By Dennis Hartley
(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on February 21, 2026)
“I just follow the script. One scene to the next scene […] You talk, I listen, that’s the beginning and end of it right now.” – Robert Duvall
I am not a religious person, by any stretch of the imagination. That said, there is one particular scene in the 1997 indie drama The Apostle that has haunted me for nearly 30 years now. Written, directed, and starring Robert Duvall, the film is a brooding character study/neo noir about a truculent Pentecostal preacher who gets into trouble with the law, goes on the lam, and assumes a new identity. The scene of note (the film’s opener) ensues after Duvall’s character happens to drive by a (possibly fatal) single car accident involving a young couple:
Again, I wouldn’t know a church pew if it hit me on the ass, but I’ll be damned if that scene doesn’t make me believe that there reallyis Somebody Up There…at least for a moment or two. That’s when my logical half takes over, and I remind myself that it isn’t the power of Christ that compels me to burst into tears every time I watch the scene; rather, it’s the power of great acting. Duvall’s performance earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor; he didn’t win, but The Apostle did earn an Independent Spirit Award for Best Film of 1997.
When the news broke about Duvall’s passing this week at age 95, that was the scene that immediately replayed in my head. And God (or whoever) knows, there are any number of classic Duvall scenes that could replay in a film buff’s head, with little prompting. For example, this one is embedded so deeply in my neurons that I can practically smell it:
“You either surf…or fight!” is analogous to Duvall’s approach to his craft; you make a choice, and you commit to it. I hesitate to call it his “method”, because he was not an alum of the Lee Strasberg “method” school of acting. As indicated by the quote at the top of my piece, he would simply “follow the script”, and rest would take care of itself. Of course, that is easier said than done; it still takes discipline and practice, practice, practice to effortlessly “play yourself”. Duvall elaborates on his approach, in this clip from a 2021 interview with Stephen Colbert:
The gist:
“You’ve got to keep it within your temperament, your sense of…anger, your vulnerability; it’s got to be your temperament without stepping out of that, and then it becomes more like acting but you try to keep it from you…interpreted a certain way. […] It’s still ‘you’ doing it within your set of emotions or your psyche or whatever you want to call it…without overacting, you’ve got to be in touch with your temperament.”
Get it? Got it? Good.
I concur with Colbert that Duvall’s performance in Sidney Lumet’s 1976 satire Network is one of his finest. Which is saying a lot, as his resume contains an embarrassment of riches, not the least of which is his performance in Frances Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972):
The Godfather wasn’t Duvall’s first Coppola film; he had previously appeared in the 1969 drama The Rain People (alongside his future Godfather co-star James Caan), and subsequently appeared inThe Godfather, pt. II and The Conversation (both released 1974) Duvall was conspicuously absent in The Godfather, pt. III. He explains in this clip:
Pragmatist.
I know this is a trite phrase, but he truly was one of the greats. Robert Duvall put his heart and soul into every performance, even when he had relatively short screen time…one scene to the next. In addition to the films I’ve already mentioned, here are more recommendations:
To Kill a Mockingbird
True Grit
M*A*S*H
THX 1138 (my review)
The Outfit
The Killer Elite (1975)
The Seven Percent Solution (my review)
The Great Santini
True Confessions
Tender Mercies
The Stone Boy
The Natural
Belizaire the Cajun
Colors
The Handmaid’s Tale
Rambling Rose
Falling Down
Sling Blade
Assassination Tango
Crazy Heart (my review)
The Road (my review)
Previous posts with related themes:
Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut (Blu-ray reissue review)
One More Thing...
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