This is a retrospective post and it is appropriately so because the film that I am looking back on was retrospective in its release, and at the time of its first release, retrospective in its style and in its themes. I was compelled to write about it in spite of its retrospective qualities because having seen it nearly a month ago, it remains the most emotionally progressive film I have seen this year. Charles Burnett’s 1977 film has been described as a displaced neo-realist caption of Watts in the 70’s and a stylistic contemporary of Ray and Cassavettes. My friend Alex pointed out that the raw black and white photography of the film, which has a tendency to linger upon ghastly images of ignored children, draws heavily upon the Depression Era photography of Helen Levitt’s Harlem children series and I would add that the pensive portraiture of Stan and his wife most likely owes an unconscious debt to the black and white Blue Note images of Frank Wolff.
While the images alone are worth the price of admission, it is the music of the film that makes it transcendent. “Killer of Sheep” is a musical film. It has all of the introspective rhythms, rests, crescendos, and lulls of a great ballad. It has all of the spiritual gravity of a hymn and the poetic grace of a psalm. Though it is a complete, cohesive film from start to finish, “Killer of Sheep” is magnificently fragmented into self-contained vignettes like songs on a great pop album. At times it contains the cut-up quality of beat poetry or bebop jazz and at others the essence and cohesiveness of symphonic movement.
The music in the film itself runs the gamut of musical genres from pop, jazz, classical, gospel, to soul and is ironic at times, commenting upon the imagery it juxtaposes, and poignant at others, integrating itself into the world of the characters. It comes as no surprise to me that the most often sited scene from the film is that of Stan and his wife dancing in their living room to Dinah Washington’s “This Bitter Earth” as the lyrical metaphor and musical potency endow a simple shot with the soulful siren’s purr. Elsewhere there is Cecil Gant’s “I Wonder” and James Elmore’s “I Believe” reflecting the two emotional poles that Stan wavers between. Songs like Walter Jacob’s “Mean Old World” would appear to be an on-the-nose choice for a film that illustrates a man struggling to live in a place that holds him back, but it comes off as playful and funny, which is what the film turns out to be. Two extremely effecting scenes in the abattoir are rendered distinct by Rachmaninov’s “Piano Concerto Number 4” in an early establishing scene and the moving version of “The House I Live In” sung by Paul Robeson in the matter-of-fact second scene. The brutality of the final scene of the film in which sheep are led to be slaughtered is underscored by Paul Robeson’s bittersweet version of “I’m Going Home.” My favorite scene in the film though is that of Stan’s daughter sitting on the floor of a cluttered closet playing with a doll next to a record player that belts out Earth, Wind, and Fire’s “Reasons”. Intercut with Stan’s daughter singing along to the track while combing her doll’s hair is a scene in which Stan’s wife is in the bathroom preparing for what looks like a date, but turns out to be another day of sitting around the kitchen table. But, this isn’t a hopeless act. There is so much joy in these simple moments that the film becomes a celebration of these things rather than a plea for pity.
Unfortunately, I think that “Killer of Sheep” left theaters in LA last week, but I believe Milestone films is planning to release it on DVD in the near future. So if you haven’t seen it, you should put it in your NetFlix Queue so that when it is released you’ll be ready to experience a film that like the best music will get stuck in your head.
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