Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade (1994)

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is a 25-minute short film from over 20 years ago written by and starring Billy Bob Thornton, who was still in his 4th marriage at that point and hadn't even met Angelina Jolie, his 5th of (so far) 6 wives. The director is Emmy winner George Hickenlooper and Thornton's co-stars are Golden Globe nominee Molly Ringwald and Emmy nominee J.T. Walsh. The latter is the only one of the trio who returned for the full feature movie that was loosely based on this short film. Hickenlooper and Walsh died very early. Thornton went on to win an Oscar for "Sling Blade" in the Screenplay category beating the dominant movie from that year: "The English Patient".Anyway, this short black-and-white film here did not impress me too much. I cannot say that this somehow motivated me to watch the full feature film. The performances weren't too memorable and I have to say I did not find the story really great or think that Thornton's character could make it into my all-time favorite villain list. He plays a murderer in a prison / insane asylum who is paid a visit by a journalist who wants to interview him. There is a problem with the journalist being a woman early on, but none of this was really a factor during the actual interview, which was really more of a monologue. All in all, I hoped this would be better. Not recommended.

Pretty much everything has been said by previous reviewers here. It is probably pertinent to add that but for the success of this little independent number, the full length SLING BLADE most probably would never have gotten made three years later.Obviously a labor of love for creator Billy Bob Thornton. He presents a markedly different Karl Childers here. As retardedly backward but infinitely more menacing. It was probably on reflection that the character was made more "marketable" and sympathetic the second time around. Both films are such an absorbing focus on what is essentially a simple man turned (by dint of social expectation) feral by circumstances totally outside his control. The villain of the piece of course was Karl's father, played in a marvellous one-off cameo by Robert Duvall in the feature-length film.In SOME FOLKS CALL IT A SLING BLADE, the reporter is played by Molly Ringwald. Many seem not to have approved of her interpretation of the part, preferring the cutesy high-school reporter in the 1996 release. I thought she handled it well, after all she was dealing with a quite different "Karl Childers.'Either way, this makes for a fascinating back-up to SLING BLADE. If anything, it adds to one's understanding of the man himself.

I saw this movie when I rented a DVD that came with a lot of brief "movies" such as this. I wonder if it was done to show the head of a studio what a great feature length movie this would make. I enjoyed the short story format and was impressed with Molly Ringwold's acting.

After seeing the feature film, I had to see the short. It's great. I found it on an amazing DVD compilation called SHORT 1: Invention. I've become an avid fan of the whole SHORT series. I highly recommend checking it out. You can find it on any on-line retail outlet. Check it out!!! It's a phenomenal disc!!!