Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade (1994)

Having seen and really appreciated the full-length film, SLING BLADE, I was interested in finding a copy of SOME FOLKS CALL IT A SLING BLADE. That's because this short film was much of the basis of SLING BLADE. It was based on Billy Bob Thornton's stage production and the success of this short led to financing that allowed for SLING BLADE to be made. In other words, first it was a show, then a short and then a full-length film.If you are worried about SOME FOLKS CALL IT A SLING BLADE being too much like the full-length film, then you will be mistaken. While the same essential character stars in each (Karl Childers), the scope and purpose of the film is very different. In the 25 minute version, you don't even see Childers leave the psychiatric hospital. In other words, it ends where the full-length film begins. So, in essence, it's a prequel and the focus is very different. The emphasis of SOME FOLKS is really on the original crime itself as well as his apparent inability to care for himself because he is so institutionalized and low-functioning.In addition to it being a prequel, of sorts, another big difference is the female reporter (Molly Ringwald) who interviews him just prior to his discharge--an interesting plot device, as she plays the voice of society. She is outraged that such a killer could be released to the world AND she once she meets him, she is the voice of concern about what is to become of this human being.Overall, an exciting and exceptional short that is a must-see for anyone who liked SLING BLADE. Excellent acting, direction, cinematography---you name it!

Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade: 5 out of 10 A curiosity piece for Sling Blade fans this short is the opening act of the original film done in black and white with Molly Ringwald as the reporter and a nebbishy mental health director.Everything else is the same right down to J. T. Walsh's rape stories. The only real surprise is how quickly it is over. (25 brisk minutes) Unlike other viewers I really didn't notice a menacing nuance in this version. It really seemed almost note for note. One might rightly wonder why this short simply didn't appear as an extra on the Sling Blade proper disc. The included behind the scenes docs explain that pretty clearly.The first doc is of little interest except to see J.T. Walsh chain smoke and hear director George Hickenlooper expound on how he likes short films and how European it is to make one. The second doc proves all that art for art sake stuff a lie.Hickenlooper shows very lengthy clips from three of his features. The first Heart of Darkness a Filmmakers Apocalypse looked interesting. Even more interesting is how Hickenlooper got a directing credit even though Coppola's wife shot all the footage. The other two features the Killing Box and the Low Life look awful. The Killing box is a vampire civil war hybrid from which Hickenlooper removed the vampires and the Low Life seems like one of those self conscious auto-biographical films that comes out of Project Greenlight.The real treat is hearing Hickenlooper completely trash his former friend Billy Bob Thorton basically describing him as an unstable maniac. Since Thorton went of to fame and fortune and Oscar gold. (Hickenlooper even attacks Billy Bob's eligibility to win an Oscar for best adapted screenplay) and Hickenlooper was not asked to direct one can only assume a little payback was in order during this "record straightening".Even funnier Hickenlooper accuses Thorton of trying to turn the short into an audition reel (Why else would you do a short?) while in the next breath explaining he was going to use it to shop a feature film. (And all of this in one of the most self centered promotional docs I have ever seen. It's like a childhood film retrospective at a sweet sixteen party.) The whole mess is imminently skippable except for the morbidly curious.

Pretty much everything has been said by previous reviewers here. It is probably pertinent to add that but for the success of this little independent number, the full length SLING BLADE most probably would never have gotten made three years later.Obviously a labor of love for creator Billy Bob Thornton. He presents a markedly different Karl Childers here. As retardedly backward but infinitely more menacing. It was probably on reflection that the character was made more "marketable" and sympathetic the second time around. Both films are such an absorbing focus on what is essentially a simple man turned (by dint of social expectation) feral by circumstances totally outside his control. The villain of the piece of course was Karl's father, played in a marvellous one-off cameo by Robert Duvall in the feature-length film.In SOME FOLKS CALL IT A SLING BLADE, the reporter is played by Molly Ringwald. Many seem not to have approved of her interpretation of the part, preferring the cutesy high-school reporter in the 1996 release. I thought she handled it well, after all she was dealing with a quite different "Karl Childers.'Either way, this makes for a fascinating back-up to SLING BLADE. If anything, it adds to one's understanding of the man himself.

After seeing the feature film, I had to see the short. It's great. I found it on an amazing DVD compilation called SHORT 1: Invention. I've become an avid fan of the whole SHORT series. I highly recommend checking it out. You can find it on any on-line retail outlet. Check it out!!! It's a phenomenal disc!!!