The story is partly derived from the funeral party thrown by Felix Bushaloo Breazeale for himself, in Cave Creek, Tennessee, in 1938.
When Felix is asked how he managed to live forty years all by himself, Felix replies "The first thirty eight are the hardest". He says this thirty eight minutes into the film.
Shipped to theaters under the code name "Burly Beard".
Robert Duvall played a similar character known as Arthur "Boo" Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Both characters were hidden from residents, and both have stories made-up about them.
Robert Duvall and Lucas Black appeared in Sling Blade (1996) and Seven Days in Utopia (2011).