Daily Dialogue — August 18, 2016

Mac heads inside the store, the Newspaper Reporter following him to the door.

Newspaper Reporter: Dixie told me a lot about you. Don’t you want to tell me some things about her? She said alcohol is what licked you. You still drink?

Mac heads outside. No response.

— Tender Mercies (1983), written by Horton Foote

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Alcoholism.

Trivia: The screenplay by Horton Foote was turned down by many American film directors prior to Bruce Beresford being hired by producers Philip Hobel and Mary-Ann Hobel.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Mac, a washed-up country singer, has turned his life around after giving up alcohol. Yet as the Newspaper Reporter symbolizes, addiction and its effects never goes away. Mac’s last line, offered much earlier in the interchange between he and the Reporter, is, “I got nothing to say about that.” True to his word, he offers no answers to the Reporter’s questions. He tries to escape the past, but knows he has to face it. This scene sets up Mac going to see his ex-wife Dixie and confront another turbulent time from his alcoholic past. Duval won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Mac Sledge.