Me, John And Billy Bob

At one point during the evening I walked up to the late John Ritter to tell him what I had thought about Sling Blade. I am sure I stammered a bit, as I was still somewhat unaccustomed to being able to simply stroll up to a celebrity and say hello. Well, in this case Ritter knocked me for a loop by grabbing me by the arm and almost shouting at me: "Oh, that's fantastic! We have to go find Billy Bob and tell him!" I have no idea if I had even identified myself as a journalist, but I am sure I said the words "press screening," so I am sure he figured it out.

So Ritter proceeds to drag me all over Tavern on the Green in search for Billy Bob Thornton. We found him and Ritter said something like: "Billy Bob, this is Mark He loved the film!" Well, Thornton seemed genuinely nervous as to how his film would be received and was very pleased by my reaction, as I genuinely thought (and still think) the film is a masterpiece.

Why and I writing all of this now? Today Buena Visa Home Entertainment released a director's cut, 2-disc DVD special edition
of the film, complete with several featurettes (I still hate that "word"), commentary by Thornton, a roundtable discussion with Thornton, Dwight Yoakam, Mickey Jones, and Producer David Bushell as well as many other extras.

Keep checking The Rabbi Report for a full review of this DVD later this week!