Review of Sling Blade (1996) by Kris G — 21 Sep 2016

Sling Blade is a film of contrasts. Light and dark tones are masterfully balanced, offering up some of the sweetest, most heart warming scenes you could hope to find in a film & on the flip side a character so blatantly written to be as scummy, controlling & narrow minded as humanly possible plus several gruesome deaths forming the centre point of the story. It's because the light and dark is balanced so well, the movie as a whole is so effective.

Billy Bob Thornton proves himself as a powerhouse. This is his rodeo through and through. The script feels lived in and informed by personal experience, the direction is as unfussy and simple as the films lead character Karl and finally, Thornton's performance commands attention yet is so understated, playing Karl with a higher degree of self awareness than you may expect.

True, this is Billy Bob's movie, but the rest of the cast are more than game to meet the challenge of the script in creating a believable world for the characters to play in. The most jarring detail in the movie ends up being just how two tone it is. Black. White. No shades of grey. There are two characters that would fit the villain mold. They at no point show even a hint of redeeming qualities, which makes the eventual ending an expected one, not a surprise.

This is just a minor nitpick and certainly not important in the big scheme of things. Make no mistake, this film is on a hard and fast mission. It just reveals it's hand gradually over the course of 2 plus hours and makes the journey feel half as long.