Metacritic Film

Sling Blade

Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter, Lucas Black, and Robert Duvall

MPAA RATING: R for strong language, including descriptions of violent and sexual behavior

Miramax Films
Drama
135 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters November 27, 1996

A southern gothic tale about a man named Karl (Thornton), who's just been released from an asylum -- some 25 years after he committed a gruesome crime. He returns to the southern town of his youth, where his quiet, gentle manner and simple charm land him a job and lead him to an unlikely friendship with a young boy (Black) and his widowed mother. When the mother's abusive boyfriend appears, however, this simple man is thrust into a combustible dilemma that has powerful, moving consequences for all. (Miramax Films)

WRITTEN BY
Billy Bob Thornton

DIRECTED BY
Billy Bob Thornton

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

84 / 100

Critic Reviews

100 San Francisco Chronicle
A story that's startling, soulful and absolutely unforgettable.
100 Washington Post
Like the eloquent, darkly funny dialogue, the film's characters, setting and cadences draw us into its world, with all its terrors and tenderness. What emerges is a masterpiece of Southern storytelling that draws a sharp line between good and evil.
100 The New Republic
Who is Billy Bob Thornton? The question fascinates after seeing Sling Blade, the extraordinary first film that he wrote and directed and in which he plays the leading role. [Feb. 10, 1997]
100 USA Today Christopher Sharrett
Sling Blade is about a society barely holding on by its fingernails, the home and hearth hardly a place of respite. Unlike "The Ice Storm" or "The Sweet Hereafter," Sling Blade is devoid of the creature comforts of middle-class life that at least allow people the degraded hobbies that keep them functioning. [May, 1998]
91 Entertainment Weekly
It's a beautiful contraption of a movie, a gothic backwoods fable that uses its naive yet murderous hero to walk a fine line between sentimentality and dread.
90 Washington Post
Takes you down paths full of primitive, almost biblical implications, but it also finds comic relief in moments of palpable tension.
90 Dallas Observer Robert Abele
Sling Blade is perhaps the year's most impressive debut because it is an uncompromisingly told tale with a minimum of frills.
90 Film.com
The lure of Sling Blade is both elemental and hauntingly familiar, and I would not be surprised if Thornton's breakthrough film is one day considered a classic in its own right.
90 Chicago Reader
Perhaps the most remarkable thing here is Thornton's nuanced performance, but the film has other rare virtues: all the characters are fully and richly fleshed out (with some unexpected turns by John Ritter and singer Dwight Yoakam), and the story's construction is carefully measured.
90 Los Angeles Times
Catches you up so firmly in its world that you find yourself accepting whatever Thornton presents right up to its deeply ironic finish.
89 Austin Chronicle
Thornton, who wrote, directed, and stars in Sling Blade, has created an unforgettable character and situation, a film that's sure to become an American classic.
88 Chicago Sun-Times
There is pain, humor, irony and sweetness in the character, and a voice and manner so distinctive, he is the most memorable movie character I've seen in a long time.
88 Chicago Tribune Marc Caro
Resonates like the best of Southern fiction.
87 Mr. Showbiz Richard T. Jameson
What evolves among them is a kind of realistic fairy tale, sustained by the sweet gravity and guttural, deadpan minimalism of Thornton's performance.
80 TNT RoughCut Gary Susman
Thornton has written himself the role of a lifetime, yet he plays Karl with neither condescension nor saintliness.
80 LA Weekly
A remarkably moving and disturbing film about the possibility of belonging and the genealogy of violence.
80 Film.com
(Thornton) does a remarkable job in all three categories, but what you're likely to remember most clearly is his performance.
80 Variety
Marked by some powerful scenes, fine performances and colorful dialogue, this talented directorial debut by actor-writer Billy Bob Thornton has its effectiveness diluted by serious overlength and a rather monotonous, unmodulated tone.
80 Film.com
(Thornton) proves his mettle as an actor, writer and director with this bleakly comic and surprisingly tender movie.
75 Baltimore Sun
Builds slowly but passionately, not dancing to some Hollywood tune, but finding its characters where they are and letting them be who they are.
75 New York Daily News
Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed and stars in this compassionate, occasionally funny, character-driven movie about a mentally unstable man who takes the best interests of children very seriously.
75 ReelViews
The narrative is little more than a flimsy envelope -- it's the men and women who are sealed within that make Sling Blade worth watching.
70 Salon.com Dwight Garner
It's Thornton's rough and nuanced performance as Karl, not his modest filmmaking skills, that sucks you so quickly into Sling Blade's vortex.
70 TV Guide
The atmosphere is Southern Gothic pure enough to do Carson McCullers proud -- grotesque, sentimental and dankly nasty -- and Thornton manages not to undermine his own writing.
63 San Francisco Examiner
I can't help thinking, though, that maybe Thornton was too ambitious in trying to wear three hats.
60 The New York Times
Thornton is sadly affecting in the film's central role.

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