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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Killer of Sheep

EMAILPRINTMilestone Film & Video

Killer of Sheep reviews
94
6.6 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Charles Burnett

Directed by: Charles Burnett

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 30, 2007

Running Time: 87 minutes, B/W

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett, Eugene Cherry, and Jack Drummond

Killer of Sheep 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. The film offers no solutions; it merely presents life -- sometimes hauntingly bleak, sometimes filled with transcendent joy and gentle humor. (Milestone Film & Video)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Killer of Sheep is an urban pastoral--an episodic series of scenes that are sweet, sardonic, deeply sad, and very funny.

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100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Way ahead of its time 30 years ago, and just as stunning today, Killer of Sheep is one of those marvels of original moviemaking that keeps hope of artistic independence alive.

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100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Burnett creates an insistently poetic, devastatingly ironic world and work.

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100

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

A lyrical, yet intensely rooted, tragic vision.

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100

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Brilliantly conceived, imaginatively structured, superbly written, stylishly composed and photographed, and very often wryly funny, Killer of Sheep lives up to its official designation as a national treasure.

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100

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The result is an American masterpiece, independent to the bone.

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100

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Shot on a year's worth of weekends on a minuscule budget (less than $20,000), this remarkable work--conceivably the best single feature about ghetto life that we have--was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry as one of the key works of the American cinema, an ironic and belated form of recognition for a film that has had virtually no distribution. It shouldn't be missed.

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100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Killer of Sheep is a miracle movie because it's receiving its first theatrical release 30 years after it was made and because, as a movie, it's miraculous.

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100

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

It is the most influential movie you've never seen, deeply affecting many artists and experimental directors who saw it on the museum circuit in 1977 and 1978.

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100

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

See Killer of Sheep, and see it again and again. It's one of those truly rare movies that just get better and better.

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100

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

A milestone of eloquent understatement that captures the daily life of have-nots as few American movies have.

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100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Free of the ghetto clichés that fill the movies made by people who have never lived in one, Killer of Sheep is a strongly individual portrait of black, working-class America.

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100

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Burnett's documentarian empathy, coupled with his easygoing skill as a dramatic essayist, result in a film that doesn't look, feel or breathe like any American work of its generation.

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90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A delicately poetic, essentially plotless vision, unblinking but not unhopeful, of life in Watts, where little but the ghetto's name recognition had changed a decade after the riots.

90

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

One of the strengths of Killer of Sheep, one of the reasons it has not dated, is that the naturalness and simplicity with which it unfolds give it the texture of a story told from the inside.

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90

Slate Dana Stevens

Seeing Killer of Sheep is an experience as simple and indelible as watching Bresson's "Pickpocket" or De Sica's "Bicycle Thieves" for the first time. Despite its aesthetic debt to European art cinema, Burnett's film is quintessentially American in its tone and subject matter. If there's any modern-day equivalent for the movie's matter-of-fact gaze on the ravages of urban poverty, it's the HBO series "The Wire."

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83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Having heard tell of its wonders for decades, I found the actual movie less transporting than I'd been led to expect. It's clearly a brilliant debut.

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80

The New Yorker David Denby

Burnett used many kinds of African-American music on the soundtrack, and the movie itself has the bedraggled eloquence of an old blues record. The amateur actors, who occasionally burst into fury, combined with the black-and-white cinematography, bring the poverty of Watts closer to us emotionally.

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80

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

In all honesty, Burnett's writing can be stiff and the acting in Killer of Sheep is indifferent. But the reason to see this film does not lie in the dialogue.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A worthy, fascinating film..

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70

Film Threat Felix Vasquez, Jr.

There isn't really an overall arc present in Killer of Sheep, and that's the point. There's really nothing meant to be expressed in Killer of Sheep but the experience of poverty, and the inevitability of crime in the face of poverty.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 6.6 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Lee T gave it a1:
Maybe if someone feels really guilty that America can produce a ghetto like Watts then that someone would feel that this movie is worth watching. But that someone would also have no idea what makes a movie worthwhile.

b da gave it a0:
Despite its grainy black and white, its art-house camera-work and its cool music, there is one huge problem: it's unwatchable, due to writing and acting shortfalls.

Jabez H gave it a5:
I really wanted to like this movie. I didn't. It is mostly dull with a few interesting moments. Perhaps this film presents an exotic landscape to those who have never been poor and lived in bad urban areas. I couldn't help feeling like the kid I met on a dusty Andean road when I was in South America. When I said "what a view" about the incredible mountains in front of us, he turned, looked and then turned back to me with a quizzical look. "Where?" he said. It was nothing special to him. Film criticism must pay better than I thought.

Heather gave it a0:
I dont get all the fuss about this one- and i do enjoy quirky, indie movies.i fast-forwarded through a good bit of it. just nothing happening. yes, its about poverty, but what was the point of all of it except watching poor people living their lives? as another reviewer said "i felt nothing". i kept asking myself "what is the point of this?" i was certainly hoping for much, much more! so then i thought "well maybe the shorts on the dvd are the gems"... uh... no-im sorry but i really felt the whole thing (shorts included) were stupid. and i kind of feel bad saying that b/c i know this guy was a student at the time and maybe im missing something? no. i dont think i missed anything. wasnt anything there worth seeing.

Elec E. gave it a2:
This movie goes no where. there is no sense of plot. Nothing happens. Feels like a student movie that a bunch of film students decided to hold in high acclaim b/c when & how cheaply it was made. i felt nothing.

Byron D. gave it a4:
While the film has interesting ideas and images it really comes across as a mish-mash of story elements without any structure. The film is overrated. Not horribly so, but it is not as good as people say it is. If you like experimental film then this might be a good one for you but those who prefer a traditional narrative form will not be pleased. Really, I can only recommend this for its glimpses at impoverished African-Americans in the 1970s. This is a first film and it shows.

Andres Z. gave it a10:
Around the seventies, when films like Annie Hall, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Saturday Night Fever ruled the age, Charles Burnett silently crafted Killer of Sheep, his thesis film for UCLA. Thirty years it has eluded us—that is, until now. The result, although aging those thirty-years, is a masterpiece; an authentic and one of a kind piece of raw American poetry that simply and silently observes life in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles.

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