Celebrity Biographies
Sling Blade Film, Plot, Cast, Filming Location, Filmaffinity, Trailer
SLINGSHOT FILM
Sling Blade is a 1996 American drama film written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, who also plays the lead role. Set in rural Arkansas, the film tells the story of a man named Karl Childers who has a developmental disability and is released from a mental hospital, where he has lived since the murder of his mother and her lover in the age of 12, and the friendship he develops with a young boy and his mother. In addition to Thornton, it stars Dwight Yoakam, JT Walsh, John Ritter, Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday, James Hampton and Robert Duvall.
The film was adapted by Thornton from his previous screenplay for the short film Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade, directed by George Hickenlooper. Sling Blade proved to be a sleeper success, propelling Thornton into stardom. It won the Oscar for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, and Thornton was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Music for the soundtrack was provided by French-Canadian artist/producer Daniel Lanois
SLING BLADE FILM PLOT | ABOUT SLING BLADE
Karl Childers is an intellectually disabled man from Arkansas, who has been detained at the State Psychiatric Hospital since the age of 12, for killing his mother and her lover. Although he has been completely institutionalized, Karl is deemed fit for release into the outside world.
Prior to his release, he was interviewed by a reporter from a local college, and he recounted committing the murders with a kaiser blade, saying, “Some call it a sling blade. I call it a kaiser blade. Karl explains that he attended school with his father’s teenage son, Jesse Dixon, who was a petty bully and pervert; he thought Jesse was raping his mother and beheaded him. When he discovered that his mother was willingly participating in the affair, he killed her as well.
Thanks to the doctor in charge of his institutionalization, Karl, who is highly skilled in repairing small engines, lands a job at a repair shop in the small town where he was born and raised. He befriends 12-year-old Frank Wheatley and shares some details of his past, including the murders. Frank reveals that his father was killed when he was hit by a train, leaving him and his mother alone. He later admits that he lied and that his father committed suicide.
Frank introduces Karl to his mother, Linda, and his gay friend, Vaughan Cunningham. Vaughan is the manager of the dollar store where Linda works. Despite Vaughan’s concerns about Karl’s history in the mental hospital, Linda allows him to move into her garage, which angers Linda’s alcoholic-abusive boyfriend, Doyle Hargraves. Karl bonds with Linda, who makes him cookies to eat. Vaughan invites Karl to lunch where he explains that a gay man and a mentally handicapped man face similar obstacles of intolerance and ridicule, in a small American town, before warning Karl about Doyle’s violent behavior, as well as of his fears that Doyle might hurt or kill Linda and Frank.
Slingshot blade picture
Karl suddenly becomes a father figure to Frank, who misses his father, and hates Doyle, who becomes increasingly abusive towards everyone, including his own friends. Eventually, Doyle, who is also the leader of his own band, has a drunken outburst at his fellow band members and kicks them out, and attempts to do the same with Karl and Vaughan. Linda tries to kick Doyle out of the house, despite his threats to kill her if she ever leaves him, which leads to a physical confrontation with Linda and Frank, which angers the boy, who throws things at Doyle until until he finally leaves.
Things begin to look up for Karl, as he becomes increasingly successful at his job and is even set on a date with Linda and Vaughan’s co-worker Melinda over dinner at Vaughan’s house in which Linda, Frank and Vaughan’s partner, Albert, is also present. Despite this, however, Karl is haunted by an incident that happened when he was 6 or 8 years old.
His parents aborted his unwanted baby brother, causing the baby to “get the baby out too soon”, and Karl received a bloody towel wrapped around the baby, who survived the abortion. Karl was instructed to get rid of it, but when Karl detected movement inside the towel, he inspected it, discovering a little boy who was so small. Telling this story to Frank, Frank asks why Karl didn’t just keep the baby, to which Karl replies that he had no way to care for a baby. He placed the baby, still in the bloody towel, in a shoebox and buried the baby alive, saying he thought it best to take him to the good Lord from the start.
SLING BLADE FILM CASTING
- Billy Bob Thornton as Karl Childers
- Dwight Yoakam as Doyle Hargraves
- J.T. Walsh as Charles Bushman
- John Ritter as Vaughan Cunningham
- Lucas Black as Frank Wheatley
- Natalie Canerday as Linda Wheatley
- James Hampton as Jerry Woolridge
- Robert Duvall as Karl’s father
- Jim Jarmusch as Deke, Frostee Cream’s employee
- Vic Chesnutt as Terence
- Brent Briscoe as Scooter Hodges
- Mickey Jones as Johnson
SLING BLADE FILMING LOCATIONS
Filmed entirely in Benton (Saline County) by Arkansas native Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 1996 and earned Thornton – who wrote, directed and starred in the film – an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as a nomination for Best Actor.
SLING BLADE FILM AFFINITY
Original title; An sling blade
; one thousand nine hundred and ninety six
Running time ; 130 mins.
Countryside ; the United States
director ; Billy Bob Thornton
Screenwriter; Billy Bob Thornton (playing: Billy Bob Thornton)
Music ; Daniel Lanois
Cinematography; Barry Markowitz
Throw ; Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, JT Walsh, John Ritter, Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday
Producer ;
Miramax International / The Genre Shooting Gallery ; Drama | Disability. Southern Gothic
Synopsis/Plot; Karl Childers, now an adult, is released from a psychiatric hospital where he has been hospitalized since the age of 12 for the murder of his mother and her lover. He returns to his childhood town and, despite being mentally handicapped, gets a job repairing small engines at a local repair shop. Karl befriends a young boy, Frank, and is soon invited by Frank’s mother, Linda, to move into the family’s garage. As a strong relationship develops between Karl and Frank, a confrontation develops with Linda’s abusive and sometimes violent boyfriend, Doyle.
Price
1996: Oscar: Best Adapted Screenplay. 2 nominations
1996: National Board of Review: Special Award (Billy Bob Thornton)
1996: Satellite Awards: 3 nominations including Dramatic Actor (Billy Bob Thornton)
1996: Writers Guild of America (WGA): Best Adapted Screenplay
1996: Screen Actors Guild ( SAG): Name. Best Cast and Actor (Thornton)
1996: Independent Spirit Awards: Best First Feature