👍👍 SLINGBLADE (1996) BILLY BOB THORTON MASTERPIECE THAT CATAPULTED HIS CAREER! MUST WATCH!!

Sling Blade (1996) is a drama film written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton and starring Thornton himself in the role of a mentally disabled man named Karl who has been released from the mental hospital where he has spent most of his life after killing his cheating mother and her lover as a kid. He becomes friends with a young boy and his single mother who are terrorized by an abusive boyfriend played by Dwight Yoakam. John Ritter and Robert Duvall are also in the movie.

Sling Blade has often been compared to Forrest Gump because both of the leading characters manage to prove themselves besides their shortcomings as having special qualities about them. Karl is a slow, quiet man who nevertheless is capable of showing kindness and warmth. I like Forrest Gump more, but I have to admit that certain scenes in that movie seemed to be trying a little too hard in pulling tears from viewers' eyes. Sling Blade never became overly sentimental to me, but kept at a perfect balance and was a lot more focused narrative-wise than Forrest Gump.

Some of the scenes in this movie are really well-done, and it seems like a lot were ad-libbed; many of the exchanges in this movie go on for minutes at a time without changing the angle or breaking pace, and you feel like this is a legitimate conversation that you're hearing. Especially the beginning monologue that Karl gives describing his childhood and what brought him to the mental hospital, the scene sucks you in and you're completely zoned into Karl's monotone grumblings. Chances are, if you liked Forrest Gump, you would like this movie. It's one of those films that I see as excellent but that I would have no desire to see again. It's also not a film you can casually put on TV in the middle of it like Forrest Gump. This is a heavier story, a more streamlined narrative, and one that you'll have to see all the way through👍