1978 Directed by Charles Burnett
Stan works in drudgery at a slaughterhouse. His personal life is drab. Dissatisfaction and ennui keep him unresponsive to the needs of his adoring wife, and he must struggle against influences which would dishonor and endanger him and his family.
Matador de ovejas, Schafe töten, 양 도살자
I grew up in a South Central L.A. ghetto neighborhood--the corner of 59th Street and Slauson Avenue, to be specific. Every new day was as trivial as the last, and yet as a kid I was never aware of the constant danger surrounding me. I didn't even have an inkling of my family's own poverty, though I had my sneaky suspicions that because we crammed 3 to a room (in a cold apartment that only had two bedrooms and one bathroom for 6 people) we weren't exactly middle-class. Even though my parents could tell I was going places (and even though they forged through thick and thin to get me where I am today), it was all behind-the-scenes for ten-year-old…
Nothing happens. It's perfect.
I think everyone, at some time, has fantasised about making a film like Killer of Sheep. Not necessarily when they were in a creative mood, just when they were hanging out with friends or walking through their neighbourhood and just observing life, and thinking "Why does no-one make a film that's like this?" The thing is, it's almost impossible to make - unless you're Charles Burnett.
Burnett opens with a sterling example of Derek Cianfrance's rule about a great opening shot teaching you how to watch the movie. A young man, in close-up, shot in lustrous high-contrast black and white, with what seems to be an angry inner voice berating him. Then Burnett pulls out a…
Pictures from life's other side. Burnett's realism is a lyrical blend of harshly lit exteriors and dimly lit interiors where his characters ask each other for help or money or a job. And like a lot of the man's films it's a family who are at the centre with a father whose honour is often tested in a world where everyday he's suffocated by expectations and the squalor that surrounds him. Burnett cuts from kids playing in the street to sheep hanging upside down in the slaughterhouse - a sickening juxtaposition but not one made without justification. All these guys can do is hope for that better tomorrow.
A devastating study of citizens living right below right below the poverty line, Killer of Sheep is both observational and intensive. Charles Burnett's remarkable fly-on-the-wall aesthetic beautifully observes the life of a slaughterhouse worker who grapples with daily existential concerns that can't be singularly defined. It's a lyrical-sad portrait of life on the margins that ends up saying a lot without saying anything. The film contains so many small, beautiful moments that really need to seen to be believed.
"The film’s saddest moment is a moving single take of Stan and his wife dancing—well, more like softly swaying while embracing—in their bedroom to the sound of Dinah Washington singing 'This Bitter Earth.' The song, like the movie, is a plaintive piece of romantic realism that itself recognizes how life can often feel like a dead end."
Full review here.
just a beautiful portrayal of real life, very well constructed although you wouldn't tell at first
One of the more realistic films I’ve seen in awhile. Watched for black film history class
Shit is sad! All the scenes of the kids playing...those motherfuckers know how to hang out.
I wasn’t in the mood to give it the attention it demanded so I mostly saw it as a series of loosely connected scenes and as such it was pretty damn good.
A wonderful film that paces its way through late 70's Los Angeles following one family in their daily life. Wonderful direction, acting and music makes for a very good indie film.
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Pessimistic worldviews. For when you want to wallow in despair.
It doesn't matter if we all die.
Suggestions welcome.
