"I aim to kill you with it."

Southern Gothic

Now, ol' Doyle, aside from being an abusive asshole, a shitty musician, and ignorant enough to refer to a hearse as a 'hearst', well, he wasn't aware of the reason Karl got locked up for so long and as a result, he didn't get to finish his beer.


Notice how the shot is far above eye level, fly-on-the-wall style. No closeups, no edits, and none required. Rather unusual for a Hollywood production.

Each final scene the main characters of the film share with Karl ends the same way- "Karl?"

I love the hard blink Thornton makes after the second strike. The character is fully aware of what he's done and what it means for him and for others. Superb craftsmanship.

I never saw that. Holy shit, it's intense!

You've never seen Sling Blade? It's one of the best American films of the 1990s. Of course, it's now kinda spoiled for you, though the path the film takes to get to this climax is still worth seeing.

Just to be clear, Karl Childers is the hero of the film.

The Jim Jarmusch cameo is funny.

Yeah it’s hard to believe someone hasn’t seen Sling Blade so many great lines.

Kaiser blade as he calls it.

Great film, John Ritter was great in that along with most of the cast.

Awesome film,
So many get caught up in only one story.
When there are many.

Movies with multiple stories that I have to watch five times are great.

I watched Angel and the Badman,
Six times before I got the whole thing.

Great movie. One of Billy Bob Thornton's best, and he's been in some damn good ones.

quote:

You've never seen Sling Blade? It's one of the best American films of the 1990s. Of course, it's now kinda spoiled for you, though the path the film takes to get to this climax is still worth seeing.

It's now on my list!!!

Thorntons best role. If you get the chance, catch him in A Simple Plan. Its a great Thornton role, too.

I still have a hard time believing Doyle is played by Dwight Yoakam. He looks nothing like his country music stage presence. His acting is quite a good and as far as I know this is his only film which is surprising.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
I still have a hard time believing Doyle is played by Dwight Yoakam. He looks nothing like his country music stage presence. His acting is quite a good and as far as I know this is his only film which is surprising.

He's been in dozens of films and TV. His most recent that come to mind are Cry Macho with Clint Eastwood and the show Goliath with none other than Billy Bob.

Although not for everyone the soundtrack/score from Daniel Lanois is great.

Every now and then, an actor transcends his own persona; this is the case with Billy Bob Thornton in this film. There are many actors who are good at playing various forms of themselves, few are able to make you forget who they really are.

Years ago I flew a flight with Billy Bob Thornton onboard. I got up to say bye to the folks and as luck would have it the line got jammed up and he was right there in front of me so we talked for a minute. Honestly I am not a Hollywood follower but I’d heard enough to think he was a nutbag. Maybe he is but for that short conversation he was very nice and seem very salt of the Earth.

Robert Duvall is in the movie, too, for a brief appearance, as Karl's crazy father.

Memorial Day, 1996, I was in Atlanta Hartsfield airport waiting for a friend to arrive. I was with my then girlfriend, now wife. I looked over and saw this guy with his back to us about 25 feet away. I said "That looks like the back of Robert Duvall's head." She giggled because, yeah, I guess it was a funny thing to say, but I was serious, and sure enough, he turned around and started to walk past us. As he approached, I said "Mr. Duvall." I think he was trying to catch a connecting flight and I could tell he didn't want to be noticed, because he responded but it was literally out the side of his mouth. He said "Hey, how ya doin'?" looking for all the world like he was trying to keep it on the down low.

I left it at that. I surely wanted to talk to him but he was busy.

Dwight Yoakum almost steals the show from Thornton. That cast was stacked top to bottom. J.T. Walsh had a great small role as well.

Bible says two men ought not to lay together.

All right den.

Don't quit your day job, Karl.



Reminds me of Tommy Chong trying to repeat Cheech Marin's joke: "I'm gonna turn this glass into a dick."

A great film, anyone who hasn't seen it is missing something unique. I agree it is his best role. Bad Santa should have got him that Oscar though.