Review of Sling Blade (1996) by Misael D — 23 Jan 2010

I never thought a movie which was MOSTLY just talking, could be so interesting.

The movie is about a mentally retarded man, who is just been released from a mental institution. He was in the institution because he murder his mom and her lover with a kaiser blade, "Some folks call it a sling blade". You'll probable thinking this movie is a mix between Forrest Gump and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but it isn't. And if you did thought that, then you are stupid.

This movie is just pure nice, it has great performances and directing, good character development, a good story, and nice music. Unfortunately this movie is just mostly talking. There are no dinosaurs, or tall ugly blue smurfs, no running across the country, no big oil spill, no country for old men, its just talking. Some stuff does happen here and there, but mostly it was just talking, and I loved every minute of it. Seriously you'll never thought talking would been so God darn interesting, I was really curious what was happening. Unlike most of the movies I was watching at that time, like The Color Purple and Patton, I actually CARED what they were talking about, weird I don't know how the movie was able to do that, but it did.

While I loved ALL the performances in this movie, I'll give my hats off to Billy Bob Thornton's performance as the main guy. I found it hard not to smile while seeing him in this movie, because I'm used to him in Bad News Bears and those other stupid comedies he does, just like Charlie Sheen in Platoon and Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple. But unlike the latter, I found him perfect in this role, he did such a good job, a well deserved Oscar nomination.

Now the movie has very interesting morals, like what does it mean to be a good person, and the rights to kill someone. Throughout the movie, the main Protagonist is always aware of his killings, but he is probable the nicest person ever. An other character is a homosexual, and is often faced with prejudgment, but is an over all nice fella. It shows that, despite what one person may have done or is, that doesn't mean there not a nice person. Also throughout the film, many of the characters have openly admitted of wanting to kill someone who is very evil and mean. As the audience gets to know the main Antagonist, the more the audience knows how evil he is and how he truly deserves to die. This shows how killing someone may not actually be such an insane as some may think. The Protagonist is divided on that choice, to kill or not to kill, even though he claims he has no reason to kill anyone else.

I won't say no more except that this movie is really good, and I really liked it. 5/5.