The Movie Moment: Killer of Sheep (1977, Charles Burnett)

Posted by Peter Smith
Of all the films to be reissued in 2007, the most important was Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep. The film finally arrived in commercial theatres after thirty years, having been withheld due to music-rights issues. Killer of Sheep was made while Burnett studied at UCLA's film program, and not having the money to buy the rights to the songs, he included them anyway. With a soundtrack including Dinah Washington, Paul Robeson, and Louis Armstrong, Burnett wanted to reflect the diverse history of African-American music in the United States.

Thirty years later, it's as easy to appreciate Burnett's musical choices as it is difficult to picture the film without them, had Burnett decided to cut or change them in order to make the film releasable. One scene that's unimaginable without the music finds young Angie (played by Burnett's niece Angela) playing with her doll while Earth, Wind and Fire's "Reasons" plays on a nearby turntable. Once the song starts, Angie sings to the doll, cheating her way through most of the words. Occasionally, she comes upon a lyric she knows for certain, and once she arrives at the song's refrain, she sits up straight and smiles widely, proudly singing the "la-la-las" with the utmost confidence.

The characters in Killer of Sheep are poor, living in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts, but poverty doesn't stop the children from having fun in their way. Angie sings her song while playing in a closet, but she couldn't be happier. She looks to be four or five years old, and she doesn't feel a bit self-conscious about her surroundings, or not knowing all the words to the song for that matter.

Throughout the film, Burnett juxtaposes the simple pleasures of the children's games with the harsher realities faced by their parents. In particular, Angie's father Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), the titular sheep-killer, is afflicted with a deep despair. Stan's loving wife (Kaycee Moore) tries to help but can't seem to ease his pain. At one point Stan and his wife dance to Dinah Washington's "This Bitter Earth," and Stan's solemn expression throughout this scene sharply contrasts with his daughter's wide smile when she sings, illustrating the capacity for joy that can be lost once the responsibilities of adulthood take root.

Killer of Sheep isn't about a plot so much as exploring the lives of its characters. A film like this only works if it feels perfectly natural, and Burnett gives us one scene after another that feels like it's unfolding before our eyes. At least half a dozen moments in Killer of Sheep might have provided fodder for a Movie Moment column: the shot of half a dozen kids piling out of a hole in an abandoned house, a man who smack-talks in rhyme but quickly runs out of words, Stan's wife checking her makeup in a pot lid, and so on. Killer of Sheep is a film to treasure, and its recent arrival on DVD is cause for celebration. — Paul Clark
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Posted Nov 30 2007, 01:00 PM
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