Killer of Sheep – Classic Indie Film in Review
Filmmaker Charles Burnett’s Long-Lost Masterpiece Rediscovered
Aug 12, 2009
Long considered the greatest film never seen, Killer of Sheep was initially released in 1977, and received immediate praise worldwide. Unfortunately, the film fell into obscurity due to legal wrangling over music rights.
Finally, re-released in 2007, the consensus opinion was that Killer of Sheep lives up to its storied reputation; as the film once again wowed audiences and critics worldwide.
Charles Burnett’s Formidable Influence
A meditative film in black and white; Killer of Sheep fluidly weaves together naturalistic imagery of stark reality with riveting shots of surrealism; and the effect is stunning; as director Burnett renders the viewer unsure as to where the action will go from moment to moment.
Charles Burnett's influence on young filmmakers over the years is incalculable. The most recent and notable example of the obscure film's reach, can be found in David Gordon Green's lovely film, George Washington (2000), about a group of poor kids killing time in the rural South, brought closer by tragedy.
One of the more memorable images from Gordon Green's film is of the young African-American character named Buddy, who delivers a poignant speech, while wearing a strange lizard mask.
David Gordon Green's use of the lizard mask seems to be a direct nod to Charles Burnett and his film; as the scene recalls one of the more strikingly surreal images from Killer of Sheep, involving a young African-American girl wearing an equally odd hound dog mask.
Killer of Sheep–A Fever Dream in Los Angeles
It is the scenes involving the impoverished children that stand out the most in Killer of Sheep; as they laugh and cry and run and play, through the streets of the city, killing time, and creating memories, out of nothing but the remnants of their surroundings.
Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) is the only adult character that could possibly be considered a main character. Stan works in a slaughterhouse; and the long, bloody hours place a massive strain on his psyche, and on his relationships to those around him (including the little girl in the hound dog mask).
Stan’s day to day struggles sets up a domino effect; leading from one adult conflict to another; with the children cut in between; but, ultimately, the grown-ups pale in comparison to the children.
Killer of Sheep is set in the Watts community of Los Angeles, California; and while devoid of any discernible plot, the film works as a snapshot, or a fever dream, set in a very real place, where poverty and decay spawns daily another desperate soul.
In the end, Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep will strike the uninitiated viewer as strange and exotic; to see the film over 30 years after the images were recorded, Killer of Sheep evokes the beauty and longing of Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (1948): naturalistic, but fantastical; realistic, but unreal.
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