Word: karle
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Karl Wirth '93, a Harvard graduate who works at MIT and was leading the evangelism project, called the police...
...just before the start of the New Deal, he went underground for the party. Based in New York City or Baltimore, Maryland, Chambers--code-named "Bob" and later "Karl"--made his furtive way in the world of disappearing ink and microfilm. It was serious enough espionage, although the U.S. authorities were fairly heedless of it at the time. One of Chambers' Soviet accomplices remembered, "If you wore a sign saying, 'I am a spy,' you might still not get arrested...
...Sling Blade" doesn't pretend for a moment not to know where it is going, but the heart of the film lies not so much in what happens as in why. Sometimes, the reasons are stirring: the Bible-born compassion Karl has for lonely Frank cannot tolerate the cruelty of the Herod-like Doyle. His inevitable act of violence is, at least in part, a religious mercy mission. Other reasons are less convincing: Does a story arc this simple need back-story effluvia like buried infants, failed bar bands, an attempt by John Ritter (yes, the John Ritter) to play...
Like "Gump," "Sling Blade" creates a fascinating protagonist but never fully decides what to do with him. Thornton is nonetheless a wonder to behold in the role, the rare actor who turns obvious mannerisms into a palpable personality. Karl ends all of his sentences with a guttural self-affirmation ("I don't reckon I got no reason to kill nobody, mmmhmmm") as though all of his statements contained a deeper truth that he alone fully appreciates...
...anything, "Sling Blade" spreads the wealth so broadly over so many characters and events that the dramatic focus meanders. A little Tarantino-style, non-linear narration might have added some tension, but then again, Karl's story should be as steady and straightforward...