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Format:DVD
This short (80mins) ultra-low budget 1977 black & white movie is about a family man in one of the African American ghettos of down-town Los Angeles. Many excellent films have been made on this subject since, such as my favourite of this type, Boyz N the Hood.
However, Charles Burnett's snapshot is no hyper-scripted glossy Hollywood affair - it's termed as 'Art-House', presumably because that's the sort of audience who'd have the vision and breadth of cinematic knowledge to see beyond the film's unlovely title and documentary approach and appreciate the underlying story and the lives that are portrayed.
Henry G Sanders, known only as 'Stan' in the cast list, is the slaughterhouseman, I'd say in his late 30's and who is married to 'Stan's wife', (Kaycee Moore). 'Stan's daughter' and 'Stan's son' make up the family unit and we initially see a rabble of black kids throwing stones at a passing goods train and scrapping on waste-ground. Kids then play with spinning tops in concrete jungles, then we cut to butcher hooks being slid along racks, waiting for the to-be killed carcasses.
The grimy, matter-of-fact slaughterhouse scenes are accompanied by, oddly, some rather fragrant classical music, or richly baritoned songs, as if to try to purify or sweeten the images. It's almost balletic, actually. Ironically, it's a trick that works well, as music otherwise is sparse, though a couple of great soul blues records play on occasion, including during a moving slow, close dance between husband and wife..
Stan's friends come round (they have their own names - Bracey & Eugene) but Stan is always tired and is disinterested in both them and, increasingly, with his wife.
The dialogue might well have spilled over from any conversation that might have wafted over the garden fence and is, as you can imagine, about life, money, family, in no particular order.
Though it might be trendy and perhaps impressive of me if I gave Killer of Sheep 5 stars, as I'm sure many of those Arthouse audiences would have, rubbing their hands in glee at the absolute honesty of it all, but I'm settling for four. It's good. It doesn't try at being anything more than it is and so its score should reflect that. I saw it on Film 4.
However, Charles Burnett's snapshot is no hyper-scripted glossy Hollywood affair - it's termed as 'Art-House', presumably because that's the sort of audience who'd have the vision and breadth of cinematic knowledge to see beyond the film's unlovely title and documentary approach and appreciate the underlying story and the lives that are portrayed.
Henry G Sanders, known only as 'Stan' in the cast list, is the slaughterhouseman, I'd say in his late 30's and who is married to 'Stan's wife', (Kaycee Moore). 'Stan's daughter' and 'Stan's son' make up the family unit and we initially see a rabble of black kids throwing stones at a passing goods train and scrapping on waste-ground. Kids then play with spinning tops in concrete jungles, then we cut to butcher hooks being slid along racks, waiting for the to-be killed carcasses.
The grimy, matter-of-fact slaughterhouse scenes are accompanied by, oddly, some rather fragrant classical music, or richly baritoned songs, as if to try to purify or sweeten the images. It's almost balletic, actually. Ironically, it's a trick that works well, as music otherwise is sparse, though a couple of great soul blues records play on occasion, including during a moving slow, close dance between husband and wife..
Stan's friends come round (they have their own names - Bracey & Eugene) but Stan is always tired and is disinterested in both them and, increasingly, with his wife.
The dialogue might well have spilled over from any conversation that might have wafted over the garden fence and is, as you can imagine, about life, money, family, in no particular order.
Though it might be trendy and perhaps impressive of me if I gave Killer of Sheep 5 stars, as I'm sure many of those Arthouse audiences would have, rubbing their hands in glee at the absolute honesty of it all, but I'm settling for four. It's good. It doesn't try at being anything more than it is and so its score should reflect that. I saw it on Film 4.
2 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I was very surprised by how moving this film was;nothing much happens but it is a glimpse or snapshot of African American life in the 1970s.Highly recommended!
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