Pajiba

This is one of my favorite movies. I have an irrational love of Billy Bob Thornton for this movie. I knew that one of these days this would make it onto the site. I grew up in the north east part of the state and while I still don't understand some things about this state, there are worse places to live.

Believe me. This is a beautiful movie and a nice review.

Damned Spambot tainting this nice little ode.

Well done, Mr Stevens. It struck me.

*Stephens.

Sorry.

This is first movie I screen when teaching Screenwriting. Even if the gutteral "mmmhhmms" and the bizarre mannerisms turn you off of Karl, you will never find a more horrifying villain than Doyle.

And holy fuck, did I just realize the little kid is the motherfucker from Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

One of my favorite lines from moviedom is when Doyle asks Karl what he's got that shovel for.
"Fixin' to kill you widit."

Love it! I try to use that line in my best Karl impersonation on my kids as often as possible.
"Mom, what are you doing with the chicken tonight?"
"Fixin' to kill you widit. mhhm."

God, I love this movie. And I just realized I haven't seen it in about two years. To the Netflix queue!

I don't know. I like the review, but I can't agree with all of your views on Southern Arkansas. I mean, I grew up there as well, and I remember it being pre-tty good. We trounced rival team at state my senior year and there weren't many colored people around to mess up the view. I mean, heck, we just got a Ruby Tuesday's...so, yeah, I think we're doing all right.

Wsapnin, it was a lawnmower blade I believe.

Dear godtopus, let us not forget the brilliant and inimitable J.T. Walsh, who plays a fellow inmate of Karl at the mental institution. Although it's a very small part, Walsh's understated menace in Sling Blade makes Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter look a bit of a circus clown by comparison.

And as to your last paragraph, most of my ma's family still lives in and around Benton -- I spent a fair amount of time there as a kid -- and it certainly is all of those things, as you say. It was also the location for Burt Reynolds' White Lightning, another somewhat-accurate portrayal of Arkansans in the mid-20th Century.

I stumbled upon this film the other day and if anything it got me talking like that for the rest of the week. I caught it half-way through and this helps me understand exactly what was going on.

Dwight Yoakum was so good in the movie. Doyle was eeevil. I don't know much about Dwight Yoakum but if I saw him on the street I would probably hit him in the head with a shovel.

MmmmHmmm.

My friend Holly does a dead-on impersonation of Karl--she terrifies me with it. Oddly enough, when she translates it into Spanish, I cannot stop laughing.

Dwight Yoakam will be in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry this weekend (my brother-in-law is playing with him, that is how I know) so pack up the shovel and/or sling blade.

I love this movie. Despite my liberal bent, I think there are people out there who are beyond redemption and are just no damn good. Like Doyle. He needed killin'. Dwight Yoakum kicked ass as this character. I always loved his music, but the sheer menace of Doyle made me like Dwight more.

This movie is infinitely quotable and the scene with Doyle and his band is priceless...

Some folks call it a sling blade ... I call it a kaiser blade. MmmmmHmm.

Slingblade bears the distinction of being the only film almost ruined by a simple musical selection: The montage of him making his slingblade. Do they pick a moody piano piece? Maybe something with strings? Maybe a tribal drumbeat? Or even some blues?

NO

ELECTRIC GUITAR SOLO WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The only movies filmed near my hometown are For Keeps? with Molly Ringwald and the exteriors for Amityville Horror remake.

Pardon me for nitpicking...but isn't that what commenters do best?

How exactly is this an Underappreciated Gem? It is basically heralded as the film that spurred the Indie into mainstream film movement of the mid-late 90s as well as turning Billy Bob into a household name. It received several Oscar nods and made a tidy profit to boot. None of that really qualifies for Underappreciated.

I thought these sections were to pique interest in movies that may have otherwise been overlooked by the majority of the readership. Who in Pajibaland has not seen this?

Bitching aside thanks for the pleasant memories and eloquent writing.

Brigitte, can you just let your brother-in-law know that Dwight needs killin'? I'm sure he'll know what you mean. Thanks.

@ Hard Drugs & Easy Listening- That's why they put it under Pajiba Blockbuster and not Under Appreciated Gems.

Sorry, the change from Gem to Blockbuster was actually a late correction. -- DR

Been meaning to see this, not gonna read a thing about it until I do. Good to see a review for it though as a reminder for me.

I love this movie - great review. John Ritter barely had a chance to show us his great side.

Stephens-- "it's"= it is or "I totally ripped a hellish fart". Not possessive. Check first paragraph.

Otherwise, good review.

Stupid f-ing spambot! It IS! It WAS!

NOOOOO!!! My (otherwise lovely) husband used to absolutely torture me with his Billy Bob-in-Slingblade impression, and the very thought of that voice now makes me cringe! Mmmm-hmm, I reckon I will never watch this f-ing film! Though I'm sure it's good and all....

I grew up in Memphis, just over the river from all those small towns in Arkansas and Mississippi. I remember when that movie came out, my brother and I had already gone up North. My mother said that she thought the movie was a bullshit Hollywood version of southern gothic... not at all genuine or real. My brother and I, on the other hand, thought it hit the nail on the head. I guess you need a little distance and maybe Memphis wasn't quite far enough.

I can't see French fries without thinking "I like them fried taters mmmhmmm."

I also like the way this movie takes its sweet slooooow time telling its story, like some southern people do. There's no hurry in it whatsoever, but that makes it extremely effective at building creeping tension.

That's also a riveting monologue Karl delivers near the start, when he's in the institution. Great acting job by Billy Bob, with the tics and the voice and the mannerisms and all. I think people who know what he looks like now but have never seen the movie would barely recognize him. Pretty much like I knew John Ritter was in it but couldn't recognize him, all fat and mohawked, until the credits rolled.

This film scared the living crap out of me. I'll take Chicago and its violent, corrupt reputation over life in a small southern town any day of the week. Now I can't get that "mmhhhmmm" out of my head! Thanks so much, you rat bastards.

You shouldna done that. He's just a boy. mhmph

My ex did such a good Karl impersonation that people who were unfamiliar with the movie really thought he was retarded. I smacked him for doing it in the mall once and people gave me these horrified looks.

Only movie filmed in my town is the original "Walking Tall." Buford Pusser actually lived in the next town, but for some reason they couldn't film it there.

The movies that were filmed/based on my town are the American Pie series. They were written by a couple of guys from a local high school and loosely based on some of their experiences there. Some of the scenes in the film actually were filmed around town. Grand Rapids, MI.

And no, this does not make me proud.

Lastly, that noise you just heard? That snapping sound? My posting cherry folks, I done popped it. I've read this site for roughly a year now, and figured it was time.

He's batshit crazy and makes some bad choices, but Billy Bob's among the best.

Yeah--duh-I knew it was a lawnmower blade. my pajiba-foul.

My posting cherry folks, I done popped it.

Well, as long as you clean it up, welcome, welcome, welcome.

OK, I'm usually on board with most of you guys, but this movie bored me to tears after the first 1/2 hour or so. Although I do love Dwight Yoakum in this movie---out of this movie---out of his jeans---whatever.....

It has been several years since I have seen it. Maybe I just need to watch it again.

SoCalled: I was thinking the same about JT Walsh. His performance is the second thing that comes to my mind anytime that movie is mentioned after the "mmm-hmmm" and "french fried taters" dialogue. I don't even remember what is monologue entailed, just that it was chilling and intense. That dude was such a badass and went way too soon.

The Station Agent was filmed in my hometown, and though that was cool, it was very distracting to see the scenes here and there that were unmistakably my town. I love the movie, but that did lift me out of the moment.

However, that was a lot better than, say, scenes of major metropolitan cities in blockbuster movies that in no way resemble the cities they are supposed to be.

Live Free and Die Hard, I'm lookin' at you.

This is gonna date me, but ... the morons who made the worst sports movie ever, "The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh," rousted me and my college roomie out of our (separate, before you ask) dorm room beds by filming a fireworks sequence at 3 a.m. I know, it's our own fault for being asleep at 3 a.m., but ...

And I think maybe you can see that little college in the shot of downtown Pittsburgh near the start of "Groundhog Day."

My brushes with greatness, besides shaking hands with Alex Trebek and having Dennis Miller make fun of my sweater.

Great write-up of a fantastic film, Mr. Stephens. I think Billy Bob Thornton is absolute tits, no matter how seriously the man takes himself.

Chris Croy, your comment made me giggle. Loudly. WOOOOOOOOOOO!

My hometown boasts the dubious honor of being the place where "Quarterback Princess" was filmed back in the early 80s. It stars Helen Hunt and it is utterly, unequivocally awful. If you happen to catch it on one of its many Lifetime reruns, I highly recommend you watch it.

Jen, I totally remember that. Doesn't she end up being the Homecoming Queen, too, or Prom Queen or something? Classic Movie of the Week on CBS -- "Her parents uncertain ... the whole town against her ... her own team her worst adversary ... introducing Squinty McSquinterson as ... Quarterback Princess!"

Socalled, yes, I believe it ends with her being voted prom queen or some bullshit. Because if there's anything to be learned from a movie called "Quarterback Princess", it's that deep down, a football-playing girl really just wants you to think she's pretty!

Well, it was CBS in the 80s. Might as well be reading Dickens. Maybe the message was "You can have it all! Horrible 10-hour per day job making 10% less than your good for nothing husband, plus kids and housework!"

I love this movie. I love this movie so fucking much I can't even talk about it coherently.

It's one of the few movies set in the South that embodies the Southern fiction tradition (Flannery O'Conner, Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Faulkner) of embracing the weirdness, the grotesqueness of small town life and its inhabitants without making a mockery of them.

God knows, it's one thing I love about Southerners; we sure do embrace our fruits and nuts lovingly.

And who can't love a movie that features Colonel Bruce Hampton, Ret.?

I had such high hopes for Billy Bob. Now it seems he has devolved into white trash parody.

"Sling Blade" blew me away for many reasons: I couldn't imagine I'd ever seen the actor playing Karl before, but he was in Kurt Russell's "Tombstone"; I didn't recognize Dwight Yoakam as the odious Doyle, plotzed when his name appeared in credits, and for days afterwards burst out with "Damn! Dwight Yoakam - who KNEW?!"; and J.T Walsh and Robert Duvall were perfect bookends of curdled evil.

It's one of my favorite films, but I haven't seen it for years, precisely because Billy Bob painted such a clear picture of Rotten Things in Life You Can't Fix. It's just too hard to watch.

Actually, I just realized that the little kid who plays Frank grew up to play the quarterback in the movie version of "Friday Night Lights," co-starring Billy Bob Thornton again. I guess they work well together, eh?

My father's best man played Ritter's boyfriend. Let's see, six degrees...