#1262: BURNETT, Charles: Killer of Sheep (1978)

BURNETT, Charles (United States)
Killer of Sheep [1978]

Spine #1262

Blu-ray

A quiet revelation of American independent filmmaking, Charles Burnett’s lyrical debut feature unfolds as a mosaic of Black life in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a father worn down by his job in a slaughterhouse, and his wife (Kaycee Moore) seek moments of tenderness in the face of myriad disappointments. Equally attuned to the world of children and that of adults, Burnett—acting as director, writer, producer, cinematographer, and editor—finds poetry amid everyday struggles in indelible images that glow with compassionate beauty. Largely unseen for decades following its completion in 1977, Killer of Sheep is now recognized as a touchstone of the groundbreaking LA Rebellion movement, and a masterpiece that brought Black American lives to the screen with an aching intimacy like no film before.

80 minutes
Monaural
Black and White
1:33:1
Criterion Release 2025

Directors/Writer

Charles Burnett was 34 when he wrote and directed Killer of Sheep.

Other Burnett films in the Collection:

#963: To Sleep With Anger (1990)

The Film

This old man, he played one

He played knick knack on my thumb

With a knick knack, paddy whack

Give a dog a bone

This old man came rolling home

Not exactly non-narrative, Killer is certainly non-Hollywood; one of the great films of the so-called L.A. Rebellion movement, which was a visceral reaction to the Blackploitation films of the time. This is unforgettable cinéma vérité.

Some unforgettable images:

• 0:07:36: stealing the television
• 0:44:00: moving the engine block
• 0:48:42: roof jumping
• 0:52:46: Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) and his wife (Kaycee Moore) slow dancing
• 1:04:49: kids crawling out of a jagged crack in a wall (superb scene!)

The soundtrack is memorable.

• Paul Robeson
• Cecil Gant
• William Grant Still
• George Gershwin
• Earth, Wind and Fire
• Elmore James
• Sergei Rachmaninoff
• Dinah Washington
• Faye Adams
• Little Walter
• Lowell Fulson
• Arthur Crudup
• Franz von Suppé
• Scott Joplin
• Louis Armstrong

Film Rating (0-60):

55

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Danielle Amir Jackson.

“Burnett shot most of Killer of Sheep on weekends between 1972 and 1973, on a budget of ten thousand dollars. Utilizing a cast of mostly nonprofessional actors, the film foregrounds everyday dramas in lieu of grand Hollywood maneuvers. There are no raging explosions, no epic battles; one man goes to work, confronts his despair, and decides to live. The film moves through its characters’ lives with subtle precision, and each vignette ebbs and swings like a soft ballad. Burnett, who wrote the script and helmed the camera, cobbled together grants and personal funds to make the movie, and filmed with people he knew in his own community in Black Los Angeles, specifically Watts.”

Commentary

Featuring Burnett and film scholar Richard Peña.

Not much to this; a bit superfluous. The interview (below) is just as informative.

Interviews

Burnett:

Some examples from the L.A. Rebellion movement:

Elyseo Taylor (UCLA prof)

Julie Dash (Diary of an African Nun [1977])

Haile Gerima (Bush Mama [1975])

Larry Clark (Passing Through [1977])

and influences like Italian neorealism, etc.:

De Sica (Bicycle Thieves [1948] {Spine #374})

Bresson (A Man Escaped [1956] {Spine #650})

Renoir (Boudu Saved from Drowning [1932] {Spine #305})

Renoir (The Southerner) [1945]

Other important influences:

Pearl Bowser

Oliver Franklin

Cornelius Moore

**

Sanders:

Worked with:

Bobby Roth

Burnett

Jamaa Fanaka

Appreciation

By filmmaker Barry Jenkins.

And how could he not appreciate the trailblazing Burnett?

“There’s always this conversation between form and content, and typically most young filmmakers — they either have really great control of the content or great control of the form — and I think in this case, Charles … the content is just there. He’s using real people in this real neighborhood; and the form is the thing that he’s using to really put his voice, his stamp, his perspective on what is important about this life that these characters are leading — what’s important about this environment …”

Two short films

Several Friends (1969)

Seems like good preparation for Killer. Absent from the full-length film, Burnett uses a couple of nice dissolves here …

 and The Horse (1973)

with introduction to the latter by Burnett.

“I started reading a lot of Faulkner and I saw a lot of similarities between us. He was from the South and I was from the South and his concerns about relationships and so forth … his story ‘The Bear’ was about the last hunt in Mississippi. I always wanted to do something with a Faulkner story … I was wanting to make a film about this man who was trying to be a decent person, a responsible citizen, and his father comes to guard this horse as it’s hemorrhaging and dying and, based on tradition, since he was the person who worked on the land, the owner thought it was appropriate for him to end that horse’s life …”

In color.

Excerpt

From the 2010 UCLA LA Rebellion Oral History Project, featuring an interview with Burnett by film scholar Jacqueline Stewart.

“The term ‘LA Rebellion’ was coined by film writer Clyde Taylor.”

Here, Burnett mentions another important teacher, Basil Wright.

And he worked as a DP on:

Allie Sharon Larkin: Your Children Come Back to You (1979)

Billy Woodberry: Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)

A Walk with Charles Burnett (2019)

A documentary by Robert Townsend.

Wonderful doc which culminates with the 2017 Honorary Oscar awarded to Burnett …

“When I was in junior high school, I had a teacher who looked over the class and he walked down the aisle, pointed to different students and said, ‘you’re not going to be anything,’ and then he came to me, pointed his finger and said, ‘you’re not going to be anything.’ And I remember that; I remember to this day, in fact, I never forgot because it always had an impact on me. His name was Mr. Baker, and I don’t know if he’s still around, but if he is, I do hope he reads the trades.”

Cast reunion

From 2007. Moore is hilarious.

Trailer 

Extras Rating (0-40):

36

55 + 36 =

91

By Director

By Spine #