In my opinion, Robert Duvall's performance made this story into a believable movie, and turned his character into a man of understated strength, and an admirable person. He managed to capture the mannerisms, accent, and speech syntax of his character and the region to the extent that the other actors' otherwise good portrayals appeared out of place. I'm not sure that I would have seen the movie, had I read the story first; however, having seen the movie, I want to read the book.