Taglines: A simple man. A difficult choice.
Sling Blade movie storyline. Karl Childers (Billy Bob Thornton) is an intellectually disabled Arkansas man who has been in the custody of the state mental hospital since the age of 12 for having killed his mother and her lover. Although thoroughly institutionalized, Karl is deemed fit to be released into the outside world.
Prior to his release, he is interviewed by a local college newspaper reporter, to whom he recounts committing the murders with a Kaiser blade, saying, “Some folks call it a sling blade. I call it a kaiser blade.” Karl says he thought the man was raping his mother. When he discovered that his mother was a willing participant in the affair, he killed her also.
Thanks to the doctor in charge of his institutionalization (James Hampton), Karl lands a job at a repair shop in the small town where he was born and raised. He befriends 12-year-old Frank Wheatley (Lucas Black) and shares some of the details of his past, including the killings. Frank reveals that his father was killed – hit by a train – leaving him and his mother on their own. He later admits that he lied, and that his father committed suicide.
Frank introduces Karl to his mother, Linda (Natalie Canerday), as well as her gay friend, Vaughan Cunningham (John Ritter), the manager of the dollar store where she is employed. Despite Vaughan’s concerns about Karl’s history in the mental hospital, Linda allows him to move into her garage, which angers Linda’s abusive alcoholic boyfriend, Doyle Hargraves (Dwight Yoakam). Karl bonds with Linda, who makes him biscuits to eat, and also with Vaughan, who tells Karl that a gay man and a mentally challenged man face similar obstacles of intolerance and ridicule in small-town America.
Sling Blade is a 1996 American drama film set in rural Arkansas, written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, who also stars in the lead role. It tells the story of a man named Karl Childers who has a developmental disability and is released from a psychiatric hospital, where he has lived since killing his mother and her lover when he was 12 years old, and the friendship he develops with a young boy and his mother. In addition to Thornton, it stars Dwight Yoakam, J. T. Walsh, John Ritter, Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday, James Hampton, and Robert Duvall.
The movie was adapted by Thornton from his short film and previous screenplay, Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade. Sling Blade proved to be a sleeper hit, launching Thornton into stardom. It won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, and Thornton was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The music for the soundtrack was provided by French Canadian artist/producer Daniel Lanois.
Sling Blade (1996)
Directed by: Billy Bob Thornton
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J. T. Walsh, John Ritter, Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday, Robert Duvall, Christine Renee Ward, Brent Briscoe
Screenplay by: Billy Bob Thornton
Production Design by: Clark Hunter
Cinematography by: Barry Markowitz
Film Editing by: Hughes Winborne
Costume Design by: Doug Hall
Set Decoration by: Traci Kirshbaum
Music by: Daniel Lanois
MPAA Rating: R for strong language, including descriptions of violent and sexual behavior.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: November 27, 1996
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