Editing Tender Mercies (section)

===Distribution===
Philip and Mary Ann Hobel spent a long time seeking a distributor for ''Tender Mercies'' without any success. Duvall, who began to doubt the film would be widely released, was unable to help the Hobels because he was busy trying to find a distributor for ''[[Angelo My Love]]'', a film he had written, directed and produced. Eventually, Universal Pictures agreed to distribute ''Tender Mercies''.<ref name="Slaw167">{{Harvnb|Slawson|1985|p=167}}.</ref> [[Test screening]]s for the film were held, which Beresford described as the most unusual he had ever experienced. The director said that the preview audiences appeared to be very engaged with the picture, to the point the theaters were so silent, "if you flicked a piece of paper on the floor, you could hear it fall." However, the post-screening feedback was, in Beresford's words, "absolutely disastrous."<ref name="BeresfordMiracles"/> As a result, Universal executives lost faith in the film and made little effort to promote it.<ref name="FooteMiracles" /><ref name="Briley115">{{Harvnb|Briley|1993|p=115}}.</ref> Foote said of the studio, "I don't know that they disliked the film, I just think they thought it was inconsequential and of no consequence at all. I guess they thought it would just get lost in the shuffle."<ref name="FooteMiracles"/> Others in the film industry were equally dismissive; one [[Paramount Pictures]] representative described the picture as "like watching paint dry".<ref name="Briley115" />