If you’d only seen the spirited, independent genre films he made in his native Australia in the 1970s, you might not have expected Bruce Beresford to become an Academy Award® mainstay throughout the decade that followed. It was his 1980 feature Breaker Morant that precipitated Oscar® success, and the subsequent Stateside career that’s still going strong. The film swept the board at the Australian Film Industry Awards and earned Beresford his first Oscar® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He’d end the 1980s with a controversial Best Picture win for Driving Miss Daisy (1989), but it’s the two, somewhat neglected films that took him to the awards earlier in the decade that warrant a closer look.
Robert Duvall has been nominated for seven acting Oscars® across his sixty-plus years in the business, winning just once, for Beresford’s 1983 Texas-set drama Tender Mercies. Working from an Oscar®-winning screenplay by Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird), Duvall plays a washed-up country singer, ready to confront his alcoholic past as he wrestles with creative inertia. Redemption stories are a dime a dozen, but it’s Duvall’s heartbreaking performance—one of his very best—and Beresford’s soulful direction that transcend the genre template to get at something truly spiritual. Beresford would direct Tender Mercies’ co-star Tess Harper to an Oscar® nomination of her own three years later in the Southern Gothic melodrama Crimes of the Heart (1986). A ripe, Mississippi-set tale of murder and familial recriminations starring Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek—the latter nominated for Best Actress—the film’s star power was replicated behind the scenes. Ken Adam (Dr. Strangelove) was on production design duties, and Dante Spinotti (The Insider) served as cinematographer, but it was screenwriter Beth Henley who scored the third of the film’s nominations for adapting her own Pulitzer-winning play. If there’s certainly an auteurist case to be made for Beresford when it comes to his Australian work, the films in our double bill attest to his strengths as a collaborator—the very strengths that led to a decade of Academy Award® recognition.

If you&#8217;d only seen the spirited, independent genre films he made in his native Australia in the 1970s, you might not have expected Bruce Beresford to become an Academy Award® mainstay throughout the decade that followed. It was his 1980 feature Breaker Morant that precipitated Oscar® success, and the subsequent Stateside career that&#8217;s still going strong. The film swept the board at the Australian Film Industry Awards and earned Beresford his first Oscar® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He&#8217;d end the 1980s with a controversial Best Picture win for Driving Miss Daisy (1989), but it&#8217;s the two, somewhat neglected films that took him to the awards earlier in the decade that warrant a closer look.
Robert Duvall has been nominated for seven acting Oscars® across his sixty-plus years in the business, winning just once, for Beresford&#8217;s 1983 Texas-set drama Tender Mercies. Working from an Oscar®-winning screenplay by Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird), Duvall plays a washed-up country singer, ready to confront his alcoholic past as he wrestles with creative inertia. Redemption stories are a dime a dozen, but it&#8217;s Duvall&#8217;s heartbreaking performance&#8212;one of his very best&#8212;and Beresford&#8217;s soulful direction that transcend the genre template to get at something truly spiritual. Beresford would direct Tender Mercies&#8217; co-star Tess Harper to an Oscar® nomination of her own three years later in the Southern Gothic melodrama Crimes of the Heart (1986). A ripe, Mississippi-set tale of murder and familial recriminations starring Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek&#8212;the latter nominated for Best Actress&#8212;the film&#8217;s star power was replicated behind the scenes. Ken Adam (Dr. Strangelove) was on production design duties, and Dante Spinotti (The Insider) served as cinematographer, but it was screenwriter Beth Henley who scored the third of the film&#8217;s nominations for adapting her own Pulitzer-winning play. If there&#8217;s certainly an auteurist case to be made for Beresford when it comes to his Australian work, the films in our double bill attest to his strengths as a collaborator&#8212;the very strengths that led to a decade of Academy Award® recognition.

Southern Comforts: Two Melodramas by Bruce Beresford

SOUTHERN COMFORTS: TWO MELODRAMAS BY BRUCE BERESFORD

After a series of lively genre films made in his native Australia, director Bruce Beresford became an Oscar® mainstay throughout the 1980s. Our double bill presents two underseen melodramas that garnered 8 Oscar® nominations between them—one of which led to Robert Duvall’s sole Best Actor win.

After a series of lively genre films made in his native Australia, director Bruce Beresford became an Oscar® mainstay throughout the 1980s. Our double bill presents two underseen melodramas that garnered 8 Oscar® nominations between them&#8212;one of which led to Robert Duvall&#8217;s sole Best Actor win.