Killer of Sheep

This weekend we saw the fantastic Charles Burnett movie Killer of Sheep, the long-neglected masterpiece about the life of a poverty-stricken family in 1970s Watts, told through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive man deadened by the hard work and psychic impact of working at a slaughterhouse. It's a hard movie to pin down, so honest and real I left the theater drained, unable to talk about the story on the subway ride home.

Nonetheless, the film's scenes and characters worked on me for over the weekend, and will probably remain, playing over and over in my head for a long time. Made in 1977, the film was Burnett's answer to the blacksploitation movies of the time, a filmic statement that made no false assertions about its characters. At turns bleak, joyous and ennobling, the movie is a true work of art, and deserves to be seen by a larger audience.

See it when it comes to your town.