifically praised Duvall's performance. Sterritt called it "one of the most finely wrought achievements to reach the screen in recent memory." In Corliss's description, "Duvall's aging face, a road map of dead ends and dry gulches, can accommodate rage or innocence or any ironic shade in between. As Mac he avoids both melodrama and condescension, finding climaxes in each small step toward rehabilitation, each new responsibility shouldered." Ansen said, "Robert Duvall does another of his extraordinary disappearing acts. He vanishes totally inside the character of Mac Sledge." Maslin said he "so thoroughly transformed into Mac that he even walks with a Texan's rolling gait"; she also complimented the performances of the supporting cast. According to a review in People, "Duvall gives it everything he has, which is saying a great deal. His beery singing voice is a revelation, and his unfussy, brightly burnished acting is the kind for which awards were invented." The review also described Betty Buckley as "bitchy and brilliant". Duvall was praised as well for pulling off his first true romantic role; the actor said of the response, "This is the only film where I've heard people say I'm sexy. It's real romantic. Rural romantic. I love that part almost more than anything."

Reflecting on the film a decade after it came out, critic Danny Peary said he found Duvall's restrained portrayal "extremely irritating" and criticized the entire cast, save for Buckley, for their "subdued, emotions-in-check, phony 'honest' performances. You just wish the whole lot of them would start tickling each other." In his book Alternate Oscars, listing his personal opinions of who should have won the Academy Awards each year, Peary excluded Tender Mercies from all the categories, and chose Michael Caine as deserving of the Best Actor honor for Educating Rita. In June 2009, critic Roger Ebert included Tender Mercies in The Great Movies, his series of reviews celebrating what he considers the most important films of all time. He praised what he called one of Duvall's most understated performances, as well as Foote's minimalist storytelling and the restraint and patience of Beresford's direction. Ebert said of Foote's screenplay, "The down-to-earth quality of his characters drew attention away from his minimalist storytelling; all the frills were stripped away. ... Rarely does a movie elaborate less and explain more than Tender Mercies."

Accolades
The 56th Academy Award nominations were announced about ten months after Tender Mercies was released. Little had been done to promote its candidacy: only four Oscar campaign advertisements were purchased; all of them appeared in the trade journal Variety, and Duvall had declined to campaign for himself or the film. Beresford and studio executives were surprised when the film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Harper was believed by some to be a strong contender for either Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress, but ultimately she was nominated in neither category.

Duvall was the only American actor nominated for the Best Actor Oscar; his competition were Britons Michael Caine (who had co-starred with Duvall in the 1976 The Eagle Has Landed), Tom Conti, Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney. During an interview before the Oscar ceremony, Duvall offended some Britons by complaining about "the Limey syndrome," claiming "the attitude with a lot of people in Hollywood is that what they do in England is somehow better than what we do here." Duvall, who was presented with the Oscar by country music star, Dolly Parton, said of winning the award, "It was a nice feeling, knowing I was the home-crowd favorite." In a New York Times profile of Duvall that appeared six years after Tender Mercies' release, Nan C. Robertson wrote that, despite four previous Academy Award nominations, "it was not until he won as Best Actor in 1983 ... that moviegoers woke up in droves to this great natural resource. The reason was that they rarely recognized Mr. Duvall from one part to another, so effortlessly did he vanish into each celluloid persona." Foote, who was so certain he would not win the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for To Kill a Mockingbird he had not attended the 1963 ceremony, made sure he was present to collect his award for Best Original Screenplay. The critical success of the film allowed Foote to exercise considerable control over his future film projects, including final veto power over major decisions; when such power was denied, Foote would simply refuse to do the film.

title: Tender Mercies


text:
Sonny & Cher

Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of spouses Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector.

The pair first achieved fame with two hit songs in 1965, "Baby Don't Go" and "I Got You Babe". Signing with Atco/Atlantic Records, they released three studio albums in the late 1960s, as well as the soundtrack recordings for two unsuccessful movies, Good Times and Chastity, with Cher contributing vocals to one cut, "Chastity's Song (Band of Thieves)". In 1972, after three years of silence, the couple returned to the studio and released two other albums under the MCA/Kapp Records label.

In the 1970s, they also positioned themselves as media personalities with two top ten TV shows in the US, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and The Sonny & Cher Show. The couple's career as a duo ended in 1975 following their divorce. In the decade they spent together, Sonny and Cher were nominated for two Grammy Awards and sold over 40 million records worldwide. Rolling Stone ranked them No. 18 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.

Performing under her first name, Cher went on to a highly successful career as a solo singer and actress, while Sonny Bono was eventually elected to Congress as a Republican U.S. Representative from California. The two performers were inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998, following Sonny's death in a skiing accident.

1962–1964: The origin
Cherilyn Sarkisian first met Salvatore Bono in a Los Angeles coffee shop in November 1962, when she was sixteen. Eleven years her senior, Bono was working for record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. The two became best friends, eventual lovers, and were supposedly married in 1964, but Bono says in his autobiography that it was not an official marriage. They were legally wed after their only child, Chastity, was born. Through Bono, Cher started as a session singer, and sang backup on several of Spector's classic recordings, including "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers and Darlene Love's "A Fine, Fine Boy". In Darlene Love's recording, the listener can clearly hear Cher and Sonny close to the mic (along with Love, who recorded her own backing vocals).

1965–1966: Career development

With Bono continuing to write, arrange and produce the songs, the couple's first incarnation was as the duo "Caesar and Cleo". They released some singles in 1964, including "The Letter", with Vault Records, and "The Letter", "Do You Wanna Dance" and "Love Is Strange", with Reprise Records.

In September 1964, they released "Baby Don't Go" under the name of Sonny & Cher, which became their first regional hit. The song was later included on the 1965 Reprise compilation Baby Don't Go – Sonny & Cher and Friends, which also included songs from artists such as Bill Medley, The Lettermen and The Blendells.

The duo released their first album Look at Us in the summer of 1965. The album contained the number one single "I Got You Babe". Look at Us peaked at number two on the Billboard chart for eight weeks in the later part of 1965.

Sonny & Cher made their first promotional tour of Britain in the first two weeks of August1965. The tour was organized and overseen by Larry Page, co-manager of the English rock band the Kinks, who met Cher a month earlier while she finished recording her debut album and while the Kinks toured America. Page and Brian Sommerville, the Kinks' publicist, quickly signed to be Sonny & Cher's European business manager and British publicist, respectively. During their two weeks in Britain, Sonny & Cher primarily appeared on British television and radio, but they also performed at the 100 Club in central London on August 5.

The couple appeared on many of the top television shows of the era including The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, Where The Action Is, Hollywood A Go-Go, Hollywood Palace, Hullabaloo, Beat Club, Shindig!, Ready Steady Go! and Top of the Pops. They also appeared as themselves in the film Wild on the Beach, singing "It's Gonna Rain". On their first album Bono also displayed his political interest long before running for Congress in the lyrics of the song, "The Revolution Kind".

As the followup to the success of Look at Us, they released their second studio album in April 1966, The Wondrous World of Sonny & Chér, which peaked at number 34. The two dressed in animal skins with Bono wearing knee high caveman boots and Cher going barefoot.

During 1965, five of their songs were in US Billboard Top 20, a record passed only by Elvis Presley and behind famous artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and others. Periodic solo releases by Cher continued during this period, including major successes with "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", and Burt Bacharach & Hal David's theme from "Alfie" (as heard in the motion picture Alfie, as well as a single release), both in 1966. Because they sided with the young people being harassed on the Sunset Strip during the Sunset Strip curfew riots; they were removed from their promised position of honor in the Tournament of Roses Parade in January 1967.

1967–1969: Career woes
In 1967, Sonny and Cher released their third album, In Case You're In Love. It peaked at number 45 in the U.S. charts. It contained two hit singles, both written by Bono, "The Beat Goes On" (No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100) and "Little Man" (No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100).

In an attempt to capitalize on the duo's initial success, Bono speedily arranged a film project for the duo to star in, but the 1967 feature, Good Times, was a major bomb, despite the efforts of fledgling director William Friedkin and co-star George Sanders. After Good Times flopped in 1968, Columbia Pictures immediately sold rights to their intended follow-up film Speedway to MGM. The couple were replaced by Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra. In 1969, another film, Chastity, starring Cher, written and produced by Sonny, was also a commercial bomb.

Sonny and Cher's career had stalled by 1968 as album sales quickly dried up. Their gentle, easy-listening pop sound and drug-free life had become unpopular in an era increasingly consumed with the psychedelic rock of the evolving landscape of American pop culture during the late 1960s.

Bono decided to forge ahead, carving a new career for the duo in Las Vegas resorts, where they sharpened their public persona with Cher as the wise-cracking, glamorous singer, and Bono as the good-natured recipient of her insults. In reality, Bono controlled every aspect of their act, from the musical arrangements to the joke-writing. While success was slow to come, their luck improved when network TV talent scouts attended a show, noting their potential appeal for a variety series.

Sonny and Cher also welcomed their first child, Chastity (named after Cher's movie), born on March 4, 1969.

1970–1977: TV success, Cher goes solo and divorce
In 1970, Sonny and Cher starred in their first television special, The Nitty Gritty Hour, a mixture of slapstick comedy, skits, and live music. The appearance was a critical success, which led to numerous guest spots on other television shows. They also appeared in The New Scooby-Doo Movies as guest stars.

Sonny and Cher caught the eye of CBS head of programming Fred Silverman while guest-hosting The Merv Griffin Show, and Silverman offered the duo their own variety show. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour debuted in 1971 as a summer replacement series. The show returned to prime time later that year and was an immediate hit, quickly reaching the Top 10. The show received 15 Emmy Award nominations during its run, winning one for direction, throughout its initial four seasons on CBS. The duo also revived their recording career, releasing the album All I Ever Need Is You, and charting two more top ten hits: "All I Ever Need Is You", and "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done" in 1972. Sonny and Cher's dialogues were patterned after the successful nightclub routines of Louis Prima and Keely Smith: the happy-go-lucky husband squelched by a tart remark from the unamused wife. The show featured a stock company of zany comedians, including Teri Garr, Freeman King, Ted Ziegler, Billy Van and Murray Langston (later The Unknown Comic on The Gong Show). One sketch satirizing CBS's detective show Cannon and its portly star William Conrad was so successful that Sonny and Cher staged several follow-ups, with Tony Curtis as "Detective Fat". Everybody in these sketches wore wide-waisted "fat suits" (similar to hoop skirts), so Detective Fat and his clients and his suspects would spend most of the time bumping each other and bouncing across the crowded room. Around this time, Cher had become a major star on her own, due in part of the success of the singles "Gypsies Tramps and Thieves" and "Half-Breed", both of which reached number one on the pop charts.

By the third season of the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1974), the marriage of Sonny and Cher was falling apart; the duo separated later that year. The show imploded, while still rating in the top 10. What followed was a very public divorce (finalized on June 26, 1975 ). Cher won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance By an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1974. Bono launched his own show, The Sonny Comedy Revue, in the fall of 1974, retaining the "Sonny and Cher" troupe of comedians and writers. Cher also announced plans to star in a new variety series of her own. Critics predicted that Bono would be the big winner with a solo comedy vehicle, and held little hope for Cher's more musical showcase. After only six weeks, however, Bono's show was abruptly canceled.

The Cher show debuted as an elaborate, all-star television special on February 16, 1975, featuring Flip Wilson, Bette Midler, and special guest Elton John. Cloris Leachman and Jack Albertson both won Emmy Awards for their appearances as guest-stars a few weeks later, and the series received four additional Emmy nominations that year. The first season ranked in the Top 25 of the year-end ratings.

As a result of the divorce, Sonny and Cher went their separate ways until Cher attended the opening of one of Bono's restaurants in something of a reconciliation. The Sonny & Cher Show returned in 1976, even though they were no longer married (the duo "reunited" with a humorous handshake). After struggling with low ratings through 1977, Sonny and Cher finally parted ways for good. In 1976, Mego Toys also released a line of toys and dolls, in the likeness of Sonny & Cher. The release of these fashion dolls coincided with the popularity of The Sonny & Cher Show.

1978–1999: After Sonny and Cher
Sonny Bono went on to an acting career and later entered politics, eventually becoming a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Cher went on to become a Grammy Award-winning solo singer and an Academy Award-winning actress.

The couple made two surprise impromptu reunion performances: the first on The Mike Douglas Show in the spring of 1979, singing a medley of "United We Stand" and "Without You", and the second on November 13, 1987, on Late Night with David Letterman where they performed their hit song "I Got You Babe"; it turned out to be the last time the two would perform together.

In early 1999, And the Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story, directed by David Burton Morris and starring Jay Underwood and Renee Faia, was broadcast on ABC. The TV movie was based on the autobiography of Bono, and focuses on the relationship between the couple during the early 1960s to their divorce in the mid 1970s. This movie was also nominated for two Emmy Awards.

Bono's death, music copyright
On January 5, 1998, Bono died of injuries from hitting a tree while skiing at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe. He was 62 years old. Bono's death came just days after Michael Kennedy died in a similar accident. Bono's widow, Mary, was selected to fill the remainder of his congressional term, and was re-elected in her own right, serving until she was defeated for re-election in 2012. She continues to champion many of her late husband's causes, including the ongoing fight as how to best save the Salton Sea.

The funeral, unbeknownst to Cher, was broadcast live on CNN. She gave a tearful eulogy, after which the attendees sang the song "The Beat Goes On". In front of millions, Cher tearfully and effusively praised Bono, calling him "the most unforgettable character I've ever met". His final resting place is Desert Memorial Park in nearby Cathedral City, California, the same cemetery in which Frank Sinatra was laid to rest later that same year. The epitaph on Bono's headstone reads: "And The Beat Goes On".

In 1998, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television. Cher appeared at the event with Mary Bono, who accepted the award on behalf of her late husband. Cher paid tribute to Bono in the CBS special Sonny and Me: Cher Remembers, calling her grief "something I never plan to get over". During the same year, Cher also released her twenty-second album Believe that was highly influenced by Bono's death, and in the booklet Cher wrote "In memory of Son".

When Cher and Bono divorced, they agreed to split revenue from the songs recorded together. When Bono died, one-third of his interest passed to wife Mary Bono, and one-sixth interests were split amongst his children. Cher sued UMG in 2009, claiming she and Bono's heirs were owed $5,000,000 in "hidden" royalties.

Legacy and achievements
Author Joseph Murrells described Sonny & Cher as "part of the leading exponents of the rock-folk-message type of song, a hybrid combining the beat and instrumentation of rock music with folk lyrics and often lyrics of protest."

The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour received numerous Emmy nominations; Director Art Fisher won for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series in 1972. Cher won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1974.

Sonny and Cher received the following honors:

 * 1966: Grammy nomination for Best New Artist
 * 1972: Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
 * 1998: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
 * 2015: Ranked No. 18 on Rolling Stone 's list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time

Discography

 * Look at Us (1965)
 * The Wondrous World of Sonny & Chér (1966)
 * In Case You're in Love (1967)
 * All I Ever Need Is You (1972)
 * Mama Was a Rock and Roll Singer, Papa Used to Write All Her Songs (1973)

Books

 * Sonny And Cher - Thomas Braun (1978). ISBN 978-0-87191-620-4
 * And The Beat Goes On - Sonny Bono (1991). ISBN 0-671-69367-0
 * The First Time - Cher (1998). ISBN 978-0-671-03488-7

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Sonny & Cher


text:
A Passage to India

A Passage to India is a 1924 novel by English author E. M. Forster set against the backdrop of the British Raj and the Indian independence movement in the 1920s. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of 20th century English literature by the Modern Library and won the 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Time magazine included the novel in its "All Time 100 Novels" list. The novel is based on Forster's experiences in India, deriving the title from Walt Whitman's 1870 poem "Passage to India" in Leaves of Grass.

The story revolves around four characters: Dr. Aziz, his British friend Mr. Cyril Fielding, Mrs. Moore, and Miss Adela Quested. During a trip to the fictitious Marabar Caves (modeled on the Barabar Caves of Bihar), Adela thinks she finds herself alone with Dr. Aziz in one of the caves (when in fact he is in an entirely different cave; whether the attacker is real or a reaction to the cave is ambiguous), and subsequently panics and flees; it is assumed that Dr. Aziz has attempted to assault her. Aziz's trial, and its run-up and aftermath, bring to a boil the common racial tensions and prejudices between Indians and the British during the colonial era.

Background
A Passage to India is a reflection of Forster's visit to India in 1912–13 and his duration as private secretary to Tukojirao III, the Maharajah of Dewas Senior in 1921–22. He dedicated the book to his friend Ross Masood.

Plot summary
British schoolmistress, Adela Quested, and her elderly friend, Mrs. Moore, visit the fictional Indian city of Chandrapore. Adela is to decide if she wants to marry Mrs. Moore's son, Ronny Heaslop, the city magistrate.

Meanwhile, Dr. Aziz, a young Indian Muslim physician, is called from dining with friends by Major Callendar, Aziz's superior at the hospital, but is delayed. Disconsolate at finding him gone, Aziz walks back and enters his favourite mosque on impulse. Seeing Mrs Moore there, he yells at her not to profane this sacred place, but the two then chat and part as friends. When Mrs. Moore relates her experience later, Ronny becomes indignant at the native's presumption.

Because the newcomers had expressed a desire to meet Indians, Mr. Turton, the city tax collector, invites several to his house, but the party turns out awkwardly, due to the Indians' timidity and the Britons' bigotry. Also there is Cyril Fielding, principal of Chandrapore's government-run college for Indians, who invites Adela and Mrs. Moore to a tea party with him and a Hindu-Brahmin professor named Narayan Godbole. At Adela's request, he extends his invitation to Dr. Aziz.

At the party, Fielding and Aziz become friends and Aziz promises to take Mrs. Moore and Adela to see the distant Marabar Caves. Ronny arrives and, finding Adela "unaccompanied" with Dr. Aziz and Professor Godbole, rudely breaks up the party.

Aziz mistakenly believes that the women are offended that he has not followed through on his promise and arranges an outing to the caves at great expense to himself. Fielding and Godbole are supposed to accompany the expedition, but they miss the train. In the first cave they visit, Mrs. Moore is overcome with claustrophobia and disturbed by the echo. When she declines to continue, Adela and Aziz climb the hill to the upper caves, accompanied by a guide.

Asked by Adela whether he has more than one wife, Aziz is disconcerted by her bluntness and ducks into a cave to compose himself. When he comes out, he is told by the guide that Adela has gone into a cave by herself. After quarreling with the guide, Aziz discovers Adela's field glasses broken on the ground and puts them in his pocket. He then looks down the hill and sees Adela speaking to Miss Derek, who has arrived with Fielding in a car. Aziz runs down and greets Fielding, but Miss Derek and Adela drive off, leaving Fielding, Mrs. Moore and Aziz to return to Chandrapore by train.

Aziz is arrested on arrival and charged with sexually assaulting Adela. The run-up to his trial increases racial tensions. Adela alleges that Aziz followed her into the cave and that she fended him off by swinging her field glasses at him. The only evidence is the field glasses in the possession of Aziz. When Fielding proclaims his belief in Aziz's innocence, he is ostracised and condemned as a blood-traitor.

While awaiting the trial, Mrs Moore becomes concerned at her failing health; taking a ship to England, she dies on the way. Then during the trial, Adela admits that she had been similarly disoriented by the cave's echo. She was no longer sure who or what had attacked her and, despite great demand to persist in her accusation, withdraws the charge. When the case is dismissed, Heaslop breaks off his engagement to Adela and she stays at Fielding's house until a return to England is arranged.

Although he is vindicated, Aziz is angry that Fielding befriended Adela after she nearly ruined his life. Believing it to be the gentlemanly thing to do, Fielding convinces Aziz not to seek monetary redress, but the men's friendship suffers and Fielding departs for England. Believing that he is leaving to marry Adela for her money, and bitter at his friend's perceived betrayal, Aziz vows never again to befriend a white person.

Two years later, Aziz has moved to the Hindu-ruled state of Mau and is now the Raja's chief physician by the time Fielding returns, married to Stella, Mrs. Moore's daughter from a second marriage. Though the two meet and Aziz still feels drawn to Fielding, he realises that they cannot be truly friends until India becomes independent from British rule.

Character list

 * Dr. Aziz : A young Muslim Indian physician who works at the British hospital in Chandrapore.
 * Cyril Fielding : The 45-year-old, unmarried British headmaster of the small government-run college for Indians.
 * Adela Quested : A young British schoolmistress who is visiting India with the vague intention of marrying Ronny Heaslop.
 * Mrs. Moore : The mother of Ronny Heaslop.
 * Ronny Heaslop : The British city magistrate of Chandrapore.
 * Professor Narayan Godbole : (pronounced )
 * Mr. Turton : The British city collector of Chandrapore.
 * Mrs. Turton : Mr. Turton's openly racist wife.
 * Maj. Callendar : The British head doctor and Aziz's superior at the hospital.
 * Mr. McBryde : The British superintendent of police in Chandrapore.
 * Miss Derek : An Englishwoman employed by a Hindu royal family who frequently borrows their car.
 * Nawab Bahadur : The chief Indian citizen in Chandrapore.
 * Hamidullah : Aziz's uncle.
 * Amritrao : A prominent Indian lawyer called in to defend Aziz.
 * Mahmoud Ali : A Muslim Indian barrister who openly hates the British.
 * Dr. Panna Lal : A low-born Hindu doctor and Aziz's rival at the hospital.
 * Ralph Moore : The second son of Mrs. Moore.
 * Stella Moore (later Fielding): Mrs. Moore's daughter.

Literary criticism
The nature of critiques of A Passage to India is largely based upon the era of writing and the nature of the critical work. While many earlier critiques found that Forster's book showed an inappropriate friendship between colonizers and the colonized, new critiques on the work draw attention to the depictions of sexism, racism and imperialism in the novel.

Reviews of A Passage to India when it was first published challenged specific details and attitudes included in the book that Forster drew from his own time in India. Early critics also expressed concern at the interracial camaraderie between Aziz and Fielding in the book. Others saw the book as a vilification of humanist perspectives on the importance of interpersonal relationships, and effects of colonialism on Indian society. More recent critiques by postcolonial theorists and literary critics have reinvestigated the text as a work of Orientalist fiction contributing to a discourse on colonial relationships by a European. Today it is one of the seminal texts in the postcolonial Orientalist discourse, among other books like Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and Kim by Rudyard Kipling. A Passage to India emerged at a time where portrayals of India as a savage, disorganized land in need of domination were more popular in mainstream European literature than romanticized depictions. Forster's novel departed from typical narratives about colonizer-colonized relationships and emphasized a more "unknowable" Orient, rather than characterizing it with exoticism, ancient wisdom and mystery. Postcolonial theorists like Maryam Wasif Khan have termed this novel a Modern Orientalist text, meaning that it portrays the Orient in an optimistic, positive light while simultaneously challenging and critiquing European culture and society. However, Benita Parry suggests that it also mystifies India by creating an "obfuscated realm where the secular is scanted, and in which India’s long traditions of mathematics, science and technology, history, linguistics and jurisprudence have no place."

One of the most notable critiques comes from literary professor Edward Said, who referenced A Passage to India in both Culture and Imperialism and Orientalism. In his discussion about allusions to the British Empire in early 20th century novels, Said suggests that though the work subverted typical views on colonialism and colonial rule in India, it also fell short of outright condemning either nationalist movements in India or colonialism itself. Of Forster's attitude toward colonizer-colonized relationships, Said says Forster:". . . found a way to use the mechanism of the novel to elaborate on the already existing structure of attitude and reference without changing it. This structure permitted one to feel affection for and even intimacy with some Indians and India generally, but made one see Indian politics as the charge of the British, and culturally refused a privilege to India nationalism."Stereotyping and Orientalist thought is also explored in postcolonial critiques. Said suggests that Forster deals with the question of British-Indian relationships by separating Muslims and Hindus in the narrative. He says Forster connects Islam to Western values and attitudes while suggesting that Hinduism is chaotic and orderless, and subsequently uses Hindu characters as the background to the main narrative. Said also identifies the failed attempt at friendship between Aziz and Fielding as a reinforcement of the perceived cultural distance between the Orient and the West. The inability of the two men to begin a meaningful friendship is indicative of what Said suggests is the irreconcilable otherness of the Orient, something that has originated from the West and also limits Western readers in how they understand the Orient.

Other scholars have examined the book with a critical postcolonial and feminist lens. Maryam Wasif Khan's reading of the book suggests A Passage to India is also a commentary on gender, and a British woman's place within the empire. Khan argued that the female characters coming to "the Orient" to break free of their social roles in Britain represent the discord between Englishwomen and their social roles at home, and tells the narrative of "pioneering Englishwomen whose emergent feminism found form and voice in the colony".

Sara Suleri has also critiqued the book's orientalist depiction of India and its use of racialized bodies, especially in the case of Aziz, as sexual objects rather than individuals.

Awards

 * 1924 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
 * 1925 Femina Vie Heureuse

Adaptations

 * In 1948, an adaptation by George Lefferts aired on NBC University Theatre, featuring Alma Lawton, Ben Wright, and Joseph Schildkraut as Dr. Aziz.
 * A Passage to India (play), A play written by Santha Rama Rau based on the novel that ran on the West End in 1960, and on Broadway in 1962. A 1965 BBC television version of the play was broadcast in their Play of the Month series.
 * The Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray intended to direct a theatrical adaptation of the novel, but the project was never realised.
 * The 1984 film version directed by David Lean, and starring Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, James Fox, Peggy Ashcroft and Alec Guinness, won two Oscars and numerous other awards.
 * Martin Sherman wrote an additional version for the stage, that premiered at the Shared Experience in Richmond in 2002. It has toured the UK and played at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Harvey Theater in November 2004.

Manuscript
In 1960, the manuscript of A Passage to India was donated to Rupert Hart-Davis by Forster and sold to raise money for the London Library, fetching the then record sum of £6,500 for a modern English manuscript.

title: A Passage to India


text:
Places in the Heart

Places in the Heart is a 1984 American drama film written and directed by Robert Benton. It stars Sally Field, Lindsay Crouse, Ed Harris, Ray Baker, Amy Madigan, John Malkovich, Danny Glover, Jerry Haynes and Terry O'Quinn. The film follows Edna Spalding, a young woman during the Great Depression in Texas who is forced to take charge of her farm after the death of her husband and is helped by a motley bunch.

Places in the Heart premiered at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival, where it competed for the Golden Bear, while Benton won the Silver Bear for Best Director. It was theatrically released on September 21, 1984, by Tri-Star Pictures to critical and commercial success. Reviewers praised Benton's screenplay and direction and performances of the cast (particularly of Field, Malkovich and Crouse), while the film grossed $34.9 million against a $9.5 million budget. The film received seven nominations at the 57th Academy Awards including Best Picture and won two: Best Actress (for Field), and Best Original Screenplay.

Plot
It's 1935 in Waxahachie, Texas, a small town during the Great Depression. One Sunday afternoon, the sheriff, Royce Spalding, goes to investigate gunshots at the rail yards. A cheerfully drunk black teenager, Wylie, is firing a revolver. He reaches an empty chamber and, thinking the gun is empty, he aims at the sheriff, killing him. Royce's body is brought home to his widow, Edna, and their children, Frank and Possum. A truckload of vigilantes drags Wylie's body behind them, stopping in front of the Spalding house. Later, Wylie's friends take his body down from a tree. The two men are buried on the same day.

Edna must now raise her children alone. She is comforted by her sister, Margaret, who helps with the funeral. A drifter and handyman, a black man named Moses "Moze" Hadner appears at her door the night of the funeral, asking for work. He offers to plant cotton on her 30 acres, citing his experience. Edna feeds him and sends him on his way. The next morning, she finds him chopping wood in her yard. She makes him breakfast. Moze steals some silver spoons and goes.

The bank has a note on the family farm, and the price of cotton is plummeting. The local banker, Albert Denby, insists she needs to sell the farm.

When the police find Moze with her silver, they bring him back to confirm the theft, Edna says she has hired him and explains the spoons. The next day, Edna tells Denby she will not sell the farm. He is appalled that she is taking advice from a black man. Later, he visits the farm and forces her to take his brother-in-law, Will, blinded in World War I, as a paid lodger.

Frank gets caught smoking at school. Edna is forced into yet another male role previously performed by her husband, as she must punish Frank. Edna gathers instructions from Frank as to the way she should spank him; she hesitates, then delivers the punishment while Moze and Possum empathize from outside. Frank takes his spanking bravely, while Edna confides to Will that she will not do this again and that she dearly misses her husband.

Will is slow to warm up to Edna's children, but they eventually become close. He rescues her daughter, Possum, during a tornado that levels part of town but leaves the Spalding house standing.

Wayne Lomax, Edna's brother-in-law, has a fine time making love to married schoolteacher Viola Kelsey. The tornado is the last straw for Viola, who tells her husband they must move. Wayne admits the affair to Margaret. She says she won't forgive him this time.

Edna realizes she cannot make the next payment even if she sells all her cotton. She learns of an Ellis County contest: a $100 cash prize to the farmer who produces the first bale of cotton for the market each season. Edna realizes the prize money plus the proceeds from the sale of her cotton would be enough to save the farm. Moze helps her find the pickers they need to harvest the cotton on time.

Their efforts pay off. Edna and Moze find themselves first in line at the wholesaler with the season's first bale of cotton. Moze carefully coaches Edna on how to negotiate with the buyer, and as a result, he is unable to cheat her. Edna makes plans for the future. Moze is excited, but that night, he is accosted by Ku Klux Klan members. Wielding Royce's gun, Will interrupts the savage beating. He recognizes all the assailants' voices and identifies them. They leave. Weeping, Moze realizes he must leave the farm or die. He gives Edna a handkerchief that belonged to his mother.

The film ends in a dreamlike scene evoking Holy Communion. A choir sings in the modest church, where the pews are mostly empty. During a reading of 1 Corinthians 13, Margaret takes Wayne's hand. The congregation, after filling the pews, partakes in Protestant communion, passing the elements of the sacrifice to each other as the choir sings "In the Garden". The camera shows townspeople in the pews who were seen throughout the film, including a woman who died when the tornado overturned her car. Eventually, Moze is shown in the church, though he is long gone; the camera then shows Edna, who passes a communion tray to her dead husband, quietly saying "Peace of God"; with the same blessing, he hands it to Wylie, who shot him and was killed in revenge. After Wylie replies, "Peace of God", the camera lingers on the two men in contemplation as the hymn ends.

Production
Regarding the unique ending, writer-director Robert Benton explained why he ended an otherwise realistic movie with a fantasy scene incorporating equality, grace and forgiveness, tenets of Christianity:

"There are certain things images can explain that words cannot. There is something in the image of the man who has been killed handing the communion plate to the boy who killed him that seems very moving to me in ways I cannot explain. I had the ending before I ever finished the screenplay, although I knew audiences would be confused by it."

Release
Places in the Heart was released in theatres on September 21, 1984. The film was released on DVD on October 9, 2001, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Box office
Places in the Heart grossed $274,279 in its opening weekend. The film grossed $34.9 million in the US.

Critical response
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 89% based on reviews from 38 critics and a rating average of 8.00/10. The consensus is: "Places in the Heart is a quiet character piece with grand ambitions that it more than fulfills, thanks to absorbing work from writer-director Robert Benton and a tremendous cast." Metacritic gives the film a score of 70% based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote in his review: "Robert Benton has made one of the best films in years about growing up American." Canby called it "moving and often funny" and "a tonic, a revivifying experience right down to the final images", comparing it to Luis Buñuel's Tristana". Roger Ebert gave the film three of four stars, writing that Benton's "memories provide the material for a wonderful movie, and he has made it, but unfortunately he hasn't stopped at that. He has gone on to include too much. He tells a central story of great power, and then keeps leaving it to catch us up with minor characters we never care about."

Accolades
In 1985, when Sally Field accepted her second Academy Award for Best Actress (the first was for Norma Rae), she uttered the memorable (and much-mocked) line "I can't deny the fact that you like me—right now, you like me!" It is commonly misquoted as "You like me—you really like me!"

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
 * 2006: AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers – #95

title: Places in the Heart


text:
A Soldier's Story

A Soldier's Story is a 1984 American mystery drama film directed and produced by Norman Jewison, adapted by Charles Fuller from his Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play. It is a murder mystery set in a segregated regiment of the U.S Army commanded by White officers and training in the Jim Crow South. In a time and place where a Black commissioned officer is bitterly resented by nearly everyone, an African-American JAG Captain investigates the murder of an African-American drill sergeant in Louisiana following American entry into World War II. As the investigation proceeds, the events leading up to the Sergeant's murder are shown in flashbacks

The cast is led by Howard Rollins and Adolph Caesar. Other actors include Art Evans, David Alan Grier, Larry Riley, David Harris, Robert Townsend, Bob Swanson, and Patti LaBelle. Denzel Washington, still at the beginning of his career, appears in a supporting role. Several actors reprise their roles from the stage version.

The film premiered at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival, and was both a critical and commercial success. It received three Academy Award nominations - for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Adolph Caesar. The film was ranked by the National Board of Review as one of the 10 best films of 1984, and won the Golden Prize at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival.

Plot
In 1944 during World War II, a drunken and guilt-ridden Vernon Waters, a master sergeant in a company of Black soldiers, shouts, "No matter what you do, they still hate you!" Moments later, he is shot to death with a .45 caliber pistol outside Fort Neal, a segregated Army base in Louisiana. Captain Richard Davenport, a Black officer from the Judge Advocate General's Corps, is sent to investigate, against the wishes of commanding officer Colonel Nivens. Most assume Waters was killed by the local Ku Klux Klan, but others are doubtful.

Nivens gives Davenport three days to conduct his investigation. Even Captain Taylor, the only white officer who wants the Sergeant's killers prosecuted, is uncooperative and patronizing, fearing a Black officer will have little success. While some Black soldiers are proud to see one of their own wearing captain's bars, others are distrustful and evasive. Davenport soon learns, though, that whenever the Klan murders Black soldiers, they always strip them naked, whereas the body of Sgt. Waters was found still wearing his uniform.

Davenport learns that Waters' company was officially part of the 221st Chemical Smoke Generator Battalion. Though eager to serve their country in combat, they are kept on the Home Front and assigned menial jobs. Most are former players from the Negro baseball league, grouped as a unit to play ball with Waters as manager. Their success against white soldiers gives them a good deal of popularity, with talk of an exhibition game against the New York Yankees.

James Wilkie, a former sergeant Waters busted for being drunk on duty, describes Waters as a combat veteran who was awarded with the Croix de Guerre by the Third French Republic during the First World War. He also describes Waters as a strict disciplinarian, but also a fair, good-natured NCO who got on well with his men, especially baseball pitcher and Jazz musician C.J. Memphis.

Private Peterson reveals Waters' tyrannical nature and his disgust with Black soldiers from the rural South who lacked education or who spoke in Gullah dialect. Peterson also recalls how he stood up to Waters when he berated the men after a winning game. Waters challenged Peterson to a fistfight, threw sand into his eyes, and beat Peterson up very badly. Interviewing other soldiers, Davenport learns that Waters charged C.J. with the murder of a white MP, after a search conducted by Wilkie turned up a recently discharged pistol under C.J.'s bunk. Waters provoked C.J. into striking him and while the murder charge was dismissed, C.J. was charged with striking a superior officer.

Davenport next interrogates C.J.'s best friend Corporal Bernard Cobb as a murder suspect. Cobb recalls visiting him in the brig, where C.J. told Cobb of a visit from Waters, who smugly admitted the planted gun was part of a frame-up he had done many times before. Sgt. Waters viewed "Geechees", as he termed uneducated, subservient, and unintelligent southern Blacks like C.J., as an obstacle to racial equality and the success of the future African American upper class, and who needed to be removed at all costs. Davenport also learns from Cobb that C.J. had always suffered from claustrophobia and hanged himself while awaiting his court-martial. In protest, the baseball team deliberately threw the season's last game, and Waters was left shattered by the suicide. Taylor disbanded the team, and the players were reassigned to the 221st.

Davenport learns that racist white officers Captain Wilcox and Lieutenant Byrd had an altercation with Waters shortly before his death. Both officers admit to physically assaulting a guilt-ridden Waters after he confronted them in a drunken tirade. They admit that they would have killed him, but only men on guard duty are issued .45 ammunition when the unit is on bivouac. Both officers also claim to have turned their side-arms in immediately after learning of Sgt. Waters' murder, and that ballistics testing has already cleared them. Captain Taylor insists Wilcox and Byrd are murderers, but Davenport disagrees and releases them.

Davenport interrogates Wilkie, who admits he planted the gun under C.J.'s bunk on Waters' orders. Waters had also revealed to Wilkie the real reasons for his hatred of Gullah-speaking Southern Blacks like C.J. While serving with the AEF in France during World War I, a Black soldier in Waters' unit had, at the urging of racist White Doughboys, humiliated them all by dressing up and acting like a monkey in front of the French girls at a cabaret called the "Cafe Napoleon". Previously, white French women had been willing to dance with Black Doughboys and go out with them on dates. In retaliation, Waters, who had always viewed the case as proof of how much damage an ignorant Black man could do, and his enraged fellow Black Doughboys had slit the soldier's throat.

Davenport demands to know why Waters did not also frame Peterson after their fight. Wilkie explains that Waters liked and respected Peterson; as he spoke proper English and stood up for himself. Davenport has Wilkie arrested just as an impromptu celebration begins, as the 221st is about to be shipped out to join the fight overseas.

Realizing Peterson and Smalls were on guard duty the night of Waters' murder, and thus had been issued .45 ammunition for their pistols, Davenport interrogates Smalls, who was brought back by the MPs. Smalls confesses to watching as Peterson fatally shot Sgt. Waters, claiming it was "justice", both for C.J. and for all Black people. Captured and brought to the interrogation room, Peterson, who incorrectly viewed Waters as a self-hating Black man, smugly says, "I didn't kill much. Some things need getting rid of”. Captain Davenport, implying that Peterson, despite his differing criteria, is no different from Sgt. Waters, coldly retorts, “Who gave you the right to judge who is fit to be a Negro?”

Taylor congratulates Davenport on the arrests of Wilkie, Peterson, and Smalls, admitting that he will have to get used to Negroes being commissioned officers. Davenport replies, "You will have to get used to it. You can bet your ass on that". Meanwhile, the platoon marches in preparation for their deployment to the European theatre.

Cast

 * Howard E. Rollins Jr. as CPT. Richard Davenport
 * Adolph Caesar as MSG. Vernon Waters
 * Art Evans as PVT. James Wilkie
 * David Alan Grier as CPL. Bernard Cobb
 * David Harris as PVT. Tony Smalls
 * Denzel Washington as PFC. Melvin Peterson
 * Dennis Lipscomb as CPT. Charles Taylor
 * Larry Riley as PVT. C.J. Memphis
 * Robert Townsend as CPL. Ellis
 * William Allen Young as PVT. Henson
 * John Hancock as SGT. Washington
 * Patti LaBelle as Big Mary
 * Trey Wilson as COL. Nivens
 * Wings Hauser as LT. Byrd
 * Scott Paulin as CPT. Wilcox
 * Mike Williams as PFC. Oscar

Sources:

Production
Jewison and many of the cast members worked for scale or less under a tight budget with Columbia Pictures. "No one really wanted to make this movie... a black story, it was based on World War II, and those themes were not popular at the box office", according to Jewison. Warner Bros. turned it down, as did Universal and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Columbia's Frank Price read the screenplay and was deeply interested, but the studio was hesitant about its commercial value, so Jewison offered to do the film for a $5 million budget and no salary. When the Directors Guild of America insisted he must have a fee, he agreed to take the lowest possible amount. The film ended up grossing $22.1 million.

Howard E. Rollins, Jr. had just received an Oscar nomination for his role in Ragtime and was cast as the lead. Most of the cast came from Broadway careers, but only Adolph Caesar, Denzel Washington, Larry Riley and William Allen Young appeared in both the movie and the original off-Broadway play with the Negro Ensemble Company in the New York City version.

In a 1985 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Caesar stated, while crafting the character of Waters, he drew on his frustrating experiences with both racism and ignorance in Classical theatre, "I’d studied Shakespeare to death. I knew more about Shakespeare than Shakespeare knew about himself. After I did one season at a Shakespearean repertory company, a director said to me, ‘You have a marvelous voice. You know the king’s English well. You speak iambic pentameter. My suggestion is that you go to New York and get a good colored role.' Waters has tried his best, but no matter what you do, they still hate you."

A Soldier's Story was shot entirely in Arkansas. The "Tynin" exterior scenes were shot in three days in Clarendon. The baseball sequence was filmed in Little Rock at the historic Lamar Porter Field.

Bill Clinton (then Governor of Arkansas) dropped by during the shooting. He became very enthused about the project and later helped by providing the Arkansas Army National Guard in full regalia for a grand scene, since Jewison could not afford to pay an army of extras. Production was completed with their help at Fort Chaffee United States Army Ready Reserve base at Fort Smith.

Fuller had said Herman Melville's novella Billy Budd inspired the play.

Reception
The film holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from a sample of 22 critics. The site's consensus reads, "A meticulously crafted murder mystery with incisive observations about race in America, A Soldier's Story benefits from a roundly excellent ensemble and Charles Fuller's politically urgent screenplay".

title: A Soldier's Story