Sling Blade (1996)

***When a murderer is the likable protagonist, mmm-hmm***

A simple, slow, seemingly pensive man (Billy Bob Thornton) is released from a mental hospital in central Arkansas after 30 years and gets a job fixing lawnmowers. He makes friends with a boy & his mother (Natalie Canerday) and they let him live in their garage, but the mother’s abusive boyfriend presents a problem (Dwight Yoakam). John Ritter is on hand as the mother’s gay best friend.

"Sling Blade" (1996) is a small town drama with a memorable central character (if I didn’t know beforehand that Thornton played the role, I wouldn’t have recognized him). The characters and their situations smack of real life while the unhurried story is interesting enough. There are well-done moments of meditation and revelation, as well as touching ones.

It’s a tad overlong, however, and the politically correct glorification of Vaughan (Ritter) is eye-rolling. Karl (Thornton) observes that “The Bible says two men ought not lay together. But I don't reckon the Good Lord would send anybody like you to Hades.” Yet his opining doesn’t mean much since he candidly acknowledges elsewhere that he doesn’t understand a lot of the Scriptures, not to mention his foolish predilection for murder to solve mundane problems. He should stick to fixing lawnmowers and eating them French fried potaters, mmm-hmm.

The film runs 2 hours, 15 minutes, and was shot in Benton & nearby Haskell, Arkansas, which are about 20-30 minutes southwest of Little Rock.

GRADE: B-

**A film full of challenges, to which Billy Bob Thornton, in his greatest work, responded categorically.**

I didn't really know what I was going to find when I decided to watch this film, and I'm happy about that: it's a really good, convincing and moving story, which doesn't try to escape the harsh reality of things to create unbelievable heroes. And it is probably the most solid and significant work of Billy Bob Thornton's career. In fact, he not only plays the main role, but is also responsible for the script and direction. It is a labor of love, of total and absolute commitment, which makes this film a "Magnum Opus", even though Thornton has done other works that are equally notable and full of talent.

In this story, we follow a seemingly kind and harmless man who has lived his entire life in a mental institution where he was imprisoned as a child, after killing his mother and her boyfriend. Now, he is a mature man, but he doesn't know anything about the outside world, he has no connections of any sort with anyone (he has a father, but there is no emotional bond between them) and he has a serious mental disability. However, doctors consider him well enough to return to a normal life. When he leaves, he returns to his homeland, where he meets a boy who is roughly the same age as he was when he was institutionalized. The friendship between the two leads him to meet his mother, a young woman who has a complicated relationship with a man with a violent nature. And despite her limitations, he quickly realizes that this man could be dangerous to his new friends.

The whole story revolves around values that are very dear to us: friendship, kindness and altruism. It's not a completely unpredictable film, but it works very well and presents a deeply credible story. After all, you only need to open a newspaper to see dozens of situations of domestic violence and dating abuse that end badly. It is a subject that deserves deep social reflection: in a world where possessive relationships are increasingly observed, it is essential to understand that love only makes sense if it is based on trust, understanding and mutual acceptance. The film also challenges us to rethink our prejudices about mentally disabled people: they have feelings and emotional needs, just like us. After all, being mentally ill does not mean that you are a psychopath or sociopath.

Technically, the film presents us with excellent cinematography, in addition to a wise choice of filming locations and a careful design of the costumes and sets in Rural America. If the film is not very clear as to the geographical location where the action takes place, filming took place mostly in Arkansas, and it seems appropriate to place the fictional story somewhere between this state and its neighbor, Missouri. The well-modeled rhythm does not cause drowsiness or wear out the audience.

As I already said, it is Billy Bob Thornton who deserves the most praise for his work in the general work, and particularly as an actor. Playing dramatic roles as mentally disabled people is always challenging: there is a permanent risk of transforming the character into a caricature worthy of condemnation and offensive to people. Thornton manages to be authentic, credible in his interpretation, and reaps the fruits of this magnificent work. In addition to him, Dwight Yoakam also deserves an applause for a challenging and difficult job, in which he did wonderfully well.