{"id":39175,"date":"2025-06-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=39175"},"modified":"2025-06-18T20:40:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T00:40:54","slug":"sling-blade-1996-written-directed-and-starring-billy-bob-thornton-z-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=39175","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Sling Blade&#8221; (1996) written, directed and starring Billy Bob Thornton \/ Z-View"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2025\/z061825zview_slingblade.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"741\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Sling Blade <\/strong><\/em>(1996)<\/p>\n<p>Director:\u00a0 <strong>Billy Bob Thornton<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Screenplay: <strong>Billy Bob Thornton; <\/strong>based on <em>Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade<\/em> by <strong>Billy Bob Thornton<\/strong><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Stars: <strong>Billy Bob Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, J.T. Walsh<\/strong><strong>, John Ritter, Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday, James Hampton, Brent Briscoe, Mickey Jones <\/strong>and <strong>Robert Duvall.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tagline: <em>A simple man. A difficult choice.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>The Plot&#8230;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Karl Childers is a mentally challenged man who has been in state custody for decades.\u00a0 From the time Karl was born he was abused by his mother and father.\u00a0 When Karl was twelve he accidentally caught his mother and a teenage boy having sex.\u00a0 Karl believed the boy was raping his mother so Karl killed the kid using a sling blade.\u00a0 When it became clear that his mom was enjoying the sex, Karl killed her as well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the state home Karl never had a problem.\u00a0 Passive and shy, Karl spent most days just staring out a window.\u00a0 So the state determined that Karl was no longer a danger to society and scheduled his release.\u00a0 Karl begged his doctor to stay, but was forced to leave.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now Karl has returned to his small hometown.\u00a0 He gets a job repairing small engines.\u00a0 Karl meets and befriends Frank Wheatley.\u00a0 Frank is twelve.\u00a0 His mother is divorced and in an abusive relationship.\u00a0 Frank&#8217;s mom sees Karl is a kind man. Despite her boyfriend Vaughn&#8217;s misgivings she invites Karl to live in their garage.\u00a0 Vaughn says that Karl could end up killing her or Frank.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Karl sees that Vaughn is a bully and cruel to everyone.\u00a0 Karl especially worries about how Vaughn treats Frank.\u00a0 Things are about to reach a breaking point.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Thoughts (beware of spoilers)\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Sling Blade<\/em> was nominated for two 1997<em> Academy Awards<\/em> and won one&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nominee for <em>Best Actor in a Leading Role<\/em> &#8211; <strong>Billy Bob Thornton<\/strong><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">Winner for <em>Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published<\/em> &#8211; <strong>Billy Bob Thornton<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Sling Blade<\/em> is based on a short film written by <strong>Billy Bob Thornton<\/strong> and directed by<strong> George Hickenlooper<\/strong>.\u00a0 It starred <strong>Billy Bob Thornton, Molly Ringwald<\/strong> and <strong>J. T. Walsh<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Billy Bob Thornton made his feature film directorial debut with <em>Sling Blade.<\/em>\u00a0 It is also the film that made Thornton a famous actor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: inherit; color: initial;\"><em><strong>Sling Blade (1996) <\/strong><\/em>rates 5 of 5 stars<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/logo\/zview_a.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"100\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2025\/z061825zview_slingblade2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"412\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sling Blade (1996) Director:\u00a0 Billy Bob Thornton Screenplay: Billy Bob Thornton; based on Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,51,54,65,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-crime","category-movies","category-trivia","category-z-view"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39177,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39175\/revisions\/39177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}