10 Best Billy Bob Thornton Movies, Ranked

From humble beginnings, raised without electricity in rural Arkansas, Billy Bob Thornton eventually found his way to the bright lights of Hollywood. A chance encounter and encouragement from director Billy Wilder set Thornton down a screenwriting path. This led to him co-writing what Gene Siskel called "his favorite movie of the year," the gritty drama One False Move in 1992. The same year, Thornton booked a reoccurring role on the sitcom Hearts Afire alongside the late John Ritter, whom he reunited with for several movies until Ritter's untimely death after they collaborated in Bad Santa.

In 1996, Thornton's name became synonymous with a primitive farming tool after his indie sleeper hit movie Sling Blade, which is ironic since he's vocalized a phobia of antiques. The film's success booked Thornton's space shuttle seat in the highest-grossing movie of 1998, Michael Bay's Armageddon, followed by roles in Puss in Boots, Tombstone, and indie films like A Family Thing and Jane Mansfield's Car. He played the President of the United States in the holiday classic Love, Actually and starred in the hit television series Goliath. His acting, writing credits, and work behind the camera have amassed a devoted fan base patiently awaiting his next project.

10 'Pushing Tin' (1999)

Director: Mike Newell

Audiences were granted a first-class seat to an anxiety-inducing, underrepresented facet of aviation in the comedy Pushing Tin, about a pair of exhaustively competitive air traffic controllers played by John Cusack and Thornton. As if safely guiding all airplanes in flight over the skies of New York wasn't enough, Nick "The Zone" Falzone (Cusack) and Russell Bell (Thornton) engage in adultery as revenge, off-the-cuff dares, and morbidity flirting that ultimately trickle into their high-stakes workspace. Their respective unimpressed wives, Nick, married to a Jersey-accented Cate Blanchett, and Russell's new bride, a Texas-twanged Angelina Jolie, add depth to this fun, underrated comedy.

The arrival of the mysterious, motorcycle-riding, self-possessed Russell throws Nick into an insecure spiral of recklessness, which Thornton executes with subtle stoicism. He has an innate ability to relay volumes simply through facial expressions and well-timed pauses. Thornton is the object of female affection in the movie -- a role he doesn't often get to play, but he does it convincingly, often to a comedic degree. The mono-syllabic Russell is presented as an alluring out-of-reach figure of desire, much to Nick's confusion and chagrin. Russell is misunderstood until the end, culminating in a cathartic runway finale audiences must see to believe.

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9 'Friday Night Lights' (2004)

Director: Peter Berg

Based on a non-fiction book by H.G. Bissinger, the movie depicts events surrounding a West Texas high school football team during their 1988 season. Thornton stars as head football coach Gary Gaines, grappling with the enormity of the aspirations of athletes desperately looking for a way out and the pressure of the demands of an economically flailing town, emotionally invested in a state championship. Connie Britton lends support as his wife, while Tim McGraw walks on as a disgruntled parent, projecting his failures onto his son, and Derek Luke claims every scene he enters.

Thornton moves through the town as Coach Gaines, fielding daily threats and unsolicited coaching advice, but manages to keep his emotions hidden in a reserved yet thoughtful performance. Reunited with his young Sling Blade co-star, Lucas Black, quarterback of the team and head of his household, Thornton is in familiar territory as the pair exchange moments of somber vulnerability. The movie is an ensemble piece, intercut with intense gameplay sequences and the athletes' home lives, but Thornton's presence as Coach Gaines is constant. The film was such a success it spawned the TV series Friday Night Lights, which ran for five seasons.

Friday Night Lights

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8 'Primary Colors' (1998)

Director: Mike Nichols

Based on a Roman à clef of American politics by Joe Klein, Primary Colors closely resembles people and events during the first Clinton presidential campaign. Starring as southern Governor Jack Stanton, John Travolta competes for screen dominance with scene-eater Emma Thompson, who plays his wife Susan with equal parts hilarity and humanity. Rounding out the campaign's inner circle are Richard Jemmons (Thornton), Stanton's cynical strategist, schedule wrangler Daisy (Maura Tierney), and Adrian Lester as starry-eyed idealist Henry Burton. The story unfolds from Henry's perspective as the Stanton campaign heads to the presidential primary, immediately followed by scandal.

The movie, handled with expertise only Mike Nichols and Elaine May can produce, offers a feast of fallible humans vying for the tallest seat at the political table, never obfuscating disappointment or disillusionment. Startling Oscar-caliber performances from Kathy Bates as Stanton's longtime confidant and self-described "dust buster," Libby Holden, and Larry Hagman as an ailing closeted Governor Fred Picker add layers to an already delicious acting buffet. Thornton's character Richard, presumably modeled after Clinton's unconventional strategist James Carville, is the reigning king of ick, exposing himself to staffers, bombastically self-aggrandizing, and genuinely confused when rebuffed by colleague Daisy. Thornton doesn't play Richard like his Bad Santa character here; he's much worse.

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7 'The Man Who Wasn't There' (2001)

Director: The Coen Brothers

The Coen Brothers' visually stunning 1940s-era black and white drama starring Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini, and Scarlett Johannson placed Thornton front and center as Ed Crane, a small-town barber. Ed says very little as a hair-cutting, chain-smoking misanthrope; instead, he quietly observes, offering musings through voice-over in true film noir style. He suspects his wife Doris (McDormand) is having an affair with her boss (Gandolfini) and embarks on a risky blackmail scheme involving a traveling dry-cleaning sales agent. As luck would have it, Ed has none, and his carefully laid plans turn out to be the foibles of a doomed man.

Thornton was again recognized at the Golden Globes in the Best Actor category for his taciturn, minimalist performance as the maligned barber Ed Crane. While the movie was considered a financial flop for the Coen Brothers, it was a favorite among critics and fans, garnering an 81% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. In his understated, deadpan embodiment of Ed, Thornton revealed a character so steeped in depression that his trial sentencing seemed more like an inevitability than a shock. Though heightened by the gorgeous Academy Award-nominated cinematography by Roger Deakins, Thornton's mechanical movements and hollow stare were his own, further proving how much he can do with so little.

The Man Who Wasn't There

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6 'Bad Santa' (2003)

Director: Terry Zwigoff

Every holiday season, Willie T. Stokes (Thornton), a full-time alcoholic, and his partner, Marcus (Tony Cox), a little person, travel to a different city and department store, pose as Santa and his elf, and, after hours, rob the place. This Christmas, they find themselves in a Phoenix shopping mall and must contend with unexpected obstacles in the form of a store manager (John Ritter) and head of security (Bernie Mac). Meanwhile, Willie, who had secured an unsupervised young boy, Thurman (Brett Kelly) to con and use for lodging, begins to feel empathy for the child despite efforts to ignore this compulsion.

As a representative of the antithesis of holiday cheer, Willie, clad in an ill-fitting, disheveled Saint Nick suit, is a Bad Santa in the dark comedy from the minds of executive producers Ethan and Joel Coen. Thornton is licensed to let it rip, playing a cantankerous drunk incapable of restraint, hurling audacious insults at anyone within earshot. The result isn't offensive but funny, thanks to Thornton's practiced delivery and skill. While audiences should be horrified by the situations Willie gets into, instead, they find themselves rooting for the despicable, seemingly irredeemable thief in the most unlikely profane Christmas movie staple.

Bad Santa

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5 'Monster's Ball' (2001)

Director: Mark Forster

Tragedy befalls a pair of unlikely lovers (Thornton and Halle Berry) in a movie marketed as a "romantic" drama. However, as the credits roll, resignation and surrender would be a more accurate categorization of Berry's character, Leticia, than anything resembling romance. Set in the South, Thornton plays Hank Grotowski, a racist death row corrections officer, in a revered family tradition of death row officers before him (his father Buck, Peter Boyle, dons his uniform with unsettling pride in a graveside scene). Sonny (Heath Ledger), Hank's "soft" disappointing legacy, doesn't have the stomach for executions, and Leticia's incarcerated husband, Sean "Diddy" Combs, is next in line.

Despite falling prey to a white savior trope, the film has redeeming qualities; Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a historic first as a black woman, and the cast was exceptional. Every character was profoundly broken, desperately in need of intervention and validation, finding only scraps of solace in the ruins of each other. Rather than summon the spotlight, Thornton's gradual thaw as callous Hank Grotowski complimented Berry's performance instead of eclipsing it. He skillfully handled a precarious, unsavory character, adding nuanced layers to a flawed man with limited accountability and a long way to go.

monster's ball

After a family tragedy, a racist prison guard re-examines his attitudes while falling in love with the African-American wife of the last prisoner he executed.

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4 'Bandits' (2001)

Director: Barry Levinson

Thornton and Cate Blanchett reunite, adding Bruce Willis to the party in this lively bank robbery drama by Barry Levinson. Freshly escaped from prison, Terry (Thornton) and Joe (Willis) are on the lam and need a plan when they decide to become the "sleepover bandits." Concluding that the only way to evade capture is to enter the bank the morning of with the bank manager, the disguised pair embark on a bank manager kidnapping spree, armed but polite. Amid their scheme, an unhappily married woman, Kate (Blanchett), gets involved, resulting in a contest to win her love.

In a Golden Globe-nominated performance, Thornton leans into his character, Terry, a self-professed hypochondriac with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder who claims that his body "becomes symptomatic by suggestion," uncontrollably mirroring imagined illnesses. While real or imagined afflictions are no laughing matter, Thornton's physical comedy and earnest portrayal of Terry is a performance audiences haven't seen from the actor. Terry's sensitive, pragmatic nature and Joe's impulsive Casanova create cinematic chemistry worthy of a high-ranking position in Thornton's movie catalog and an instant fan favorite.

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3 'One False Move' (1992)

Director: Carl Franklin

Thornton announced himself to the world with a screenplay he co-wrote and a starring role so captivating that it was meant to be a straight-to-video release, but word of mouth quickly spread, earning One False Move a theatrical distribution. The movie co-stars Bill Paxton as small-town Arkansas sheriff Dale "Hurricane" Dixon, who is recruited by L.A. law enforcement to help with multiple drug-related murders violently committed by Pluto (Michael Beach), Ray (Thornton), and accomplice Fantasia (Thornton's then-wife Cynda Williams). The crime thriller struck a chord with critics and audiences with its shoestring budget, credibility, and straightforward storytelling.

As savage drug dealer Ray Malcolm, Thornton channels his inner bad-boy, complete with a ponytail, an open-chested shirt with a chain, and a gun in his waistband. His sudden onscreen entrance to a house party, initiating acts of violence without a preamble, informed audiences that Ray was a dangerous man. Even Thornton's recent turn as the sinister agent of chaos, Lorne Malvo, in FX's Fargo, didn't compare to Ray's level of apathy. Like Fantasia, Ray's love interest, viewers vacillate between love and fear, never truly knowing if Ray will kill her. Thornton's debut in a principal role was a declarative statement that opened the door for his next big project.

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2 'A Simple Plan' (1998)

Director: Sam Raimi

Scott Smith adapted his fictional novel of the same name into a gripping screenplay and trusted director Sam Raimi to bring the story to life. Though the movie wasn't a box office success, Raimi's direction kept things simple, providing freedom for the actors and landscape to move the plot. Going through the motions of their small-town existence, brothers Jacob (Thornton) and Hank (Bill Paxton), along with Jacob's aimless friend, Lou (Brent Briscoe), find a snow-covered crashed plane containing upwards of 4 million dollars in a duffle bag. The trio takes a vow of secrecy. Hank, the most responsible person among them, assumes ownership of the loot, promising to distribute shares in the spring when the snow thaws and the plane is discovered organically. However, nothing goes according to plan, and the body count and anxiety rise in a film that should be required viewing for fans of Paxton and Thornton.

Thornton and Paxton reunited, delivering some of their best work as actors in the little neo-noir no one saw. Paxton plays Hank with a bubbling frenzy beneath his familiar, dependable guy surface in a performance that reveals he has more depth than previous roles might've suggested. Jacob, a lonely man owning only an ancient pick-up and a dog, is fully actualized through Thornton in a heartbreaking mix of indifference and hope. As the path forward grows thin, then nonexistent, the brothers are forced to make impossible decisions. In another Academy Award-nominated performance, Thornton provides complex emotions as a brother misunderstood, making A Simple Plan one of his finest moments on camera.

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1 'Sling Blade' (1996)

Director: Billy Bob Thornton

In a movie he wrote, directed, and starred in, Thornton was nominated for two Academy Awards, winning Best Original Screenplay. Thornton plays Karl Childers, a mild-mannered, cognitively delayed man recently released from a psychiatric prison for murdering his abusive mother and her lover at the age of 12. Having been away for most of his life, Karl finds himself alone. He befriends a young boy, Frank (Lucas Black), whose father's suicide has left Frank susceptible to abuse by his mother's horrible boyfriend, Doyle (an impressively nasty Dwight Yoakam). History repeats itself, and this time, Karl steps in to help Frank, protecting his friend the only way he knows how in this thrilling drama.

With a massive 97% positive rating from Rotten Tomatoes and glowing reviews from viewers and critics worldwide, Sling Blade is Thornton's Southern masterpiece. As Karl Childers, Thornton disappears into the role, physically transforming into the polite avenger of domestic abuse. In a voice created specifically for Karl, Thornton delivers famous lines from the movie, one of which includes "French-fried potaters," a frequent menu item ordered and devoured with repeated delight. Since the release of Sling Blade, Thornton has yet to vanish into a character like Karl completely, but he's proved time after time that he is profoundly gifted, and he probably reckons that's good enough.

Sling Blade is not available in the U.S.

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