RETROSPECT: KILLER OF SHEEP (1977)
July 9th 2009 08:26
Henry G. Sanders and Kaycee Moore in Killer of Sheep
There was a time when thoughts of black suburban Los Angeles didn’t involve drugs and drive-bys, and it’s an era perfectly captured in Charles Burnett’s acclaimed 1977 feature, Killer of Sheep.
Originally submitted as his Master of Fine Arts thesis at the University of California’s School of Film, Burnett wrote, produced and directed Killer of Sheep on a budget of less than $10 000, collecting his footage over a year’s worth of weekends in 1972 and 1973.
The movie examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan (Henry G. Sanders), a quiet and sensitive dreamer who is growing numb to his life and family due to the psychological toll of working at a slaughterhouse.
Frustrated by the lack of traction in his lower middle class existence, Stan finds respite in small pleasures, whether it’s imagining the warm breath of a woman in the steam of his coffee cup or simple embrace with his daughter.
The film offers no real solutions to Stan’s funk, but makes it mark through it’s gentle observations of the protagonist, his family and his friends, as they try to give both purpose and life to their drab existences.
In this sense, Killer of Sheep is really a plot-less film, built from a pastiche of small scenes, some achingly bleak, such as when Stan and his friend buy an engine to work on only to lose it out of the back of their truck, and others beautifully hilarious, best illustrated when a trip into the country goes predictably haywire.
Probably the greatest strength of Killer of Sheep is the combination of naturalistic performances with Burnett’s brilliant eye for composition. There’s little in the way of faux-documentary camera work as scenes are carefully framed and executed, whether it’s the kids playing among towering train carriages or a haunting slow dance in the living room between Stan and his wife (Kaycee Moore).
The result is an elegiac film that’s seemingly in love with the authenticity of its characters and their mundane problems, and it communicates that affection so skilfully that the audience quickly falls for them to, becoming invested in the simplest of vignettes. Killer of Sheep is that rare beast of a feature that doesn’t represent black Americans through the prism of stereotype or cliché, instead portraying the people of Watts as characters not only trying to get by but also seeking to make their mark on the world.
As an independent film of some note, Killer of Sheep has remained relatively obscure, mainly due to the barriers that stood in the way of it receiving a wide cinematic release. Finished in 1977, it was at first shown sporadically, only for its reputation to grow to such an extent that it eventually won a prize at the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival.
In 1990, the film’s cultural and artistic significance saw it selected to be preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. However, due to its distinctive and extensive use of non-licensed music, Killer of Sheep was never shown theatrically or made available on video, being only available on poor quality 16mm prints for occasional museum and festival showings.
Director Charles Burnett's compositions are spectacular in Killer of Sheep
Thanks in part to a donation by Steven Soderbergh the musical rights to Killer of Sheep were finally purchased in 2007. The film was then restored and enlarged to 35mm by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, receiving a selected theatrical release throughout the USA and Canada before the DVD was made available in November of that year.
It’s a fitting end for an inspirational film, one that should be watched by any aspiring director. Its patchwork nature will undeniably turn off many a casual viewer, but Killer of Sheep is perhaps best described not as a film, but as a pure cinematic experience where frustrations over a lack of narrative are washed away by the sometimes bleak but always beautiful rhythms of 1970s Los Angeles inner city life.
Check out the trailer for Killer of Sheep below:
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Mountain Fog
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Matt Shea
Like I said, not one to check out if you're after a cracking narrative, but it's the slice-of-life nature of it that makes everything so special - great stuff