Customer Reviews

Sling Blade

5 star:		(193)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

With the parodies and jokes surrounding the lead character of this film stating, "I like the way you talk," I was not expecting this film to be anything I'd be impressed with. Boy, was I wrong. This a fantastic film.

Billy Bob Thornton plays Karl Childers, a man about to be released from a mental hospital after staying there for 30 years. Karl killed his own mother and her lover when he was only about 12 years old and you wonder from the beginning of this film - why are they letting him out?

Some people call him slow, some people say he's retarded - but as each scene comes and goes, you realize that there is a lot more going on inside Karl's head than anyone else believes.

While autism is not mentioned by name in the film, it's obvious that this character was modeled after an autistic person. He does not maintain eye contact and rarely exhibits emotion or speaks.

He returns to his childhood hometown after being released from the hospital and puts his mechanical skills to good use as a small engine wiz at a local mechanic shop.

He befriends Frank (Lucas Black), a young boy who reminds Karl of the kind of life he could have had, if he had only had different parents. Frank's mother has a psycho for a boyfriend (masterfully played by Dwight Yoakum) who treats Frank and his mother like garbage and threatens to kill them if the relationship ever ends.

Small town folks have big hearts, but sometimes small minds. Frank's mother (Natalie Camerday) has a best friend who is gay (well acted by John Ritter) and he must hide his relationships from the townsfolk. Her friend Vaughn wants to go to a a bigger city with wider acceptance of his lifestyle, but he continues to stay to act as a guardian angel for his friend and her son.

As Karl meets and interacts with the new friends (and enemies) he meets, he reveals some of his darker secrets with his friend, Frank. While he shows almost no emotion, Karl's story evokes tears from all but the most stony-hearted viewer. He not only feels great pain of what he has experienced and what he has done, he feels great empathy for Frank and his mother and holds their friendship dear to his heart.

There is violence in the film, but the most violent of scenes is just audible - nothing is seen, just heard. This film is too intense for young viewers, but teenagers should have no problem with it.

This film really makes you think - about what goes on in the minds of those who are mentally different in any way - and how all emotions are universal.

We know well the visage of the desolate, decadent, sometimes lascivious Southern landscape from the works of William Faulkner and others. Not unlike Faulkner, Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade guides us guiltily toward the region's historical and modern undercurrents of social prejudices, ignored dysfunction, sought acceptance, and resulting violence. The film addresses a universal human condition, however, and not the region.

The title of the film looms over the audience as Thornton urges fondness while successfully negotiating the fine line between our fear of, and affection for Karl Childers (Thornton), a recently released mental patient committed as a child for violently murdering his mother and her boyfriend. Sling Blade is a study in tension with thick suspense built through superior character development resulting in conflicts that escalate into deliberate, almost real-time rhythms.

The story is one of need and moreover of acceptance, as the collection of limping characters, directly or not, seek it, and to some degree, with the help of Karl, attain it. The boy, Frank (Lucas Black), seeks the love of a father figure after the suicide of his own. Linda, the mother (Natalie Canderday), requires the general acceptance of her perceived role as a Southern woman, and subsequently the acceptance from a mate, which is evident in her destructive dependence upon her demonic, red-neck boyfriend, Doyle (Dwight Yoakam). Her own deep need renders her perhaps overly accepting of others, including Karl, whom most mothers wouldn't let within ten feet of there sons. Vaughn (John Ritter), like the others, seeks love, and on an outward scale, struggles with his half-open homosexuality in the small Southern town. Doyle, not unlike Linda, wants acceptance of his perceived role as a family head and wants to be loved as well, but lacks even the basic tools to a gain it. And finally Karl, the most dynamic character in the film, seeks acceptance only from himself as he works to garner love and to construct some semblance of a life within the limited bounds of his mental capacity, his stunted development, and his own set of morals.

While the climax of the film is somewhat telegraphed, it is more inevitable than predictable, and the audience is left alone with the wonderment and self-examination over the questionable choice of a sympathetic character. From Sling Blade we leave with the unsolicited lesson that tenderness and brutality sometimes share the same origin.

A little-known fact: Billy Bob Thornton--star, director and writer of this amazing film--is the greatest southern voice since William Faulkner. This film is essential southern gothic retooled for the New South of mini-malls and subdivisions. The old demons still lurk, most graphically through Doyle (played remarkably by Dwight Yoakam). Watch for a cameo appearance from indie/y'allternative musician Vic Chesnutt! Besides being an incredibly important film about the South, it's emotional rollercoaster ride: from Carl (Thornton) and his shocking past, to the awkwardness of his first days away from institutionalization, to the amazing paternal relationship he forges with a neglected boy--the one person who will accept him unconditionally. Heart-wrenching, dark and beautiful.

"That Frank, he lives inside of his own heart. That's an awful big place to live in."


So gravels Karl, Billy Bob Thornton's unique husky-voiced creation as he describes the inner character of his friend and surrogate son- the innocent and pure Frank. Thornton could easily use this line to describe the broad and embracing spirit of his award-winning 1996 directorial debut, the contemporary classic SLINGBLADE.

Originally released in the halcyon days of independent film-making, the bygone era known as the 90's, SLINGBLADE deftly and eerily combines the wholesome everyman small town ideals of a Norman Rockwell painting with the morbid Southern Gothic tone of William Faulkner's best prose.

Filming in and around his Arkansasian home town, Thornton pulls off a creative hat trick - expanding his one man play and short film into a feature length celebration of salvation through grace and atonement through blood as staged in the backwoods and clapboard houses of rural America.

As a Director, Thornton holds his camera in capricious long shots and expanded takes, allowing his characters to exist in an exaggerated time and space, thereby empowering his actors to explore the nuances of their shadowy lives and share freely of their expansive hearts. Yes all of these people have secrets- Thornton rarely saturates his frame with full light. Bands of shadow wash across every character. Everybody has flaws- potential for good and evil in equal measure- even the villainous Doyle Hargraves (deliciously played by country-western star Dwight Yokum), deserving of Book of Revelation retribution as any character in recent memory, has his moments of vulnerability. The tragic wide-eyed ten year old Frank (played without any cloying sentiment by Lucas Black) too is capable of sudden violence when defending his mother.

Thornton shows he trusts his actors. With his continual use of long unbroken takes, he doesn't artificially create performances through imposed editing. These actors embrace the loud silences and large spaces and time and, as a result, appear to truly and organically erupt in moments of joy, compassion, humor and rage- all in the gentle lilting brogue of a brown water Arkansas drawl. The ensemble cast, made up of professionals (John Ritter in a heart-breakingly humane and admirable performance) and locals (several non-actors appear in effective support), alike never fail to hold the camera's eye.

The film is violent, but tastefully so. The bloodiest moments are reserved for off camera-employing the audience's imaginations to create far more vibrant images than any camera could provide- a lesson too many of Thornton's contemporaries forgot. The most violent and jarring moments occur in Thornton's elliptical dialogue. He understands the power of word pictures. He also displays a brilliant ability to oscillate a scene from chilling to hilarious to tragic on a turn of a phrase.

And at the center of this dark fairy tale is Thornton himself, transformed completely into the character of Karl Childers- a middle aged man recently released from "the nervous hospital". A literary descendent of The Frankenstein Monster, Lennie Small, Forrest Gump and Boo Radley (brilliantly realized in one of filmdom's most obscure "in jokes"- Robert Duvall appears unbilled as Childers' father), Karl rubs his hands with Lady MacBeth syndrome in guilt. With his high-water pants and hunched-over gait, centering himself from the bottom of his chin and speaking in a growling and grunting exhale Childers lends himself to instant imitation. But what no imitator can ever capture is the calm benevolence lurking behind Thornton's brown eyes.

Thornton's Karl Childers is one of the greatest characters ever created for film. Like the fatherless Frank, the simple minded Childers is pure of heart and in a state of grace and yet he possesses a terrifying capacity for violence. For inside those loving and forgiving eyes lies too a direct portal into what Karl himself would call "Hades". He is simple sure. But he is not simplistic. His heart, like the story-world he lives in is "an awful big place to live in."

An unforgettable film.

This movie won the Academy Award for best screenplay, and it's very easy to see why it was deserving of the acclaim that it received.

The movie centers around Carl Childers (Billy Bob Thornton), a mentally retarded man who has just been released from a mental hospital after spending most of his life there. He's a convicted murderer who killed his own mother and her lover, but the audience is made to love him from the beginning and feel sympathy for his situation. He befriends a young boy named Frank who is being raised by a single mother who has an abusive boyfriend. The movie centers around the growing friendship between Carl and Frank, and how Carl decides to take matters into his own hands in order to protect Frank and his mother from the abusive boyfriend.

The strength of this movie is in the acting job by Thornton. His character is a cross between Boo Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird (by Harper Lee) and Lenny from Of Mice And Men (by John Steinbeck). While the audience is suspicious of Carl at the beginning of the movie because of his history, we are quickly assured that he is extremely gentle and kind. Also of note is the performance by Dwight Yoakam as the abusive boyfriend. You'll really hate his character, which obviously means that Yoakam did a great acting job.

Overall, this is an excellent movie. It's definitely worth seeing.

This is the type of rare film that will literally leave the viewer stunned upon a first viewing. With Sling Blade, Billy Bob Thornton unleashed one of the most powerful films and performances in the history of films. From beginning to end, this jaw dropping film will amaze, horrify, and mystify the viewer. Every emotion will be tapped and every one of your senses will be jolted. The best part of all, upon several viewings it may not stun you as it did the first time, but, it will never cease to amaze and entertain you. This is a high level, unique and extremely original film that deserved it's massive praise. Very few films are instant classics, but, this unusual masterpiece is a prime example for when that happens. I would strongly suggest for every true film lover to see this film. It is definately a "must see."

I have finally gotten to watch (for the first of many times be certain) the entirety of the 2 DVDs of the re-released "Sling Blade", Billy Bob Thornton's masterpiece. The specific re-relased set of DVDs if really the subject of this review. Finally...a Special Edition CD that warrants the title "Special'. What a wonderful DVD. Every fan Billy Bob has is going to love it!!!!!!

SHAME ON the decision-makers who deprived the public of Billy Bob's insightful, informative, and very personal 'commentary' on the first DVD release. I have often pondered purchasing a used laser disc player in order to hear his words. I didn't ever, but believe me those words were worth waiting for. I don't usually watch the commentary of a film more than once, but I can say with certainty, I will watch this on a routine basis.

I am often disappointed when a Billy Bob film is released on DVD and he isn't on the commentary and/or featured very much in any of the additional special features. There was nothing disappointing about this group of special features and particularly about this commentary.

I loved the fact that we were made privy to so much of the behind-the-scenes information and so much of Billy Bob's personal likes, dislikes, goals, and feeling about this movie his fans have so grown to love and associate with his artistic genius. I was grateful too that he was the only voice on the commentary, because he IS the voice of this film.

The movie was definitely made more special by the additional footage, which was not a great deal more coverage in terms of length, but unlimited in its value of being exposed to more of Karl, and ultimately to the heart and thoughts of Billy Bob himself.

I have lost track of the number of times I have viewed the original film, but I am still blown away by every aspect of the film, and I still cry every time, even when it is separated only by hours in between, as when I watch the film today and then immediately thereafter the commentary. It was rewarding the me to note that small things I had noticed about the film, (but had no idea if they were my imagination at work, or deliberate or accidental, and if they have been noticed by many, many viewers) were indeed 'there' because of one circumstance or another during the filming.

How I have loved this story, these actors, and the entire beauty of this work and how I love it even more now that I have been given access to Billy Bob's special introspection.

Anyone who had been so kind as to read my reviews amazon.com, of Billy Bob's films/music, may have noticed, I have never written a review of this movie. First off, I think the film speaks for itself and for Billy Bob and doesn't really need my humble input. Second, my feelings about the film are so 'deep and personal to me' and so 'respective and humbled-by-the-genius of Billy Bob', that I could never find the words to review the film in even a semi-objective manner. This little sound-off about this new DVD is the closest I will ever come to reviewing the film, and it is more about the DVD itself.

If by some unfortunate set of circumstances someone on this site has NOT seen this film, please, please give yourself the greatest gift of entertainment pleasure you ever could and watch the entire DVD set as soon as possible. For those who have seen the movie and liked it, if you haven't done so yet.....treat yourself to more and watch it again, but this time in all its glory .

Sling Blade is an excellent, thought-provoking story about one man's return to society after being released from a mental instituation.

One of the great aspects of the film is simply Billy Bob Thornton's portrayel of Karl. Returning to the town he called home after 25 years in an institution, Karl must start life anew. Karl's simple nature is quite deceptive; althougth he has a calm and monotone manner about him, he is truly a complex individual who contemplates each person and situation from both sides before morally judging it. He is one of the more memorable characters because of his unique mannerisms (trust me, you may find yourself grunting the words "french fried potaters") and his plain honesty (he openly tells the boy he befriends exactly why he was locked up). Thornton, who also directed the film, does a masterful job at "becoming" the character of Karl.

The film delves into a vas range of issues that pervade our world: physical and psychological abuse, abandonment, acceptability of individualism. What makes the film unique is that these subjects are analyzed both internally (Karl calmly interalizing an argument between Linda, Frank and Doyle; Karl listening to another mental patient describe his crimes) and externally (Vaughan confronting Karl about his sexual orientation and love for Frank's family; Karl telling Vaughan that, despite what the Bible says, he is a good man). We feel the turmoil of vastly different individuals and personalities all trying to live under one roof.

One underlying question that pervades from the film is "what truly is a good human being?" That is, what qualities certify a benevolent individual versus, say, a reckless person. While the story has mostly inheritantly good charcters, Karl possesses characteristics that make him both good and bad (he has obviously murdered before, yet he seems to know the difference between good and bad). While Doyle (Linda's boyfriend) is depicted as a relatively abusive and flat character (one stereotype cannot hurt a film that much), Karl becomes a somewhat transformed individual who is symbolically altered due to his new relationship with Frank and his mother.

Overall, this was a quite touching, emotional story from Thornton. Although over 2 hours in length, the story progresses rather rapidly. It is told with a simple intention and premise, yet it is a film that is deeply complex.

The performance by Billy Bob Thornton is nothing short of amazing. People who don't understand this movie usually don't understand the south, and how differently things work there. The performances are simple, yet understated and thus, work perfectly in the environment for which they are set. People who have never been to a small town in the south can see first-hand what life is REALLY like, from a former southerner.

More importantly, Billy Bob Thornton manages to show that the world isn't always black and white, and that so called "simple minds" aren't always cluttered with the logic of societal expectations. Because of that, people like Karl often aren't nearly as simple as we think.

I still watch this film from time to time, just because it amazes me with its simple, yet poetic and tragic story line. It is a work of great genius, and one that will haunt you long after you see it. In my opinion, you cannot go wrong with this. I own my copy, and will buy another when I get a DVD.

I have rented this moview on VHS twice, and will be buying it on DVD. I will not attempt to explain the plot line, as numerous other reviews aleady have provided that for you. What I would like to share is how impressed I was with the way the story is told, and the outstanding portrayal of the two main characters. I have seen far too few scenes in films, when we forget that we are watching actors, and begin to feel that we are watching actual people involved in actual events. Billy Bob Thornton did an outstanding job directing and acting, and was deserving of an Oscar in portraying Karl so believably. A moving film that teaches us that intellectual skills are less important than moral skills, and that judgement of an action or a condition can often be far from the truth. Those who prefer exploding cars, lots of gunfire and special effects may want to pass on this, but if you like depth and look at films as art, you will love it!