Killer of Sheep

1001 movies to see before you die. This one was raw and provided a glimpse into life in Watts in the late 70s. It was informative, but a bit slow at times. The use of the Afro American Symphony 1st movement was my favorite part. It was a STG DVD.

There were kids doing parkour in LA in the 1970s? Who knew? My first exposure to the notoriously underrecognized American director Charles Burnett, Killer of Sheep is proof positive that student films can actually be more than just academic requirements. What a then-28-year old Burnett brings to this film on a shoestring budget, with an unlicensed soundtrack and a ragtag collection of largely nonprofessional acting talent, is a triumph of human-focused filmmaking in the manner of a Satyajit Ray, Roberto Rosselini, or Abbas Kiarostami. The story takes the everyday life of a working-class man and presents it as both a melancholic fight and a triumph of simply existing, infusing it with wonderfully candid depictions of LA's Watts district. Henry Sanders delivers the perfect combination of the 'bend-don't-break' sensibilites that characterize the everyman's struggle, contending with his dead-end profession, slow-paced home life, and ambitions beyond his current circumstances. Seeing his negotiation for a secondhand motor with his little disposable income, only to have it fall off the bed of a pickup and be rendered worthless, is a heartbreaking moment. A triumph of restrained filmmaking, relying on honesty, character, and empathy to carry the day, Killer of Sheep is neorealist-inspired masterpiece that has been confined to obscurity for far too long. (4.5/5)

Killer of Sheep doesn't so much tell a story as it does introduce us to a harsh reality that many people haven't witnessed or understood. Through a realistic setting and realistic characters, Charles Burnett crafts a movie that aims to inform and does so to good effect.

Mr. Burnett's compassion as a neorealist director, as well as his gifts as a storyteller, give an almost unrecognizable style to this humorous, unhappy, thoughtful depiction of lower-class living.

The is a seminal film in the history of African-American cinema from acclaimed director Charles Burnett. It was shot as his thesis for UCLA in 1977 with family and friends on no budget. I'd struggle to tell you what it's about, really it is just follows a family as they go about their day in a poor suburb of L.A. What makes the film is that it feels raw and authentic, like the Italian Neo-realistic films, which makes it oddly compelling. It also has an amazing soundtrack featuring some great Blues songs as well as Paul Robeson and Dinah Washington. Film lovers must check this out.

The dialogue, which is read with either insufficient or excessive emphasis by the non-actors, is often buried under a soundtrack of vintage blues, making it doubly hard to follow. Even the slaughter of the sheep is numbingly uneventful.

It is not earth shattering, but many consider it one of the best movies ever made. I liked it a lot.

At times it feels painstakingly realistic, every piece of dialogue, every situation, every interaction rings authentic, adding up to an unforgettable and moving finale; the only thing hampering this gem is the visual style and the somewhat poor pacing.

A movie like this can be challenging to watch. There's no parts to piece together or 'figure out', there are no big character arcs or big dramatic moments. I'll leave it to each own's opinion whether this is a good or bad thing, but all the hyperbole aside, in my opinion this is a great movie because it showed what the area looked like in the post-watts riot era and was it a film that was created in the blaxploitation era but set itself apart from other films,

A total triumph...Burnett absolutely nails the "documentary feel" of what life is like in the inner-city. And (no surprise for some, I imagine) it's a mixture of good and bad, despair and deep love. It's a constant reminder that the small, simple things (the daughter singing to the radio was, for me, the hallmark moment of the film) are what really keep you going. I'm fascinated by the basic idea that, in our minds, we all sometimes feel like we live in tough circumstances, even if what's in front of our eyes appears to be opulent, or thoroughly "middle class". It's our mindset that informs our circumstances, and not the other way around. If more people understand that idea, I suspect there would be far less "Us vs. Them" mentality all over the world. Highly, Highly recommend