Slingblade

Term Paper Title	Slingblade
# of Words	781
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.12

Slingblade

In reviewing the movie "Slingblade" many moral issues arose.  "Slingblade" revolves totally around Karl, a retarded man who has spent almost all of his life in a psychiatric hospital.  Upon the day of his release, Karl told his horrific story to a student newspaper reporter.  While discussing his story, the viewers find that Karl was treated almost like an animal by his parents, picked on by almost everyone in town, including his father's boss's son.  At the age of 11, Karl saw his father's boss's son having his way with his mother and assumes the worst.  He then proceeds to attack the man with a Slingblade and kills him.  When Karl learned his mother was enjoying the event, he kills her to.
About 25 years later, the psychiatric hospital feels Karl is cured and they release him into the world on his own.  When the student newspaper reporter asked Karl if he would kill again, Karl stated, "I reckon I got no reason to kill nobody."
While Karl was staying in the hospital he discovers his own faith.  It took Karl four years to read the bible but then goes on state, "it wasn't what I expected in some places."
After his release from the hospital the hospital director gets Karl a job fixing small machinery (lawn mowers) for his friend from his church.  Karl was like a genius working on these machines.
I feel one of "Slingblades" main themes is the tragedy of lost childhood which Karl explores through his friendship with Frank.  Later on, Frank's mother allows Karl to live in her garage and gives Karl a place at her table.  However, Frank's mother has an abusive boyfriend Doyle, who makes Karl continually relive his past pain through the violent treatment Doyle expresses to Frank and his mother.
John Ritter plays a homosexual male in the movie who is like a father figure to Frank and a best friend to Frank's mother.  He expresses several times in the movie to Karl how scared he is of Doyle and how he thinks that one-day Doyle will hurt them.
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 charact...

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