Sling Blade
The Complete Review
This film by virtue of its independence has shied away from the usual hype associated with American movies. The result is an original screenplay by Billy Bob Thornton that is transformed into a mesmerising tale of the south. Thornton cast actors with ability rather than their image or ‘Hollywood status’. Sling Blade challenges us to re-evaluate our principles and our definitions of right, wrong and of justice.
Billy Bob Thornton plays a slightly retarded psychiatric patient by the name of Karl Childers, who has been in an asylum for the criminally insane for the last 25 years. As his name suggests, Karl Childers is a child-like man with instilled Southern Christian values and somewhat comical mannerisms
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Karl begins to tell his story under the soft light of the lamp. His story is accompanied by a strong and slow heartbeat. As the story is reaching its horrific climax, the heartbeat quickens, and with the last word of the story, the heartbeat now louder and quicker than ever, stops. The lighting creates a chilling moment in the movie. The constant use of lighting is most definitely contemporary noir.
Upon Karl’s release the music changes to a more cheerful harmonica and synthesizer representing his contentment with his new found freedom. Karl heads back to where he was raised in a small country town in Arkansas. Karl stops and rests outside the local Laundromat and notices a young boy by the name of Frank struggling out with the washing, Karl offers to take the laundry the half-mile walk to the house. Lucas Black gives a wonderful performance as an innocent albeit nervous boy who is having difficulty coming to terms with the suicide of his father several years earlier. Frank takes an instant liking to Karl and adopts him as a kind of father figure. Karl can see in Frank his own lost youth and innocence.
But the world is just too big for Karl so he returns to the hospital, only to be told that he is no longer allowed stay there. James Hampton plays Jerry Woolridge, the warden. Jerry is concerned for Karl and arranges for him to stay at his place for the
In ES he uses low key lighting Edward in the Big dark castle when the lady first encounters him. This shows how isolated and lonely he was. And him coming away from that darkness signified him trying to really come out. In CACF he uses low key lighting to a similar effect. He uses this on Willy Wonka. When he puts the low key lighting on Willy’s face this shows how in his factory he was very alone and had a troubled past. Which caused him to be more distant when the time came to actually socialize with the kids that came to the factory. In the Corpse Bride he uses this as well. When Victor sits down and plays this piano we get a shot of him and the piano surrounded by low key lighting. This shows how isolated and lonely Victor was. That when he plays his music or paint his painting that he actually comes out of his shell. This shows that lighting that he uses really has a effect on his
This is a matter of philosophical interpersonal forgiveness. Karl does not ask for God’s forgiveness, he simply asks for Simon’s. He is asking for there to be forgiveness granted between two people. What Simon feels is out of Karl’s control, but he can try his best to have Simon feel sorry for him. Despite who Karl is Simon does subconsciously feel some pity for the man as he waves off an irritating beetle and stays to hear the whole story. He also is able to imagine Karl as more of a real person after visiting Karl’s mother, seeing his photograph, and hearing what she thought of her son. His heart softens for Karl’s mother as he decides to not shatter her illusion of her angelic son, but he still fails to produce an answer for himself after leaving her.
Most of the actors are wearing darker clothing as well which makes their faces stand out even more. This lighting style also adds to the tension and the mystery of the scene. It makes the audience on edge. The contrast filled lighting of film noir is also effective at bringing out the extremes of emotions and thought. The darkness of the genre makes anything that goes wrong seem less taboo, because the lighting of the genre sets up the norms for the world that the film lives in—and in that world, bad things happen. The lighting of the film helps the audience understand the world that the characters are in.
In the movie, Karl puts on the front to be a Christian like figure. His only possessions are a Bible and a few other books on Christmas and Carpentry. In the final scenes of the movie, Karl calls out to three of the main characters before he goes to confront Doyle.
“The Broken Spears” is a collection of many accounts of the destruction of Mexico by
In my analysis I will be looking at a scene near the end of the film where Bud White and Ed Exeley take part in a shootout at the victory motel. The narrative conveys very common noir aspects here; the shootout takes place in a very dark room. The only light comes from outside. This shows the mood of the scene to be sinister and bleak. It puts the audience in a scared state as the shadows can conceal anything. It is also hard to see what White and Exeley are doing. The shadows are very menacing because they use a chiaroscuro lighting effect. This means that the rooms, people and settings are hidden from view by shadows. The blinds over the window cast strong grid shadowing over the characters showing uncertainty and anxiety. This lighting is very common in film-noir films as it shows the seediness of the settings. The
In wars prior to the Civil War, soldiers wielded weapons such as the musket which shot only one bullet at a time. Though these types of weaponry could shoot as far as 250 yards, they were inconvenient and wasted time. To even aim at the target accurately one had to be 80 yards away. Similarly to muskets, rifles were inconvenient because they took a while to reload because the bullet was almost the same size of the barrel and again, wasted time. Bullets with a pointed tip were created in 1848 by Claude Minie. Because the diameter of the bullets were smaller than the barrel, soldiers could put them into the gun quicker and more effectively. With Minie’s bullets, rifles were simpler to reload but still had to be reloaded with one bullet at a time. That unprotected gap of time made soldiers more vulnerable so in 1849 a repeating rifle called the Volitional Repeater was patented by Walter Hunt. They were popularized in 1863 during the Civil War. By this time many models were being sold but the most common one was the Spencer Carbine which could shoot seven bullets in just 30 seconds. These, like most Civil War era weapons, were produced and used by the North, but not
During the Revolutionary War we do not see much advancement in weaponry, but we do see a wide array of weapons such as Artillery, Rifles and Muskets, Pistols, Swords and Sabres, Ship classes, and even Submarines. Although there was not a huge technological leap in weaponry, the weapons were very interesting and effective at the time.
This was a great move on his behalf, because he ended up becoming best friends with this boy and even breaking out of character and engaging in a friendly football game with him and his friends. This is something you’d expect from your friendly neighborhood father, not someone who previously committed a double murder. These two scenes are towards the beginning of the movie and are merely foreshadowing to show that Karl is indeed a caring person and can live a meaningful and compassionate life.
Another technique that is used is changing light with reference to the plot structure. The use of lighting has allowed the audience to see the obvious contrast between the beginning when Szpilman was having a happy life, and after the Nazi came and occupied so that how Polish Jews are getting dehumanised. For instance, the light was extremely bright at the beginning of the film, Szpilman was playing the piano at the radio station and having a meal with the family. When the Nazi
The southwest is a region of the United States that makes our country unique. Without the southwest, we would undoubtedly lack the spirit, hope, beauty, and truth that this vast region brings to the rest of the United States as a whole. The southwest represents many things, such as journeying, racism, violence, the clashing and cooperation of cultures, and spirituality, as well as primitivism and pastoralism. All of these elements that the Southwest is comprised of is perhaps the reason why the rest of the country feels so captivated by it; why the southwest is considered a place to “find yourself” or to “regenerate”; and why literature and film regarding the Southwest has been and continues to be of the most popular genres. The western film was one of the most popular during the first half of the twentieth century. Audiences far and wide were mesmerized by actors such as John Wayne and Roy Rogers, and their roles as heroes who fought to tame the American frontier. This very concept, ‘taming the frontier’, gives way to a larger theme that was prevalent in many western films and literature of the southwest: ubi sunt, or rather “where are those who came before us?”. Director Sam Peckinpah’s The Ballad of Cable Hogue portrays this idea better than any other western film; the concept of ubi sunt is undeniably the film’s overarching theme, clearly seen through its components.
is not certain. However what is certain is that it was thought of as a
The persistent cross-cutting between scenes reminds us, as the audience that the War is still going, blood is spilt every moment. At the same time simultaneously, focusing on the on-going development of Alan Turing. The type of lighting used in this movie is low-key lighting and/or neutral lighting. This type of lighting is “high contrast dominated by deep shadows with a few bright highlights”. Now, I don’t know what you think? But I know what I think, and I think that this lighting has definitely contributed in defining the dull, dreary weather in the United Kingdom. Set in the early 1940’s, this film’s lighting, editing, soundtrack, setting and vintage clothing, accompanied by raw unedited World
Mark Bowden is a teacher, columnist for Atlantic Monthly, playwright, and a writer. His book Black Hawk Down A Story of Modern War a world wide bestseller that spent more than a year in the New York Times bestseller list and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Bowden also worked on the script for Black Hawk Down, a film version of the book, directed by Ridley Scott. Bowden is also the writer of the bestseller Killing Pablo The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw in 2001, which tells the story of the hunt for Colombian drug lord billionaire Pablo Escobar. He is the author of Doctor Dealer published in 1987, Bringing the Heat made in1994, Our Finest Day made in 2002, and also Finders Keepers
expressions. Lighting was used in the film to portray this. Dim lighting was used whenever