From Boo Radley to Tom Hagen: Where to Stream Some of Robert Duvall’s Greatest Performances

Robert Duvall, one of the greatest performers of his generation, with a slew of iconic roles, passed away on Sunday at the age of 95. In nearly every role he played, he always appeared exactly where he was meant to be, whether playing Tom Hagen, the sanest, sagest consigliere to the Corleone family in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, or starring as the merciless Bull Meechum in Lewis John Carlino’s The Great Santini. Duvall could play tough, wise, warm, and relentless. He could also write, direct, and produce. Duvall’s method? To make sinking into a roll look effortless.

So as we mourn the passing of another great, here’s an incomplete list of Duvall’s classic roles to stream.

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Duvall’s big-screen debut was in a small but potent role as Boo Radley in director Robert Mulligan’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s iconic novel (the script was by Horton Foote). It was a tall order for a first role, taking on a character millions of readers had imagined for decades, but Duvall, as he would be throughout his career, was up to the challenge. In the scene above, Scout (Mary Badham) meets Boo for the first time. Duvall’s Boo, looking haunted but kind, doesn’t have to say a word to make his presence felt.

You can rent or buy To Kill a Mockingbird on Apple TV and Prime Video.

THX 1138 (1971)

Duvall plays the titular THX 1138, a man living in the 25th century who, along with LUH 3147, refuses to live by the rigid codes of a society that controls human emotion. THX and LUH stop taking their state-mandated medication and thus awaken to the brutal reality of their actual existence underground (classic sci-fi tropes that will be used to great effect again and again in films like The Matrix), and they’re forced to go on the run. THX 1138 was the first feature by an ambitious director named George Lucas, and Duvall centers Lucas’s experimental film with a very human heart.

You can rent or buy THX 1138 on Apple TV and Prime Video.

The Godfather (1972)

For the millions of fans of Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel, The Godfather‘s stunning chiaroscuro lighting (thanks to cinematographer Gordon Willis), Coppola’s mastery of pacing, and the bravura performances from Marlon Brando as Don Corleone, James Caan as his hot-headed son and would-be heir Sonny, and Al Pacino as his more calculating, more cunning youngest son Michael are often top-of-mind. But it was Duvall and fellow cast member John Cazale, as consigliere and adopted son Tom Hagen, and overlooked middle child Fredo, that quietly cemented Coppola’s ensemble as one of the greatest of all time. As the unflappable strategist to the Corleone family, Duvall’s Hagen manages to draw your attention even when he’s whispering. 

Stream The Godfather on Paramount+. Rent or buy it on Prime Video.

The Godfather Part II (1974)

Duvall’s Tom Hagen undergoes early crises of confidence in Coppola’s peerless sequel, as Michael marginalizes him in his dealings with Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) as well as his lack of experience as a wartime consigliere (a crack at the fact that Tom is not Sicilian, so doesn’t undersrtand the familial blood feuds), but eventually his competence, loyalty, and intelligence win back Michael’s trust as things start to take a turn for the worse. 

Stream The Godfather on Paramount+. Rent or buy it on Prime Video.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Duvall’s brief but unforgettable performance in Coppola’s wild, nearly personally ruinous but ultimately glorious Vietnam War epic, based on Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness,” is emblematic of the film’s lunatic bravura in a single character. We meet Lt. Colonel Kilgore on a very dangerous stretch of beach where bombs are exploding around him, but he refuses to take cover. Instead, his interest is in the perfect break point in the waves, where he wants a few of his soldiers who can surf to make the most of it.

 Rent or buy Apocalypse Now on Apple TV and Prime Video.

The Great Santini (1979)

There are few things scarier than a stern, taciturn father.  In Lewis John Carlino’s adaptation of Pat Conroy’s novel, Duvall plays Bull Meechum, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines who runs his household like a command post. His wife and children are terrified of him, and Duvall’s Oscar-nominated performance proves, once again, that his non-flashy, non-method approach to his art can deliver performances just as mesmerizing as those of his peers.

Rent or buy The Great Santini on Apple TV and Prime Video.

Tender Mercies (1983)

Duvall won a richly deserved Oscar for his turn in director Bruce Beresford’s film (written by To Kill a Mockingbird‘s screenwriter Horton Foote), trading in Bull Meechum’s warrior without a war brutality for the soulful restraint of Mac Sledge, a washed-up, alcoholic country singer who is just about as low as he can go when he meets Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), a young widow who runs a roadside motel in Texas.

Stream Tender Mercies on Prime Video, Roku Channel and Hoopla.

The Apostle (1997)

Yet another Duvall masterclass, his turn as Euliss “Sonny” Dewey, a volatile, undeniably charismatic Pentecostal preacher, is all the more impressive for the fact that Duvall wrote, directed, and personally financed the film himself after he couldn’t get a studio to sign on for years. He earned another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his labor of love, a study of a man who is both genuinely faithful and a sinner, forced to flee his home after an act of jealous violence and reinvent himself as “The Apostle E.F.” in rural Louisiana.

Featured image: (Original Caption) While his daughter’s wedding celebration proceeds outside, Don Corleone, played by Marlon Brando (right), discusses “family” business with his consigliori, Tom Hagen, played by Robert Duvall, in The Godfather, an Albert S. Ruddy Production in Color by Technicolor. Undated. UPI photograph.