Of course, I don’t remember how the notion of revisiting the movie, Tender Mercies, occurred to me a week or two ago. But I’m glad it did. Despite his storied career, it was the only movie for which Robert Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor. And that was back in the Dark Ages: 1983.

It’s a story of redemption. But not one that proceeds in a straight line. Duvall plays the part of Mac Sledge, a broke down, washed up, hard drinking country western singer who finds himself lower than a snake belly in a wagon rut on the filthy floor of a tiny Texas motel room that Mat and a buddy have trashed. Owned and run by the winsome Rosa Lee, a single mother recently widowed by the Vietnam War, Rosa’s Mariposa Hotel might not be in the middle of nowhere. But you can see it from there beyond the endless Texas horizon.

Getting His Mind Right. And His Clothes Sopping Wet.

A few frames in, with Mac beginning to “get his mind right,” it’s no surprise that he and Rosa Lee are drawn to one another in this lonely corner of Texas. He proposes. The scene’s a good read. And a better watch.

“Have you ever thought about marrying again?
Yeah, I have. Have you?
I have thought about it lately. I guess it’s no secret how I feel about you. A blind man could see that. Would you think about marrying me?
Yeah, I will.”

But what’s surprising, given Hollywood’s usual fixation with trashing most things Christian, is the scene a few frames on where Sledge and his newly adopted son, Sonny, are baptized, fully immersed and soaking wet. All while Rosa Lee looks on approvingly from the choir loft where she sings old time Baptist hymns. You’ll get a chuckle watching the minister doing the honors in the tank with them, fully clothed in his checked polyester suit. I couldn’t find the particular scene on the Net; guess you’ll just have to step up and get the movie yourself.

“Questions That Deserve To Be Answered With The Lash.”

I’d swear that the acerbic Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, wrote that line somewhere. But despite spending more time poking around on the internet than I’m willing to admit, I couldn’t find it. But never mind. That’s my story. And I’m stickin’ to it.

And it really doesn’t matter; it fits right in with the movie. Near the end, Mac’s estranged, eighteen year old daughter by a previous marriage elopes with a thrice divorced guy twice her age. They scarcely make it to the next county before the new hubby gets liquored up and flips over their hot car. And kills his new wife.

On getting word of the wreck, Mac fitfully pokes at the scruffy vegetable garden behind the hotel as he hurls questions at the silent Rosa Lee. Duvall’s spare, heart breaking monologue is much better seen and heard than written about. But it can be summarized with one word: “Why?” Rosa Lee listens, but then silently turns and walks away. Strange? I suppose. But isn’t that sort of what happens when we, in our petulant despair, hurl “Why?” questions at a God grown silent?

Go Deep!

The movie’s last scene was a puzzler to me when I first saw it so many years ago. It was so simple I could make no sense of it.

Sonny comes home from school on a yellow bus. He goes inside where his Mom tells him that there is a surprise on his bed from Mac. Sure enough, a new football. He heads outside where he and Mac scramble around, pitching the ball back and forth. The film ends with Rosa Lee watching them, smiling gently, from the porch across the highway. And that’s it. Talk about your minimalist ending.

I rented the film a couple of days this time and watched it two or three times while I worked out. Then it finally dawned on me. The “Why?” scene with Mac scrabbling in the garden was a head fake. Those “deep, why?” questions are really a distraction. Why did Mac’s daughter get killed in a car wreck? Why did Mac wonder into this little wide spot on a Texas road, marry a good woman, and get his life straightened out? Why did Sonny’s Dad die in Vietnam? It’s not for us to know things like that. That’s God’s business. Not ours.

Our business is to do things like throw the ball around with the kids. Treat our spouse with love and respect. Love our neighbor as ourselves. Love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And, sure, that’s simple. Even for slow learners like us. But it’s by no means easy.