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Film · Universal · 1983

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Tender Mercies

80Living historically.

This is the rare one I would leave playing in the house.

The review

A country singer who drank his career away is left at a motel. He marries the widow who runs it, and the wedding is quiet. He is baptized, and that is quiet too. A daughter from the old life dies. There is no big speech for any of it. I almost mistrusted how little the film lifts its voice. Then I saw the mercy it refuses to inflate: a job, a boy, and a vow.

This is the one I would leave on. It is adult only because a life really failed and a child from that life really dies. Nobody winks at the drinking. The new household is not a prize for a speech. Do not hunt for a moment that tells you what to feel. The feeling is already in the work he takes and the people he stays with.

Journal

Keep Tender Mercies in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 80. Yours can differ.

The glance

Republic is the thin one.

Does anyone owe a neighbor, a law, or a town — or is every person out for themselves?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

A Man for All Seasons

89 instead of 80

A Man for All Seasons is still a drama film, and it scores 89 instead of 80. What you gain is courage: The refusal.

The eight

8
Industry
After he drinks the career away, the mercy that remains is a motel job.
9
Household
He marries the widow, gains a boy, and loses a daughter from the old life.
9
Piety
He is baptized quietly, and the vow is allowed to be small.
7
Courage
He stays through a daughter's death without a big speech to make it bearable.
6
Republic
A widow's motel takes in a ruined man and makes him part of a small place.
9
Temperance
The drink is put down, and the film refuses the big speech that would indulge him.
8
Truth
The quiet vow holds on screen, and the daughter's death is not prettied.
8
Stewardship
A job, a boy, and a vow in a small place are what get left standing.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Tender Mercies · 80IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Prime Video · 1995

Pass it on

Apollo 13

79Worth an evening.

Keep it. Competence, calm, and a square peg of a problem. One of the best pictures of work we have.

The review

Lovell wants the moon and gets a problem instead. The film's heroism is not a speech on the lawn. It is a CO2 canister, a trajectory, a wife who is not given a false comfort, a crew that does not waste air on panic. Failure is not a metaphor. It is a set of constraints. They respect the constraints and the men come home. A country watching is the public part, and it is not tacky. People should care whether the strangers in the capsule live.

Watch it with a young person who thinks heroism is a feeling. Then look at the table of parts and say: this is what it looked like.

Journal

Keep Apollo 13 in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 79. Yours can differ.

The glance

Piety is the thin one.

Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

A Man for All Seasons

89 instead of 79

A Man for All Seasons is still a drama film, and it scores 89 instead of 79. What you gain is piety: Faith is the center, and it is not a mood.

The eight

10
Industry
Engineering under a clock.
7
Household
The families on the ground are not extras.
4
Piety
Awe at the work. Little religious language, a real gravity.
8
Courage
Calm nerve.
8
Republic
A public effort that tells the truth about the failure.
8
Temperance
Panic refused.
9
Truth
They say it is broken.
9
Stewardship
It hands on a respect for skill in the service of bringing people back.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Apollo 13 · 79IMDb

Tender Mercies

Keep Tender Mercies in the record.

A Man for All Seasons

Apollo 13

Keep Apollo 13 in the record.

A Man for All Seasons

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