Charles Burnett gives working-class Black families time to be funny, weary and difficult without forcing their lives into a tidy plot. His patient attention makes Killer of Sheep deeply moving, though some episodes need firmer editing.
Fi1m perspective
In Killer of Sheep (1978), children’s games receive as much attention as the adults’ work. Charles Burnett lets the children be unruly and funny, rather than making every activity demonstrate how poor their neighbourhood is. Stan, a slaughterhouse worker in Watts, has little energy left for his wife and family, but the film does not hurry him towards a crisis. We recommend it warmly for the care it takes with people whose days offer few obvious occasions for drama.
Burnett is also the film’s cinematographer and editor, and those jobs matter to how he directs. His black-and-white compositions are carefully arranged without making the neighbourhood look put on display. The cutting moves between labour, domestic unease and play, allowing repetition to make Stan’s exhaustion felt. Some episodes run on after their point is clear, and a few performances are hesitant. The film takes time to settle into, but there is enough humour to make that adjustment rewarding.
With My Brother’s Wedding (1983), his second feature, Burnett examines class and community tensions in South Central Los Angeles. To Sleep with Anger (1990) brings Southern folklore into a family drama, with Danny Glover among a professional cast. The Glass Shield (1994) marks a move towards a more commercial narrative in a story about policing. Those changes matter, but the family life in Killer of Sheep remains our clearest reason to seek out his work.
His use of music is especially persuasive when it saves the characters from having to explain themselves. In Killer of Sheep, Dinah Washington’s ‘This Bitter Earth’ accompanies Stan and his wife’s slow dance. We were more upset than we expected by the distance between them despite their physical closeness. Burnett lets the song express the longing without giving either partner a speech about it. Start with Killer of Sheep, and give the children’s games the same attention Burnett does.
Biography
Charles Burnett is an American film director, writer, producer, editor and cinematographer. Born on 13 April 1944 in Vicksburg, Mississippi, he grew up in the Watts district of Los Angeles and studied creative writing and filmmaking at the University of California, Los Angeles.
His debut feature Killer of Sheep (1978), made as his UCLA thesis film, was shot, written, directed, edited and produced by Burnett. He is also known for My Brother’s Wedding (1983), To Sleep with Anger (1990) and The Glass Shield (1994). Both Killer of Sheep and To Sleep with Anger were selected for the National Film Registry. Burnett received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1988 and an honorary Academy Award in 2017.
