DIDN'T LIKE IT! HELP ME OUT FANS!

Don't feel bad for not liking it. I enjoyed a few things too but overall it was a bit pointless, kitsch, predictable and not really entertaining.

Sorry, but I think you may have missed some important points on this film.

It still remains one of the best depictions of mental illness, as Billy Bob wrote the character of Karl KNOWING that people who are raised rough, or in Karl's case, dragged along, are going to grow up with scars. This is the truth and is not only the root of many folks' mental health issues, but they way a person grows up is what forms their beliefs, their morals. In Karl's case, the way he was raised, and what he did at such a young age, are the reasons for why the film goes the way it does.

Regarding the introduction of the girl. I have no idea where you got the idea of SLB from, as they only share a single scene together and it is obviously displaying how hard it is for some people to socialise, often labelled slow because of this.

BTW, I only just watched this film tonight. I dunno about top 20, but it is certainly one of the most emotionally driven, unique dramas ever made. If only more drama was this well written.

"Some may never live, but the crazy never die"
www.epilepticmoondancer.net

There are levels to Sling Blade, just like any great film.

If you look at it like a play, it's all about the development of one character, and that's Karl. Karl has been locked up for 20 years for killing his mother, a crime that he now regrets, because he realizes she wanted to have sex with the Dixon character -- something that, as a child who was horribly mistreated, he couldn't understand. He has a lot of catching up to do in a short time. And man does he ever catch up.

After Karl gets out, the rest of the film is about him completing the journey of his life. He gets a job doing what he's good at, and earns the respect of his peers. He befriends Frank, and while he is viewed by other characters as a father figure to Frank, and there are elements of that, he is also like a big brother to Frank. Remember that shortly after Karl plays football with Frank and the other boys, he goes to confront his father, and one of the things he says is "you ought not killed my little brother, we could have had fun sometimes". They are often referred to as "boys" in the film by Doyle and possibly others, as in "hey boys, I'm glad you're back".

Karl is discovering, through Frank and his mom, all of the things that were stolen from him, and he is making sense of his own experience. And I think his biggest revelation to the audience is that he blames his father for his misfortune. He says he has thought a great deal about killing him, but realizes it isn't worth it. He's going to die soon anyway. But Doyle isn't dying anytime soon. And by killing Doyle, Karl can metaphorically right some big wrongs in his own life, most importantly saving his little brother (Frank) from the monster father. He also saves his metaphorical mother -- remember, his real mother made him biscuits and mustard "three or four times a week". When Frank's mother makes him biscuits it connects him to his real mother. At the end, when he leaves, he says to Frank's mom "it's not everyone who will make you biscuits in the middle of the night". The writing is subtle, but deep.

To demonstrate the character development -- Billy Bob wrote us one final scene. Karl shows how his character has changed in this last scene where he tells the rapist "point of fact, don't say another word to me. I'm not listening to you anymore". Like everything in this movie, it's subtle and understated, but gets the point across beautifully. Karl isn't going to be a victim anymore.

Thematically, the film is about prejudice, poverty, violence, and touches on religion too. All are handled thoughtfully and very subtly not by preaching, but by showing these things in action: the weakness and stupidity in prejudice (through Doyle), the effects of poverty on people (Karl's family and Frank's family), what it feels like to be under the threat of violence with no way out.

One of my favourite films. I hope you can grow to appreciate it too.

Whatever this means - I did Engineering school - like lots of equations - you heard of the Hubble? I saw it - literally - in the garage in Sunnyvale where i worked. it's taken me years to get ..."stuff" like you are saying. It's difficult to "transcribe"

House: I have been on a date before.
Wilson: Not since disco died.

The film is a snap shot of life in the South. Living in the South is at times like living in the Twilight Zone. It doesn't make any sense. I moved to Florida in 1979. I was born and raised in California and thought I had died and gone to hell after first moving to Florida.
The movie was different from the others at the time. One might consider it a "tone poem" of sorts. It is subtle at times and provides a glimpse of life here. You have to live in the South to fully understand the movie. I know that these last comments may not be helpful.
I remember the first time I moved to a rural part of Florida. The first words out of someone's mouth was "you ain't from "round cheeer("here")are you? It sounds better than it reads.
Religion plays a very big part of life in the south. You may think the baptism scene is irrelevant but it isn't. "Go out whoring on Sat. night and Church on Sunday morning is not just a good country/western lyric. It still exists here.
I saw an interview with Mr. Thornton and he allowed as how the movie and it's characters were drawn from characters/people he grew up with in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The man may make his living in Hollywood but at heart he is a "county boy/ redneck.
Most of the people here don't give a damn about fitting in or assimilating back into society. The film maybe slow but watching Japanese films is to me like watching paint dry and Kurosawa's films are normally thought of as great.
I understand some of your comments but what did you want , a three hour movie to flesh out the emotional content. People don't "cotton" to those ideas down here. I think you're asking for more than the movie could ever give.
I thought killing Doyle removed an evil from the world. You are trying to apply real world sensibilities to a section of the country that is still pissed off, even a hundred years later, that they lost the "Civil War" and they have been fighting a guerilla war ever since.
I know this is long winded but what can a poor boy do?

You are right about not liking it. This is actually one I wanted to go see and went to the theater paid and started watching it and fell asleep at about 20 minutes in, it was that bad and I woke up during it and said to myself that this is boring and walked out in the middle of the movie.

I did eventually watch the whole thing but still can't understand how people like this. Rating is just way to high for this movie. The rating on this site is so backwards its unbelievable.

I am a gore watching freak!!!

If it don't have it, it isn't worth the watch.

First of all everyone knew he wouldn't fit into society. The movie establishes that from the beginning. And we know he's good at 2 things: killing and fixing lawnmowers. But the latter doesn't give him any joy or sense of purpose.
His main motivation is to ensure the kid has a happy live and that he doesn't end up like him. He didn't kill the mom's boyfriend just because. He could've done that the first time the character acted like an *beep* He killed him because he saw that the boy was building up to be the killer, and he didn't want him to go through what he went through.
It's easy to be mislead into the predictable outcome, but you gotta look into it and see that he's trying to avoid that, and he only took action when it came out to be him or the boy who's going to kill the *beep* boyfriend.