Monday, March 14, 2011

Sling Blade

Billy Bob Thornton is released from an institution after having killed his mother as a kid. He has to try to make sense of a new world. Also starring Dwight Yoakam and Robert Duvall, directed by Billy Bob Thornton.

This is turning into a Billy Bob Thornton festival! The story is the kind of Southern Gothic that someone like Nick Cave could have come up with. Jim Jarmusch has a small role and might have been an influence in the long, static takes. Country and western singer Yoakam is a revelation in his role, and so is the kid actor, Lucas Black, playing a boy Thornton meets and befriends. Thornton himself is almost unrecognizable in his part. It's too bad he ended up in director's jail after the expensive flop All The Pretty Horses. Sling Blade is a great film, one of those magical times in the darkness of the cinema. Should have been 3D, though.

4 comments:

  1. You mentioned that Thorton ended up in directors jail after All the Pretty Horses, and I agree that he certainly got a raw deal. Speaking of Cormac McCarthy, did you hear there is adaptation of Blood Meridian planned? First it had Ridley Scott attached, then Todd Field and now James Franco (at least thats what I heard)? Franco gets more and more interesting, I'm really liking that guy.

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  2. I knew that Ridley Scott was involved in an adaptation of the novel. Which I still haven't read.

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  3. If you like McCarthy then you'd love Blood Meridian, its a very unglamorous western thats for sure. There really is not a likable character and its very violent. However, McCarthy's imagery was never better, even when disturbing. Growing up in Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth) there is the ever present cowboy/old west "vibe" (I guess you might say) that is very Roy Rogers-"The Duke"-feel good-"Remember the Alamo". So, McCarthy's bleak portrayal of a somewhat dark, violent, dangerous west was very counter to what I grew up with.

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