Review of Sling Blade (1996) by Gregory W — 09 Nov 2008

Sling Blade, written directed and starring Billy Bob Thornton, seems at its surface like an easy movie to crack. Just look at the set-up: a mentally challenged man who was hospitalized after killing two people is being released after seventeen years to return to the town from whence he came. You don't suppose a movie with a beginning like that is going to end in any way other than another murder, do ya? And then when a mean character (played exquisitely here by Dwight Yoakum) enters the picture and starts causing trouble, you don't suppose that maybe this'll be the guy who gets the proverbial ax... do ya?

Of course you do. And so it's easy to give Sling Blade a short shrift without actually giving the movie a chance. But despite it's apparently easy to guess sequence of events, the characters and situations that transpire between the obvious bookends are much deeper and truer than one might expect.

When Karl (Thornton) is released from hospitalization, he is unsure of what to do with himself. He returns to his small-town home in the South and befriends a young boy named Frank, but aside from that is mostly alone. Luckily, a man in the hospital who had taken a liking to him offers to try to get him a job at a garage fixing small appliances.

Small town in the south, huh? You don't suppose that there will be a large subplot about the difficulty that Karl has with fitting in due to his rough past and mental handicaps, do you? Well, here you'd be wrong. The townspeople seem generally pleased with Karl, forgiving him his past and looking with hope toward his future assimilating back into the town. One guy even says, of one of Karl's victims, "I kind of wanted to kill him myself.".

In fact, the only person who really seems to have any problem with Karl is the boyfriend of Frank's mother, a man named Doyle (Yoakum). Doyle is obviously our villain, but he is a man motivated as much by his horrible drinking problem as by his ignorance.

The bulk of the movie involves Karl's efforts to re-train himself to live on his own, meanwhile learning from Frank about what it means to be a man, a father, a human being. They sit in the woods and talk, and that's where the real heart of the movie lies. Like last year's There Will be Blood, despite the seemingly violent title, there is very little by way of actual violence. Instead, the movie's weight is put on the very interesting characters and the sense of dread. The conclusion is predetermined, it seems, so what is it that finally pushes Doyle and Karl's rivalry to a head?

Thornton's directorial style is a little flat, consisting mostly of steady, wide shots. Likewise, the soundtrack is abuzz with simple, repeated notes that are held out much longer than they need to be. The often-still camera could be seen as poor directing or as a conscious choice, to reflect maybe the stagnant world that Karl is in.

The movie never tells us what year the events are taking place in, and the surroundings often look as much like the fifties or the seventies as present day. Frank feels that he will never be able to escape from Doyle's drunken wrath, and though his mother dislikes Doyle, she too feels incapable of leaving him. Instead, they merely put up with him -- living each day the same as the one before, feeling trapped in still waters that will go nowhere.

Sling Blade is a surprisingly thoughtful movie, one that -- like it's main character -- has more hiding under its surface than most will likely expect to find. It's a very good film, with spectacular performances by all of its leads. You will be happy.