Sling Blade
A gentle giant with a troubled past is released from a mental institution and must protect his new friends from a dangerous neighbor, forcing him to confront the darkness he once fled.
“A simple man. A difficult choice.”
Synopsis
Karl Childers, a man with a mental disability, has been confined to a state mental hospital since the age of 12 following the murder of his mother and her lover. Despite being long institutionalized, he is now considered suitable for release into the general public.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 39
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Hughes WinborneShot by Barry MarkowitzScored by Daniel LanoisDesigned by Clark Hunter
Box Office
1996 · Box office
💰 Box-office hit — grossed 28× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$34.1M
US & Canada: $24.4M — 72% of worldwide · International: $9.7M (28%)
Opening weekend: $28K — 0% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.
Peak 3 theaters
Also known as
- Sling Blade - Auf Messers Schneidede
- Lama taglienteit
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Cast & Crew
39 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Billy Bob Thornton
as Karl Childers
Dwight Yoakam
as Doyle Hargraves
J T Walsh
as Charles Bushman
John Ritter
as Vaughan Cunningham
Lucas Black
as Frank Wheatley
Natalie Canerday
as Linda Wheatley
James Hampton
as Jerry Woolridge
Robert Duvall
as Karl's Father
Rick Dial
as Bill Cox
Brent Briscoe
as Scooter Hodges
Christine Renee Ward
as Melinda
Sarah Boss
as Marsha Dwiggins
Supporting cast
20Kathy Sue Brown
as Theresa Evans
Wendell Rafferty
as Melvin
Bruce Hampton
as Morris
Vic Chesnutt
as Terence
Mickey Jones
as Monty Johnson
Ian Moore
as Randy Horsefeathers
Judy Pryor Trice
as Mrs. Woolridge
Scott Stewart
as Bubba Woolridge
Betty Lynn Hall
as Woolridge Daughter
Jim Jarmusch
as Frostee Cream Boy
Gary Don Fletcher
as Preacher
Tim Holder
as Albert
Tom Kagy
as Freddy
Stacy Thomason
as Woodridge Secretary
Jackie Stewart
as Walter
Jamie Stewart
as Teenage Boy
D J Royston
as Housekeeper
Lacy Bailey
as Karen
Raymond Lewallen
as Ticket Agent
Bill Glasscock
as Old Man (voice)
Directors
1Writers
1Producers
2Other crew
5Parents Guide
AI Personalities
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Where to watch
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