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Whistle Stopper - Sling Blade
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List Price: $9.99
Our Price: $3.87
Your Save: $ 6.12 ( 61% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Miramax
Starring: Lucas Black (II), Sarah Boss, Brent Briscoe, Kathy Sue Brown, Natalie Canerday
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780788808203
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 0788808206
Label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Miramax
Release Date: 1998-01-06
Running Time: 135
Studio: Miramax
Theatrical Release Date: 1996-11-27
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Sling Blade
Comment: Just another item that my son asked for for Christmas! No where else to find it at such a great price! Speedy delivery! Awesome!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Movie
Comment: This is a wonderful movie and I have been looking for it for several years and it is very hard to find! And when I found it here on Amazon.com I was very thrilled. My husband and I really enjoyed it and are very happy with our purchase, which we both thought was a very good price.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Stunning portrayal by Billy Bob Thornton
Comment: The film that launched Billy Bob Thornton's career, "Sling Blade", is one of the most stirring films released over the past dozen years. The character portrayed by Thornton, Karl Childers, a mentally deficient individual released from a state hospital years after killing two people, is understated and powerful. Reading Thornton's face is to read his mind and the entire film is brilliantly paced. The supporting cast, led by a young Lucas Black, is terrific. "Sling Blade" is worth viewing more than once for its nuanced dialogue and heart-wrenching performances.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Comment: I have enjoyed this movie, since it first came to big screen. Its a classic that everyone needs in thier collection.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Unsettling film that will shock your core...
Comment: I think I mentioned a few reviews back that I bathe at the river `depressing'; and I think it's obvious that I also am a stickler for the emotionally engaging and sentimentally stimulating. That said; `Sling Blade' broke my heart in many places due to the fact that it is both of those things; depressing and sentimental. I would be a liar if I didn't say that there were also facets of this film that didn't work so well for me, but in all honestly they are few indeed.
The film starts of extremely strong with one of the most disturbing yet most engaging line readings I have ever seen, as we meet Karl for the first time while he's listening to Charles Bushman, a fellow mental institution inmate, reciting one of his lurid tales. J.T. Walsh, the actor who plays Bushman, is so convincing that he literally gave me chills.
Hands down one of the best cameo performances by an actor in recent memory.
The film only escalates from there, as Karl is released from his prison after serving many years for murdering his mother and her lover. He is released into society, back to his home town, amongst people that don't understand him or accept him. That is until he meets a young boy named Frank; a sweet child who is living under the harsh rule of his mother's boyfriend Doyle. Frank and Karl instantly bond, and Frank's mother Linda is grateful, offering her garage to Karl and welcoming him into her life. Doyle is less than enthused and thus begins a stricter more controlling reign of terror on Linda and Frank, imposing as much as possible to drive wedges into their newfound happiness.
I am intrigued by the films approach to the subject of love and loyalty, because when the film shakes down to the last few frames it is really all about the sacrifices we make in order to protect the ones we love; even if it means that we have to destroy ourselves. By making the lead character mentally handicapped the films proves that love is something innate and human, not something learned and or spawned from education or conditioning. Love is something that is inside us waiting to come out. There is no way that one can say Karl's love for Frank is anything but pure, for he has no outside influence manipulating his thinking.
The film has been likened to `To Kill a Mockingbird' in its depiction of murder, just or unjust. I see the similarities, but I'm not too quick to call them myself. `To Kill a Mockingbird' in my opinion raised a few more questions and answered them a little smoother, but that isn't to say that `Sling Blade' doesn't do a fine job at what it sets out to do.
When Karl explains where he came from, why he's here, what he remembers about who he is; I mean I don't see how anyone could be anything less than moved with pity. This brings me to my one major fault with the film; Billy Bob Thornton. Thornton is a very good actor, I will not take that away from him, but here he falls into `Hanks' territory, delivery a gimmick and relying to heavily on back-story to create his character. He's unrecognizable in sight and sound, yet I never really saw a real transformation. It all felt like surface to me. When he goes into his longwinded speeches of his horrible life I am moved and I almost teared up, but it felt as though I was reading a book, not witnessing the atrocities.
Thornton never truly took me there.
Everything else about the film is stellar to me. The pacing, the direction, the mood and even the score and soundtrack (which at first was a little off putting) ultimately proves itself strong and engaging. The balance of the performances are also strong. Lucas Black is wonderful as Frank. He beautifully balances his feelings of calm around Karl and then repressed and anxious around Doyle. Dwight Yoakam is also very effective as the hateful and cruel Doyle, infecting the screen with his detestable nature. John Ritter has a nice turn (R.I.P.) and Natalie Canerday is heartbreaking as the desperate and ultimately trapped Linda.
In the end I would be lying if I said that `Sling Blade' wasn't moving, for it is. It takes one to a dark place and allows them to witness ones desperate attempt to remove themselves from it; and we are able to see one trying fervently to save as many as he can from falling into the same trap. I really wish that I felt a stronger connection to Thornton here, but it's not as if he is drastically detached from the audience. I'm a little baffled by his Oscar nomination, but then again, they gave Hanks an Oscar. Thornton does a masterful job directing and writing here, and his success in these two areas help make up for his inability to connect as an actor.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Now see for yourself -- the powerful motion picture applauded by critics and moviegoers alike, written, directed, and starring Billy Bob Thornton. Twenty five years after committing an unthinkable crime, a quiet man named Karl (Thornton) is finally returning home. Once there, he is befriended by a fatherless boy and his mother. But when his newfound peace is shattered by the mother's abusive boyfriend (Grammy-winner Dwight Yoakam), Karl is suddenly placed on a collision course with his past. Also featuring Robert Duvall, John Ritter, and J.T. Walsh, SLING BLADE is an unforgettable movie experience.
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