Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade (1994)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

George Hickenlooper

Writer:

Billy Bob Thornton (writer)

Release Date:

23 November 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Twenty-five years after commiting a double murder, Karl Childers is going to be released from an institution for the criminally insane...

Plot Keywords:

Nudity | Cross Dresser | Sexist | Mental Hospital | Cult Favorite

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Billy Bob Thornton	...	Karl Childers
Molly Ringwald	...	Teresa Tatum
J.T. Walsh	...	Charles Bushman
Jefferson Mays	...	Gerry Woolridge
Suzanne Cryer	...	Frances
Abby Abernathy
Brent Briscoe
Otto Coelho		(as Otto Coecho)
Abe Dalool
Ron Livingston
Aaron Wheeler
Bill Boll
Chester Dent
Bill Sprague
Joey Bilow

Runtime:

UK:25 min | USA:25 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:18 (Ontario)

Goofs:

Continuity: In the first scene, Charles Bushman moves some checkers around while another man sits in a trance-like state. At this point both of the seated man's hands are on the table. However, when Charles moves away from the table, one of the seated man's hands is now resting on his leg, below the table.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Crap Shoot: The Documentary (2007)

Not as great as the feature film.

I'm going to have to go out on a limb here and say that I enjoyed "Sling Blade" far more than this short, which preceded the feature film by three years. Maybe it was the snotty, hands-on-hips, childish performance by Molly Ringwald that bothered me here. Or maybe it was the horribly stereotyped view of the residents of what, in the full-length, Karl calls the "nervous hospital." Yes, the short strongly resembles the opening of the full-length film, but I think it's weaker in many ways. The cinematography is better in the feature film (and I have no problem with black and white); Molly Ringwald's performance really sours the whole 25 minutes; and left on its own, this opening really implies things I don't like. Rather than actually speculating on how Karl will deal with living unsupervised, it seems to portray all the residents of the hospital as soulless victims. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to feel at the end of the film. At the end of "Sling Blade," I felt I had gotten to know a man. At the end of "Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade," I just thanked my lucky stars that Billy Bob Thornton decided to direct a version of it himself.