Rest in peace, Robert Duvall. Tender Mercies is my favorite movie and this scene captures many of the reasons why. It’s beautifully written and produced and performed (Tess Harper is ethereal in it) all the way around but Duvall’s performance is so vulnerable and authentic that it goes above and beyond. This film and so many of the others he rooted—The Apostle and Sling Blade chief among them—influenced me as a young artist. And he was a perfectly cast Boo Radley in the film of To Kill a Mocking