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Article: Billy Bob's film aims at an Oscar: `Sling Blade' is long shot but nominations raise hope.(Arts)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- March 2, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When the Oscars are handed out March 24, waiting in the wings will be a sleeper of a film whose two nominations caught the press off guard.
Shot for the most part on location in Benton, Ark., with a very modest budget of about $1 million and introduced at the New York Film Festival at the end of September, "Sling Blade" made a sympathetic figure of Billy Bob Thornton, whose nominations for acting and screenwriting surprised the cognoscenti.
Mr. Thornton also made his film directing debut in the project, an austere allegory of crime and redemption with several mystic features lurking behind a hardscrabble facade. The title alludes to a murder weapon, ...