Rewind Wednesday: Killer of Sheep

As I was pondering on what film to select for today's Rewind Wednesday I was suggested by a friend a film that is very fitting considering what is happening in today's society. (RECESSION!!) Killer of Sheep a film by Charles Burnett, examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse.

Killer of Sheep was shot on location in Watts in a series of weekends on a budget of less than $10,000, most of which was grant money. Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) works long hours at his job in a slaughterhouse in Watts, Los Angeles. The monotonous slaughter affects his home life with his unnamed wife (Kaycee Moore) and two children, Stan Jr. and Angela (Jack Drummond and Burnett’s niece, Angela).
Through a series of episodic events — some friends try to involve Stan in a criminal plot, a white woman propositions Stan in a store, Stan and his friend Bracy (Charles Bracy) attempt to buy a car engine — a mosaic of an austere working-class life emerges in which Stan feels unable to affect the course of his life. (Wikipedia)

Killer of Sheep is truly a great reality of life. A moving, beautiful, and poetic masterpiece of film, this is one of those films that can be watched at any point in life, because of its relevancy. Finished in 1977 and shown sporadically, its reputation grew and grew until it won a prize at the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival.*

Since then, the Library of Congress has declared it a national treasure as one of the first fifty on the National Film Registry and the National Society of Film Critics selected it as one of the "100 Essential Films" of all time. However, due to the expense of the music rights, the film was never shown theatrically or made available on video. It has only been seen on poor quality 16mm prints at few and far between museum and festival showings.*

According to screenwriter Micheal Tolkin, "If Killer of Sheep were an Italian film from 1953, we would have every scene memorized." Although the film won the Critics' Award at the Berlin Film Festival it never saw popular release due to complications in securing the music rights for the 22 songs on the soundtrack, which included such big names as Dinah Washington, Paul Robeson, Louis Armstrong and Earth, Wind and Fire. It remained in obscurity for nearly thirty years, garnering much critical and academic praise and earning a reputation as a lost classic.

This powerful epic film truly showcases the reality of marital dissatisfaction, stress mixed with hard times, and survival for an average black family without the Hollywood antics. In addition, the film was chosen by the National Society of Film Critics as one of the 100 Essential Films. In 1990, Killer of Sheep was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

*Killer of Sheep website www.killerofsheep.com