Sling Blade | | Cast : | Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam | | Director : | Billy Bob Thornton | | Studio : | Buena Vista Home Vid | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | November 27, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | June 07, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | BILLY BOBS BEST! | Content
 | There's no doubt, this is Billy Bob Thortons best performance!
This is the first movie I ever saw him in. I thought he really
was mentally challenged, and his face really looked like that.
I didn't recognise him in his next movie, because I thought he
really looked the way he did in Sling Blade! Why this movie
didn't win many awards, is rediculous! The story, the acting,
and everything about this movie, make it a true classic film! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | Religious imagery in "Sling Blade" | Content
| An excellent movie. Superb actors animate believable characters to tell a simple, moral story that is chock full of imagery from Christianity and Greek mythology. Not your typical Hollywood fare, unfolding slowly, the movie has some interesting music as well. Although not for everyone, many people will find this movie richly rewarding, especially on the second and third viewings as more of the imagery becomes apparent. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | "Sling Blade" is a masterpiece | Content
| You have to wish "Dr Funk" (20 July) had borrowed that ol' slingblade so the rest of us would have been spared from reading that moronic review. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 24, 2005 | | Summary | Billy Bob Thorton's Best Performance | Content
| This is one of the greatest films I've ever viewed and Billy Bob Thorton is absolutely amazing. Thorton in this film is virtually unrecognizable, both with his look and his voice simalar to Charlize Theron in "Monster." Thorton wrote and directed the film as well, adapting it from a short film, he also wrote called
"Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade." Thorton was nominated for Best Actor, but didn't win and instead won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay and rightfully so. The film is powerful, it's got a sacrafice theme to it and the end of the film (if not semi-predictable) is great. Thorton stars as Karl Childers, a man who was recently released from the state hospital after killing his mother and her boyfriend as a child. Karl is a bit slow, but he gets a job fixing small engines and befriends a young boy named Frank (Lucas Black, who would reunite with Thorton in "Friday Night Lights") and moves in with the boy and his mother. Problem is, the boy's mother has an abusive boyfriend named Doyle
(country singer Dwight Yoakam who's great) which doesn't sit well with him. Also in the film is John Ritter as Vaughan, a homosexual shop keeper and friend of Frank's mother. Now, I love this movie and almost every thing about it. One thing I did find a bit hard to accept was the fact that when Karl tells Frank's mother that he killed his mother and her boyfriend, the mother just accepts it without a second thought. Would the film have worked if she kicked him out of the house for it? No, but there could've been some way to make it more believable.
A+ |
| Rating | | | Date | July 24, 2005 | | Summary | This is an absolute masterpiece that everyone should see | Content
| Billy Bob is well known for his quirky "jerk" characters in movies like Pushing Tin, Bad Santa, and the Bad News Bears. Well, he proves his skill as an actor by playing the complete opposite side of the spectrum in this movie, a "slow" man released from a psychiatric hospital where he had been for a few decades after he murdered his mother and stepfather. This is hands-down the best performance I've seen from Thornton, and I have the utmost repect for him after this movie. It's even more incredible that he wrote and directed the movie, in adding to his starring performance.
I'll admit that the subject matter and the fact that some people said this was the saddest movie they saw made me hesitant to watch it. I'm so glad I did. It is a sadder movie, but it's also a movie about finding friendship in the unlikliest places, and what family means. The small town setting shows is a contrast between some of the most loving and accepting people in the world and some of the most close-minded and cruel.
Watch this once to see both Thornton at the top of his game and John Ritter in an outstanding role as a gay grocery store worker. This is one of the most overlooked films of the 90's. |
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