Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade

Starring:Billy Bob Thornton, Molly Ringwald, J.T. Walsh, Jefferson Mays, Suzanne Cryer, Abby Abernathy, Brent Briscoe, Otto Coelho, Abe Dalool, Ron Livingston, Aaron Wheeler, Bill Boll, Chester Dent, Bill Sprague, Joey Bilow, Mark Gimbrere, Michael Beugg, Linda Beugg, Trevor A. Tarr, Mike Herman
Director: George Hickenlooper
Studio: Vanguard Cinema
Product Type: DVD

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Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade is the short film on which Billy Bob Thornton based Sling Blade (and the reason Thornton was awarded the best adapted--not best original--screenplay). The film is essentially the opening scenes of Sling Blade, in which Thornton's character, Karl Childers, is shown about to leave the mental hospital, intoning his account of his youthful crime to a naive reporter writing about his release. While the screenplay here is virtually the same as the corresponding part of the longer film, this film leaves a lingering chilling feeling. Unlike Sling Blade, which allows the audience to see Karl's innate goodness, this version ends at the end of the interview, when the reporter (here played by Molly Ringwald) is left stunned at the horrors she's just heard, and she (and the audience) have no real idea if Karl is someone who should be turned loose or not. Fans of Sling Blade owe it to themselves to see this version, too--focusing on its far darker sensibility adds to the appreciation of the work it would later become. (Historic footnote: unlike Sling Blade, Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade was directed by George Hickenlooper, codirector of the acclaimed documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, who was none too happy when the media attention over Sling Blade virtually ignored his contributions to the original film.) --Anne Hurley

Customer Reviews:

Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade.......2007-03-26

I was very dissappointed in this movie. But it was my fault. I ordered the wrong one. I meant to order Sling Blade, which I later did.

really good.......2007-02-18

I had no idea Billy Bob Thorton could play such a well-meaning and likeable character. I've only known him in recent roles (such as Bad Santa) so it came to a complete shock to me that a movie THIS emotionally powerful from Billy Bob Thorton playing a main character could be so incredibly good.

I give this movie the highest grade you can possibly give. I really loved Billy Bob's performance. This is a really good film because it helps you understand and appreciate people who are different. There's an important message behind it, and the fact that you are guaranteed to remain interested in it from beginning to end makes Sling Blade all the better. Really good performance and story. A must see.

Insightful....a bit.......2007-02-14

This DVD was worth the price I paid (used), for it. Buy it used :)

Its a heartbreaker........2006-11-08

This extremely expurgated version sells for about a dollar a minute! So if you think a 15 minute (estimate) feature is worth the price, by all means, buy this. If not, save yourself the heartbreak I suffered.

Pathetically Steinbeckian and yet luminous........2006-01-16

Slow and long, the film ambles through a deep story about life and the rejection of people who are different, no matter how, no matter how much. Rejection creates evil and sooner or later a tragedy develops from that selfish attitude. The main character is the pure product of such rejection. A child who is banned from his own house and forced to live in a hole in a barn. One day he is ordered to throw in the trash a very small baby that is still covered with blood, his own brother. He will bury him in a shoe box because the trashcan sounded too gross to him and he wanted the baby to be buried properly, even if he was still alive. From there a dramatic catastrophe develops and he will spend wtenty-five years in a psychiatric hospital. When he is reformed and liberated he will come back to his village and everything will go perfectly wrong. Wrong because it will lead to a new tragedy, but perfect because the retarded person is going to give a lesson of humanity to everyone, and he will be sent back to the psychiatric hospital because he decided to be God almighty, the Father, and take justice in his own hands, which is not acceptable according to our own standards. There are some very good poignant pathetic moments in this long trip through the mindscape of a character that comes straight out of Steinbeck's novels.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne

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