So I had a hankering for some biscuits and mustard last week and my wife had never seen slingblade so I went to find somewhere to stream it and to my shock it’s not only missing from the subscription services but it’s also not even available to rent anywhere I can find! Looking on Amazon I can’t even buy the DVD or Blu-ray for a reasonable price.
What’s the deal? Where can we legally watch this movie? It’s quite good.
Are there other highly acclaimed movies like this that vanished?
Agree that it’s a great movie. You can get it in ebay for 15-20 dollars.
mmm
Did you click here?
Searching, it also shows up on Vudu, Youtube, some other sites that may be licensed to stream it but who knows…
In any case, it has hardly “vanished”.
I use www.justwatch.com to find where movies/tv shows are streaming.
That link isn’t a great example, as it says…
This video is currently unavailable to watch in your location
In fact, according to the link @peedin posted, it’s not available for streaming at all. Any Vudu or YouTube links are illegitimate. Which circles back to the original question, why would an acclaims, well-known movie have no valid streaming options today?
It’s a Miramax movie. The distribution rights are probably in limbo because of the Harvey Weinstein fiasco.
Nope; the Weinstein Brothers sold Miramax to The Walt Disney Company in 1993 (which subsequently divested of in most of its catalogue, which is currently owned by some division of Paramount), and while they maintained certain aspects of creative control and development options for some time after that they eventually left (or were forced out) and started The Weinstein Company in 2005. While the catalogue of many TWC films is in limbo (albeit more because the company went bankrupt in 2018 rather than ownership issues per se) and all of their in-development productions stopped cold once the ‘revelations’ about Harvey Weinstein came to public notice (although so widely known within the industry that people like Tina Fey and Ricky Gervaise openly ridiculed Weinstein many years before), popular Miramax films like Good Will Hunting, Rounders, Chocolat, The Gangs of New York, et cetera, are widely available. Even films produced and distributed under the Dimension Films label which the Weinsteins took with them to TWC are still widely available through distribution agreements.
I suspect the reason Sling Blade is not more widely available is because while it was a critical darling it wasn’t a very popular movie (it made a profit because of its tiny production budget and mostly word-of-mouth promotional campaign, but not enough to make a modern film executive even read past the title today) and there are relatively few people other than cinema nerds who would seek it out today. While people thought that streaming services would really revive classic moves through availability beyond independent ‘art film’ cinemas and The Criterion Collection, in reality services like Netflix and HBOMax have hewed toward a formula of really popular films and algorithmically-approved clones, while Amazon Prime seems to largely buy up catalogues of old films on the cheap, and Apple TV is still pouring massive amounts of money into shows that look great but often have no substance whatsoever. A film like Sling Blade that doesn’t really have a built-in audience of even casual film enthusiasts like the way that, say, the collective work of Coen Brothers or Fellini does, just falls between the crack even though online distribution has essentially negligible distribution costs.
For what it is worth, you can find the short film that proceeded it, Some Folks Call It A Sling Blade, on Youtube.com. Frankly, I think the short film format is really better for this kind of character study anyway. Sling Blade has some great performances but there isn’t really much of a plot, and the more than two hour run time really just kind of drags in parts for a story that would barely justify a 90 minute runtime.
Stranger
On a tangentially-related note: I use Google TV for all of my movie watching purposes. For some reason, I can rent Three Amigos (yes, I AM a man of culture and taste), but can’t buy it. It is the only movie I’ve ever come across with that restriction.
If you’re craving some Billy Bob, try “A Simple Plan”. It’s streaming on Showtime. The whole cast is terrific.
Bridget Fonda kills in that movie as the mousey librarian housewife who, when presented with the opportunity to escape from their dead-end life with a bunch of drunks, pressures and manipulates Bill Paxton into successively worse schemes and deeds like a small town Lady Macbeth. And her reaction in the end (which I won’t spoil) is priceless. This is honestly one of the best films that almost nobody has heard of, and as much as director Sam Raimi is (correctly) celebrated for his Evil Dead and Spider-Man movies (well, the first two, anyway) this is my favorite film of his.
Stranger
Totally agree. I’ve watched this film a couple of times and enjoyed it each time. I like Thornton as an actor in general; even his small parts like the mouthy card dealer in “Tombstone” are often standouts.
“I just to want to let you know you’re stittin’ in my chair.”
Stranger
See if it’s available for streaming via the library. Hoopla and Kanopy are the library streaming services I know of.
I was really hoping it was available on Sling TV.
Kevin Smith’s issues with DOGMA are what made me think of the Weinstein problem. It really bugs me that so many good movies aren’t streaming and so much crap is replayed endlessly.
I had a thread a while ago where I complained that streaming is gradually eliminating “ownership” of the movies / TV shows we purchase, and leading to certain dead spots like this. This is why I insist on owning physical media.
My fear going forward is maintaining the necessary devices - DVD players, VHS, external hard drives, etc.
BTW: I own Slingblade and maybe I’ll watch it tonight.
And without the physical copy of the original movie, with streaming you have no control over what has been edited out. Is this the original or the sanitized version?
We are losing real history by trying to clean everything up. Was James in Tom Sawyer really a nagger? Why did they keep bringing it up?
I bought a copy of Slingblade on Amazon. You can imagine how badly I wanted my $25 back.
I own Slingblade, and A Simple Plan. I can watch them anytime. MmmHmmm
Is that the one where they find a downed plane in the woods full of money? That they can’t spend, and things snowball with murder upon murder? The book was excellent, I sat up all night to finish it.
I hate to nitpick but it’s killing a piece of my soul every time I see it: the title of the film is Sling Blade (two words).
Stranger