The indie classic “Sling Blade” hasn’t aged a day since 1996 — it remains heartfelt, compelling and wise.
Billy Bob Thornton’s breakthrough film has just been released in the Blu-ray format by Disney/Miramax. It returns in the original theatrical version.
Thornton has acted in about 70 films — including “Friday Night Lights,” “Monster’s Ball” and “Bad Santa.” No matter what else he does, though, Thornton likely will be remembered for “Sling Blade” and its hero, the lumbering avenger Karl. No wonder Thornton poured so much charm and energy into the extras that appear on this disc.
“That movie was a moment of hillbilly zen,” recalls the singer Dwight Yoakam, one of Thornton’s many pals who worked on the $1 million film.
During production, “Nobody knew there was a movie being made in Arkansas and no one cared,” Yoakam says. “No one in L.A. is called Billy Bob.”
The new “Sling Blade” disc presents the movie at its original 135-minute running time — it’s not the 148-minute director’s cut that unspooled on the previous 2005 DVD, despite the nearly identical packaging.
“Sling Blade” looks handsome enough on Blu-ray, but remember this was a low budget affair. The upgrade in visual quality from the 2005 DVD to this high definition disc is evident but unremarkable. In 5.1 DTS-HD, the “Sling Blade” sound is warm and mostly clear, but it retains the occasional boominess that also existed on previous DVDs.
The improbable success story of Thornton and “Sling Blade” is told and retold in the generous-to-a-fault extras, which add up to something like seven hours. Some folks would call it overkill — your mileage may vary.
These extras were ported over in total from the “Sling Blade: Director’s Cut” and appear in standard definition with the horizontal black bars.
The film went on to gross north of $25 million (the big film fests didn’t want it; Harvey Weinstein of Miramax did). Thornton walked away with an Oscar for adapted script, even though he was adapting his own work.
The slow-thinking, slow-talking Karl (Thornton) became a pop culture sensation — “Hollywood’s guy du jour,” as Time put it. Mimics loved his protruding jaw and curious speech patterns. Mmm-hmm.
Thornton first recorded the commentary for a Criterion laserdisc. He whispers like a hung-over golf analyst at times. Given the expanses of the bonus material, admirers will be better served by the profiles and interviews. (Thornton updated the talk for the new material on the director’s cut.)
Missing is the original Karl short film, “Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade,” directed by George Hickenlooper. Not much mention is made of it, either. (You can still buy it in Amazon.)
One of the best bits is a roundtable discussion with Yoakam (who turned heads playing a liquored-up bad ass), veteran actor-musician Mickey Jones (“Home Improvement”), producer David Bushnell and Thornton. A lot of the talk is about music, which Thornton insists is at the heart of the movie. Thornton then reunites with scorer Daniel Lanois in a 22-minute segment. Lanois performs Karl’s theme music and recalls the score as having “a nice naïve spirit.”
Two docus profile the down-home director: “Mr. Thornton Goes to Hollywood” from 1996 and a more recent bio from Bravo. Together they add up to almost two hours, plenty of time to cover Thornton’s childhood, his early “days of hell” in L.A. as a waiter and B-movie actor, the breakthrough with “One False Move” and the story of Karl’s creation. Thornton goes home again to Arkansas in one of the segments, dispensing plenty of charm and backslaps.
Thornton worked with John Ritter on a sitcom while he was prepping “Sling Blade,” and had no trouble recruiting his pal to play a gay store manager who shares a surrogate family with Karl. In Arkansas, Ritter was subjected to a bizarre bowl-shaped haircut that rendered him almost unrecognizable. “He never forgave me for that,” Thornton says, fondly.
Robert Duvall (“my mentor and friend”) talks about his brief but key part as Karl’s shell-shocked dad. Also included are an odd clip called “The Return of Karl,” apparently shot at a party, some raw on-set video, and a trio of interesting print feature stories labeled as reviews. An after-the-credits coda featuring a pair of minor characters didn’t make the cut but appears here.
It’s great to see Disney reissue this Miramax classic in the new format of choice. Owners of the director’s cut disc might want to rent it to revisit the shorter theatrical cut in improved A/V; first-time buyers shouldn’t hesitate to pick up the “Sling Blade” Blu-ray.
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