Daddy and Them
2001 film by Billy Bob Thornton
Daddy and Them is a 2001 American independent Southern Gothic absurdist black comedy film written, directed by, and starring Billy Bob Thornton. It also stars John Prine, Laura Dern, Andy Griffith, Ben Affleck, Kelly Preston, Diane Ladd, Brenda Blethyn, Tuesday Knight, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jim Varney in his final on-screen film role. Thornton dedicated the film to Varney in his memory.
Daddy and Them was filmed in 1998 in the wake of Thornton’s success with Sling Blade and was originally planned as a theatrical release. The release was ultimately delayed by Miramax Films, who found the film not "commercial" enough. The film debuted at the Newport International Film Festival on June 6, 2001. Miramax eventually aired the film on Showtime in January 2003 and released it on DVD on January 13, 2004.
Plot
Arkansas highway department worker Claude Montgomery resides in suburban Lonoke County with his wife Ruby, who have an insecure and antagonist relationship, largely due to Claude's previous relationship with Ruby's older sister, Rose. Ruby's mother Jewel and Rose arrive from Nashville, Tennessee to travel with the couple to Little Rock when Claude's uncle, Hazel, is arrested for attempted murder and armed robbery.
Cast
Production
The film was shot in Arkansas from August to October 1998.
“Daddy and Them” enters the record as 2001 film by Billy Bob Thornton. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Daddy, Them and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1156971. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001, 1998, 2003 and 2004.
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This entry incorporates text from “Daddy and Them” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.