The obituaries for Robert Duvall, the greatest character actor of his generation, all lauded his amazing versatility. Some of them mentioned that for his lone Oscar-winning role, as washed-up country singer Mac Sledge in the 1983 release “Tender Mercies,” Duvall played the guitar and did all his own singing. Few noted that he also wrote one of his character’s songs, “I’ve Decided to Leave Here Forever,” that played an important role in the plot.
Duvall took country music seriously. He was almost cast in Robert Altman’s “Nashville,” in the role that went to Henry Gibson, but bowed out because Altman wouldn’t let him sing his own songs. He spent weeks in Texas preparing for his role as Sledge, including making friends with a local band and playing gigs with them every week during filming.
Here’s a scene from the movie that featured the song, as Sledge bonds with his stepson.
Though it didn’t appear in the film, the soundtrack album for “The Apostle,” the 1997 passion project that Duvall wrote, directed and starred in, contained Duvall’s duet with Emmylou Harris on the venerable gospel hymn “I Love to Tell the Story.”
