Formerly "A Movie A Day" :/

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Killer of Sheep - 1977 - Dir. Burnett

OH MAN! I dug this movie like it was nobodies business! FIVE STARS! I only heard about it cause David Gordon Greene was all about it via George Washington. And it seems like a portion of George Washington wanted to be Killer of Sheep. I mean, in a superficial way, there's the two children wearing masks. Although, that sad dog mask is WAY better than the Dinosaur mask. I mean LOOK AT THAT FUCKING DOG MASK! Killer of Sheep has no real arc or plot, just a portrait of working class African-Americans living in 1970's Los Angeles. There's somewhat a central cast of characters but the film has a tendency to wander a la Italian Neo-Realism. There's some really stunning sequences and shots, like the children jumping between the roofs of two buildings. Especially with a movie like this, it can drag and feel much longer than it is. But I was rapt the whole time. Almost a little disappointed when it ended. Killer of Sheep wasn't released until just a few years ago due to rights issue with the films extensive soundtrack, which is made up of a lot of sweet blues music. So that's it, this movie was great. I'm not going to hunt down any problems with it. I don't want to. I JUST DON'T!

What a weird looking kid! His head is HUGE!

1 comment:

  1. What a lovely appreciation of a very great film. I sent the link on to Charles Burnett--I think he'll appreciate reading about your unalloyed pleasure in his film. BTW, as the film's distributor (we're the folks who cleared those pesky and expensive music rights), I've seen Killer of Sheep many, many times--and it really gets better, funnier, sadder, even more beautiful with repeated viewing.

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