Killer of Sheep

Charles Burnett made this as a student film for UCLA back in the late 70's. It has since gone on to achieve something of a cult status in the intervening years.

I first heard Burnett's film mentioned alongside Terry Malick's films (my favourite director), so my interest was piqued form then on. It supposedly had the same sort of beauty and stillness that could be seen in Malick's work. Unfortunately the film hasn't been available for very long-only recently does it seem to have been given a proper DVD release and a scattering of theatre showings. For a student film it's a tremendous piece of work. Like Chris Nolan's first mini film 'Following', it was made with little budget, featuring authentic locations that the director was familiar with and using largely non-actors. It's encouraging to young filmmakers (like myself) to see the results that can be achieved even with very little.

The film is set in a decrepit, poverty stricken American town (I'm not entirely sure where) populated by a working class black community. Through a series of loose vignettes we are introduced to the town and it's inhabitants. Henry G. Sanders, in his first role, plays Stan, a family man struggling to justify his torrid life working in a slaughterhouse (hence Killer of Sheep). Stan's household seems to be a microcosm for the wider community- working class black families being weighed down by the surroundings and their situations. In fact, the slaughterhouse seems the only place where Stan feels he has purpose, where he can reassert his masculinity.

The black and white photography (by Burnett himself) is uniformly pretty and occasionally strikingly beautiful. In one shot we see a group of young kids running along side a moving car, the camera capturing the dust hanging in the sunlight as the kids trample through the ruins of houses. The film has an episodic, non-linear structure that anticipates films such as Gummo and George Washington, and echoes Malick's work. Like Killer of Sheep, Gummo and George Washington focus on delapidated American towns and outcast communities; think maybe they took a leaf out of Burnett's book? I really like this type of editing- it's refreshing to see filmmakers challenge the audience a little and these kinds of films usually have a nice, medatitive mood and feel to them.

While I enjoyed a lot of aspects of the film, I don't think it ranks along side the films that I have previously mentioned. Killer of Sheep doesn't have that same sense of the surreal like in Korine's films, or that really, really beautiful melancholy that runs through Malick's pieces. There were moments where I felt moved by the characters, but it doesn't have that same electricity that characterise those directors work. On the plus side, its a sweetly sensual film making good use of crooning black singers, and is a welcome alternative to the world of black film which was previously defined by cheap Blaxpoitation fare.

7/10