
After catching his mother & her boyfriend 'in flagrante delicto' & dispatching both of them with a farm implement known as a sling blade a simpleminded 11-year-old boy is sent to a mental hospital where he spends the next 25 years Upon his release the emotionally & mentally stunted man-child returns to his Arkansas hometown & takes a job in a local garage only to have the past inexorably repeat itself An indie-film triumph adapted by star-writer-director Thornton from his 1993 short Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade Academy Award Nominations 2 including Best Actor--Billy Bob Thornton Academy Awards Best Adapted Screenplay