There’s a key scene in Charles Burnett’s highly influential 1977 classic Killer of Sheep that is indicative of what one would call the Black experience. A mother puts on makeup in the mirror as her young daughter plays with her toy singing along to the words of Earth, Wind & Fire’s classic song “Reasons”. Before long, the mother smiles at her daughter trying to match her young vocal pitch to lead singer Philip Bailey’s. It’s a simple scene that is not just a fly-on-the-wall vision of a wholesome moment in a Black household but is also a microcosm into life itself. Serving as his UCLA thesis project, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep is a film that follows children and adults living within 1970s Watts, Los Angeles, and mostly centers on Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a slaughterhouse worker who is trying his best, alongside his wife (Kaycee Moore), to keep his head above water and to feel the need to go on despite many disappointments. Among many factors including its gorgeous black and white cinematography; the terrific, natural acting; and its group of indelible vignettes which round out the narrative; this film is regarded for its strong Italian neorealist influences. Putting itself in the vein of human condition films such as Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 film Bicycle Thieves, Killer of Sheep works at a complex level of combining the general human condition with the Black American condition and putting on a display of the Black experience like no other film before it.
Kaycee Moore as Stan’s wife in KILLER OF SHEEP. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
The character of Stan is a man on the edge; he works hard, puts food on the family table, and is trying his best to go straight and not rob Peter to pay Paul … but it’s not enough. He tells his friend in one scene that “[I’m] working myself into my own hell.” His friend sarcastically asks “Why don’t you kill yourself?” His unsettling response: “Got a feeling I might do somebody else some harm though.” For those expecting this to turn into a Joel Schumacher Falling Down-type of premise, fear not. This scene is not a portent for an unsettling end on the horizon, rather it’s a moment to show us this man’s pain. Henry Gayle Sanders (Selma) portrays this role with excellent vulnerability, the type of performance that bleeds off the screen with his natural, real presence. Alongside him, Kaycee Moore (Daughters of the Dust) gives an excellent natural performance as Stan’s wife (we never learn her name — an inspired choice of Burnett’s as we weave in and out of Stan’s life as easily as we do others within this multitudinous world of Watts). She balances pain with grace and strength with maternal warmth. Their scenes together carry a strong sense of love mixed with a tense air of something about to go wrong. There’s a key a moment where they dance alone in the living room, Stan and his wife holding each other tight, and she attempts to kiss him, trying anything to bring a moment of intimacy back between them. He wrestles away from her, leaving her alone in the room. This is a different type of struggle, this is a different type of “broke” — being so broken by the many disappointments of life that intimacy, even in a small gesture, is a pleasure you devoid yourself of. This dynamic is a tricky one that not many acting partners could pull off, but Sanders and Moore do so effortlessly.
L-R: Kaycee Moore as Stan’s wife and Henry Gayle Sanders as Stan in KILLER OF SHEEP. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
As a college thesis project, Killer of Sheep is a hell of a swing for the fences. Even its black and white presentation is meaningful in its design as this world that Bennett presents is exactly that — black and white. This is the struggle, but it’s also the beautiful struggle. The film is literally poetry in motion; any still image of this film could be used as a frame for a painting, this film itself serving as a relic of time. The film’s wide-ranging vignettes, from Stan and his friend carrying a motor to his car in an extended sequence (just for the motor to fall off and be damaged as they try to drive away) to a veteran coming home to his wife threatening to kill him if he crosses the front door (as the neighborhood becomes nosy and witness the whole humorous affair), show life in its purest form. As the central story of the misadventures of Stan is compelling enough, its mosaic of Black life in Watts is even more powerful, bringing forth a terrific picture that is more than worth an entry in the Criterion canon.
Henry Gayle Sanders as Stan in KILLER OF SHEEP. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Criterion’s Blu-Ray edition of Killer of Sheep is nothing short of startingly beautiful. The 4K digital resolution displays perfect stark contrast in its images. The feeling of every still frame potentially being a painting or portrait caught in time is no more alive than in this updated presentation. The featurette side of this release is equally as intriguing. The supplemental features of this release include an essay by critic Danielle Amir Jackson, an audio commentary with Burnett and film scholar Richard Peña, a 2007 cast reunion, interviews with cast and crew, a documentary by Robert Townsend where he walks with Burnett in his hometown of Watts, and an interview with Burnett by film scholar Jacqueline Stewart from the 2010 UCLA LA Rebellion Oral History Project. There is also a great interview with Moonlight director Barry Jenkins as he discusses his love for the film as well as its importance. The most defining statement from that interview is also what could be perceived as the film’s strongest significance. To paraphrase what Jenkins said: Killer of Sheep came at a time where there were only two worlds of Black Cinema in the ‘70s — there was the over-the-top, beloved Blaxploitation world of Foxy Brown and Super Fly and the strait-laced, dignified world of Sidney “they call me Mister Tibbs” Poitier. Burnett gave us the real world in between, no chasers, no cleaned-up images; Killer of Sheep gives us the real deal and that is what makes it so perfect.
Killer of Sheep Blu-ray Special Features:
- *NEW* 4K digital restoration, approved by director Charles Burnett, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Burnett and film scholar Richard Peña
- *NEW* interviews with Burnett and actor Henry Gayle Sanders
- *NEW* appreciation by filmmaker Barry Jenkins
- Two short films by Burnett: Several Friends (1969) and The Horse (1973), with a new introduction to the latter by Burnett
- Excerpt from the 2010 UCLA LA Rebellion Oral History Project, featuring an interview with Burnett by film scholar Jacqueline Stewart
- A Walk with Charles Burnett (2019), a documentary by Robert Townsend
- Documentary by Ross Lipman on 2007 cast reunion
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Danielle Amir Jackson
- Package design by Slang Inc. with Eric Skillman
Available now on 4K UHD and Blu-Ray May 27th, 2025.
For more information or to purchase, head to the official Criterion Collection Killer of Sheep webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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