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'Sling Blade' deserving of Academy nominations
February 18, 1997
Web posted at: 3:30 p.m. ESTFrom Movie Reviewer Paul Tatara
(CNN) -- Billy Bob Thornton's powerful directing debut, "Sling Blade," resonates with a darkly sculpted wit that feels like a cross between a Flannery O'Connor avenging angel short story and one of Bruce Springsteen's stringent, brilliantly detailed folk songs.
The story of Karl Childers, a mildly retarded man who has been released from a mental institution after serving 25 years for the violent murder (as an 11-year-old) of his mother and her lover, is not the kind of thing that usually garners Oscar nominations.
1.3MB/31 sec. QuickTime movie 4.6MB/1 min. 56 sec. QuickTime movie But that's exactly what has happened this year. Thornton, who not only directed but wrote and stars in the film, has been nominated for best actor and best screenplay in an unexpected fit of true insight on the Academy's part.
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Vivo's technical FAQ Like O'Connor and Springsteen, Thornton's gift, on ample display here, is that he imbues characters who would normally be mocked for their lack of social graces with an unexpected, and extremely moving, grass-roots dignity. The film looks you square in the eye and never flinches.
Childers is the Forrest Gump that this country actually deserves. Both characters have their man-child tendencies, but Karl's "homilies," if that's the right word for them, come tinged with a flat, palpable sense of dread.
Slit throats and brutally abusive parents are the main ingredients in Karl's box of chocolates, and Thornton, to his credit, never sucks up to the audience to try to soften the message. This is Forrest Gump threatening us with the possibility of sudden, unspeakable violence. If that isn't an apt metaphor for the current American landscape, I don't know what is.
The amazing thing about the performance is that Karl, from all outward appearances, is a monster. But we soon come to find that he is very human indeed -- and, if you're on the side of the angels, that he carries with him a very understanding heart.
After being released from the institution (against his better judgment), Karl returns to the small Arkansas town where he grew up. He has never lived on his own before, and an early scene where he is simply attempting to order some french fries from a local burger joint is sad and funny in the same breath. It's obvious that he'll need some help if he is going to survive, and he soon finds it in the person of 12-year-old Frank Wheatley.
Frank is played by Lucas Black, who gives about as fine a performance as you'll ever see from a child actor. His instant bonding with Karl is touching and believable. Frank is taken with Karl's oddly engaging way of speaking (he growls his words out in a sort of guttural monotone), and Karl appreciates Frank's non-judgmental personality.
With the help of his doctor, Karl soon secures a job fixing lawn mowers and tillers for the local engine repair shop. Later, he is invited by Frank's mother, played by Natalie Canerday, to take up residence in the family's converted garage. It is this adopted family that brings Karl out, once again, into the "real" world -- and eventually convinces him, through what he perceives to be an act of love, to recede back into his darker self.
The real heart of darkness in this family belongs to the mother's nasty, self-obsessed boyfriend, Doyle Hargraves. Doyle is played by country star Dwight Yoakam in an exceedingly brave, image-shattering performance that, you have to suspect, will do nothing to boost Yoakam's record sales.
Doyle is a rude drunk who fancies himself a rock 'n' roll star. He sees Karl as nothing more than a troublesome "re-tard," physically abuses both Frank and his mother, and endlessly mocks the family's good friend, a gay convenience- store owner played (in an equally unexpected performance) by John Ritter.
An obvious showdown of some sort is brewing between Doyle and Karl, but this is not the focus of most of the film. As great as Thornton's performance is, I think the real secret of the film's power lies in the writing.
Karl's clear-eyed, uncomplicated view of things is used in several tranquil scenes as a mechanism for drawing understated epiphanies from the other characters. In an odd way, the character serves the same purpose as Chance the gardener did in "Being There." The characters see in Karl what they want to see, and he reflects back a simple wisdom that helps them maintain equilibrium in a world spinning out of control.
One scene, in particular, is truly magnificent. Karl recounts to Frank the hellish story of when, as a 6-year-old, his father handed him a bloody towel containing Karl's still- living premature baby brother and asked him to dispose of it. The story is horrifying and heartbreaking, and it clarifies the personal demons that lead Karl to perform the brutal act that he would later be locked up for. Karl has seen enough children in pain, and he is not going to let it happen again.
I have one quibble about the film, and it's a minor one. At nearly 2 1/2 hours, the languid pacing sometimes gets a little taxing. One scene, in particular, in which Doyle's band buddies recount some inexplicable song lyrics, seems like it fell out of a David Lynch movie, and could have easily been cut.
Otherwise, this is a powerful piece of Americana -- a new myth of salvation for the morally tainted. And a peal of warning for the unrepentant.
Related stories:
- Don't let the Academy 'Shine' - February 18, 1997
- Hollywood makes 'declaration of independents' - February 11, 1997
- List of nominations for the Academy Awards - February 11, 1997
- Independent films catching mainstream Hollywood's eye - January 11, 1997
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