Robert Duvall RIP

On commemorating the life of a Hollywood great:

I do not normally write a lot about Hollywood and its denizens, but the acclaimed actor Robert Duvall has just passed away at age 95. Before discussing him a bit more, another disclaimer: I am not an authority on the actor and likely have seen only a handful of the many films he starred in over a very long career.

Many will know some of the more memorable films he was involved in, including:

M*A*S*H (1970)
The Godfather (1972)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Deep Impact (1998)

And I find it interesting that just hours before I learned of his passing, I had seen him in an old television classic. I refer to an early 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, “Miniature”. As I watched it last night I thought, ‘That looks like Robert Duvall’. And it was.

But looking through my website I noted that I have discussed him and some of his roles on various occasions, so sharing some of my earlier thoughts, as well as posting a few newer ones, might be of some use. So let me speak to just a few films that I have found of interest for various reasons.

Network

I can briefly mention the 1976 film Network starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Duvall. It is basically about an increasingly angry media man (Finch) who hosts a populist show in which he rages against the world’s insanities.

In the film we get the memorable line, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Duvall plays a supporting role in the movie. See my discussion here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2024/03/12/im-not-going-to-take-this-anymore/

Falling Down

A number of times I have discussed the 1993 film, Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas and Duvall. While just a secular offering from Hollywood, it did feature some important biblical themes – primarily about sin and how we are all fallen. In a 2010 piece that I said this:

We are all bad eggs, and only the grace of God is keeping us from showing our real colours. Even Hollywood can get hints of these truths. Indeed, we have plenty of films which testify to our inherent depravity and corruption. Consider one such film made back in 1993 starring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall. Called Falling Down, it tells the sad story of a man who slowly lost the plot. Everything was going against him, and it took its toll. He lost his job, his marriage broke up, and he was not able to see his young daughter….

 

I leave the rest of the story for you in case you wish to see the film, and discover how it all ends. The point of the movie of course is that this is just an ordinary guy – just like you and me. He is a normal Joe who starts getting some raw deals and bad breaks. And when all the circumstances seem to conspire against him, he finally loses it. He falls down. He snaps….

 

Again, most people would immediately proclaim, ‘Not me! No way! Never! I am not that bad!’ But that is already the beginning of our downfall: our pride. It is pride which says only the other guy is capable of great evil. It is arrogance that says I am pretty decent, and I would never lose it.

 

The Bible of course insists that we are all sinful, all depraved, and all capable of great evil. It is only the heavenly restraining factors mentioned above that keep us from fully going over the edge. That is the Biblical assessment of every one of us, and most of us do not like such an assessment.

 

The truth is, without the grace of God, we would all respond in the same way if put in these difficult circumstances. And this goes straight back to our first parents. Adam and Eve blew it big time. But the sad truth is, we all would have done exactly the same as Adam and Eve if we were in their place. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/06/04/falling-down-and-mass-murder/

Tender Mercies

If the reality of sin was especially pronounced in that 1993 movie, in this 1983 film the focus is very much on redemption. The two biblical themes are of course closely bound together. The movie has to do with a messed-up, bummed-out alcoholic country music singer (played by Duvall) who finds redemption and new life in a conversion to Christianity.

I discussed the film a bit and looked at some biblical material in this article: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2020/08/15/the-tender-heart-of-god/

The Apostle

Another film he starred in that was all about the Christian faith was The Apostle from 1997. He not only starred in it, but he wrote and directed it. I do not know if Duvall ever actually became a Christian, but an April 1998 article does speak about how he was heavily impacted in playing roles in these clearly Christian-themed films. He said in part:

For years I have wanted to make this film. It’s been a labor of love, and it began in 1962 when I prepared to play a character from the rural South in an off-Broadway play. To research the role I traveled to Hughes, Ark. Wandering the streets of the sleepy Delta town, hanging out in the coffee shop and the post office, I hoped to learn something about my character from the way a man tipped his hat or drawled the directions to the local hotel. But what I never expected to find was something that would change how I looked at religion.

 

One Sunday as I strolled down the main drag I noticed people flocking to a simple white clapboard building, the local Pentecostal church. All sorts of folks, young and old, were going inside, where I could hear the clink of tambourines, the rap of a snare drum and organ music rising. Might as well check this out, I thought. I slipped in and sat in back.

He speaks about how he was raised in a religious household, and how the prayers of his mother impacted him. He continues:

I started working in movies, dozens of them, from To Kill a Mockingbird to The Godfather. I was fortunate to get some excellent roles. I wrote and directed a couple of films. Yet my interest in Pentecostalism never waned, incubating until I could figure out what to do with it. Then in 1981 I was cast as an evangelical preacher in a movie called The Kingdom.

 

Again I immersed myself in my role. I made trips to small country churches all over the heartland, seeking out the incredible power of expressed faith I had felt in Hughes, soaking up all I could. But after months of preparation the film was canceled. I wondered what I would do with all I had learned.

 

In 1983 I won an Oscar for my portrayal of a down-and-out country singer who finds salvation in the film Tender Mercies. After I was named Best Actor I expected the offers to flood in. But my telephone was surprisingly quiet. There was a lull in my usually busy schedule….

 

I felt I needed to do something that had real meaning for me, before it was too late. Something I believed in. I took out a legal pad and began writing a story, the one I had wanted to write for many years. A story of a preacher. A good man but a flawed one—flawed as we all are. Called by God at the age of 12, he becomes a respected minister with a rousing gift for charismatic preaching. But his family is torn apart by marital infidelity. In a dreadful moment of jealous rage he injures a man and runs. His flight becomes a journey toward a redeemed faith, a return to God’s saving grace.

The article concludes:

I’m proud of the film. Many of the parts are played by real people and real preachers, not professional actors, because true faith is something that’s hard to duplicate. I think some viewers might be shocked—pleasantly so, I hope—to hear Jesus’ name mentioned so often, or startled by the unironic tone of the church scenes and worship services. They might be surprised to see blacks and whites worshiping together as equals even in the deepest rural South.

 

Mostly, I hope they will be moved—moved the way I was when I happened upon that small church in Hughes, Ark., and with no warning something awakened within me that had always been there, dormant and untouched until that day. It was the greatest discovery I ever made. https://guideposts.org/positive-living/entertainment/music/guideposts-classics-robert-duvall-on-faith-and-inspiration/

As mentioned, I am not privy to his inner faith life, but it is hoped that he did indeed come to personally know the greatest redemption story that has ever been told. Rest in peace Robert.

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