Angela Burnett, Charles Bracy, Eugene Cherry
Set in the Watts area of Los Angeles, a slaughterhouse worker must suspend his emotions to continue working at a job he finds repugnant, and then he finds he has little sensitivity for the family he w...( read more
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DVD Release Date: November 13, 2007
Stats: 384 reviews
If you're looking for a plot with a beginning, a middle and an end, or characters that 'arc' and 'evolve' then you're better off renting Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings than Charles Burnett's artistically disjointed Killer of Sheep. It plays like a student film b...( read more)
Historical curio with a documentary feel which highlights life in a poor black neighborhood of LA. Memorable images and well chosen music evoke the time and place. Few surprises, except a scene where a daughter and mother hold each others gaze as the daughter comforts the father...( read more)
Great film. Please listen to the commentary on the DVD if you get the chance. Very informative.
I only very recently discovered the cinema of Charles Burnett, and i've gotta say, what an underrated and overlooked all-American artist.
KILLER OF SHEEP (1977) is one of the more poignant depictions of poverty that i've seen on film. The bleak kitchen sink realism and beauti...( read more)
As far as independent films go, this is among the top of the class. Some amazing B&W photography that was captured without permits or budget. Great score too. This should be shown in film schools worldwide.
A magnificently real film. The first time I have watched a film that I felt like it was truly capturing ordinary life for the sake of ordinary life (not exploiting it for art). That it contains some grand metaphors/truths, or seemingly does, makes it a work of art. A film to b...( read more)
This movie is the exact opposite of that bullshit excuse of a movie called The Fist Foot Way. Plus, that movie had more money to work with and still couldn't touch what they did with this film. (By the way, I found out FFW was shot on film which makes it even more depressing). Bu...( read more)
A worthy, fascinating film that shows the influence of Bresson and of the Italian neorealists. full review
A tale so smoothly and effortlessly constructed that the boundaries between the staged and the authentic seemingly cease to exist. full review
Killer of Sheep can be seen (and reseen) as a great -- the greatest -- cinematic tone poem of American urban life. full review
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