From the screenwriter's point of view: whether Carl is mentally retarded or not is very suspenseful. He behaves like a mentally retarded, moves like a mentally retarded, but Karl has a very complete logic system and reaction speed. He is very flexible to the changes in the outside world. We can watch the two movies "Rain Man" and "I Am Sam", or "Forrest Gump". If Carl is not mentally retarded, he is just a psychological problem, then how can he behave like a mentally retarded?
From the perspective of the director and the actor: Billy's dilemma in acting was actually caused by the script. He acted this person under the dilemma of mental retardation and psychological problems. At the beginning of the hospital, his appearance was a very clear signal: Karl was mentally retarded. But when Karl was answering the question of a female college student, he talked freely. Although the tone of voice is not circumscribed, the narrative of the whole thing is very fluent, it seems that this is not something mentally retarded can do. The most obvious example comes from the conversation between the dean and him: the dean asked him to get the book, he should go. Billy first answered the dean's question very quickly, saying that he only had books, but he seemed to realize quickly that he was actually mentally retarded, so he hesitated for a long time before turning around to get the book.
I think Billy actually wanted to tell a western story when he was writing the screenplay: a cowboy who had just been released from prison. He was full of fear of the outside world. He came to a small town and met a mother and son who needed him. That bad guy who always harassed this kind mother and son. So, as far as he was concerned, he wanted to go back to prison, and for the mother and son to eliminate the bad guy, this simple win-win situation was achieved. And the reason why he wanted to show this cowboy as mentally retarded, the only effect was that he would not cause moral weakness after he killed someone. In this way, the audience will not think about good and evil repeatedly, and it is easy to pin their emotions on him as an ignorant fool.
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