1/18/2024 0 Comments Natalie canerday one false move![]() Walsh as a sadistic rapist/murderer whom we meet in Sling Blade’s first scene, delivering the film’s opening lines in the form of a monologue about his violent exploits (he and Karl are housed in the same mental facility) James Hampton as the head of the facility who extends kindness to Karl after his parole Rick Dial and Brent Briscoe as mechanics who offer Karl a job fixing auto parts, lawnmowers and other machinery Vic Chesnutt as one of Doyle Hargraves’ friends Jim Jarmusch (who directed Billy Bob Thornton in Dead Man a year earlier) as a local fast food shop employee and Robert Duvall in a one-scene cameo as Karl’s father. These actions will have consequences for everyone involved.Īs a filmmaker, Billy Bob Thornton puts some additional, wonderful spotlights on J.T. Frank’s struggles with his mother’s alcoholic boyfriend, Doyle Hargraves (country singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam in his first major film role), push Karl to enact retribution on cruel, violent Doyle. Karl also befriends Frank’s mother, Linda (Natalie Canerday from One False Move, October Sky and Shotgun Stories), and Linda’s best friend, Vaughan Cunningham (an exceptional John Ritter), who is often the source of mockery in town since he is an openly gay man. ![]() Upon returning to his hometown, Karl immediately bonds with a young boy he meets, Frank Wheatley (Lucas Black), whose turbulent home life reminds Karl of his own difficult and abusive upbringing. T.Sling Blade, Billy Bob Thornton’s major breakthrough as an actor/director/screenwriter, is the simple but effective tale of Karl Childers (Thornton), an intellectually disabled man who has just been released from an Arkansas state mental hospital after being imprisoned for killing his mother and her lover many years earlier. WITH: Billy Bob Thornton (Karl Childers), Dwight Yoakam (Doyle Hargraves), J. Shown as part of the 34th New York Film Festival. Written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton director of photography, Barry Markowitz edited by Hughes Winborne music by Daniel Lanois production designer, Clark Hunter produced by Brandon Rosser and David L. This ending is tacked on with far less subtlety than the rest of 'Sling Blade' offers. Indulgently long at 2 hours 13 minutes, it drifts gradually toward climactic events that seem convenient and contrived. But he directs 'Sling Blade' with an abundance of long, flat medium shots that rob the film of intimacy and give it a sleepy pace. ![]() Thornton (the character actor who with Tom Epperson wrote 'A Family Affair' and the lean, expert 'One False Move') elicits strong, solid work from his other actors, including a surprising Mr. Then he changes the subject to how much he likes french fries. When Vaughan screws up his courage and makes an impassioned speech explaining himself to Karl, Karl listens solemnly. Thornton is sadly affecting in the film's central role.įully inhabiting this strange, lonely character, he registers Karl's amazement at the world he once left behind, even if his understanding of that world has a Gumpian simplicity. 'Sling Blade,' which was shown this weekend at the New York Film Festival and takes its name from the sharp instrument Karl used on his mother, explores these tidy symmetries in a watchful style that relies heavily on the power of Ritter), the sweet, nerdy gay man who is Linda's friend and self-appointed protector. Whenever the belligerent Doyle (Dwight Yoakam) gets tired of taunting Linda and her son, he goes after Vaughan (John Named Frank (Lucas Black), whose mother, Linda (Natalie Canerday), is in the thrall of her overbearing, drunken lover. Tentative and shy, Karl strikes up a friendship with a boy Little does Karl realize that when he begins a new life in a small Southern town, he will be stepping into a convenient near replica of the conditions that prompted this violence. Retarded and raised with a skewed sense of biblical justice, Karl patiently explains why he long ago murdered his mother after finding her having sex with a menacing bully. Thornton makes his feature-length directing debut with this story of how Karl, a character he first began developing in a one-man stage show 11 years ago and later explored in a short film, reacquaints himself with the outside world. In what he calls the 'nervous hospital,' from which he is on the verge of being released. Mouth pursed, jaw jutting, head downcast and eyes avoiding contact, Karl begins the film by explaining, in a gravelly singsong punctuated by bestial little grunts, who he is. Thornton's own arresting performance as Karl Childers, a terse, withdrawn character with unspoiled He core of Billy Bob Thornton's 'Sling Blade' is Mr.
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