Sling Blade

Billy Bob Thornton has himself directed, written the script and plays the lead in the film as the mildly retarded Karl Childers, who has lived in a mental hospital for 25 years. As a child he killed his mother and her lover with a scythe, a sling blade. Since Karl's parents treated him like an animal, his stay at the state hospital has done him nothing but good, but now he is being released. The hospital director gets Karl a job as a mechanic and a bed to sleep in, but before long Karl moves in with the boy Frank, with whom he has become good friends. There Karl sleeps in the garage, but otherwise takes part in the family's life. Frank's mother Linda is a widow, but she has a boyfriend, Doyle, who is rarely in a good mood. He tyrannises the weak Linda and Frank and teases Karl and the family friend Vaughan, who is particularly vulnerable because he is gay.

When Doyle high-handedly decides to move in and then, without Linda's knowledge, gives Frank a foretaste of his idea of child-rearing and throws Karl out, Karl realises that there is only one thing he can do.

Sling Blade is a film that takes its time telling its story, but I gladly grant it that. Its characterisation is more nuanced than one sees in most American films. The people in the film's world are generally well-disposed, as they are in the real world. The brute Doyle is not portrayed as the devil incarnate, but as a man with personal problems to struggle with. The comparison with "The Simple-Minded Murderer" in Weekendavisen is very apt, even though the world of Sling Blade is a nicer place to be. Billy Bob Thornton was Oscar-nominated for his lead role, and one understands why.