A week or so ago I got to see Killer of Sheep, a black and white film made by Charles Burnett in 1977 for UCLA Master Thesis. I was skeptical about liking the film, whenever I hear someone call a film "lyrical" I fear it is going to be dull and very, very, slow. Not this film. Some of the images of the film are still stuck in my mind.
The film centers around Stan, who works slaughtering sheep and lives in South Central LA in the 1970's. The film is shot in documentary like style, the images come off as both poetic and intensely real (one could argue that the two terms are not necessarily antonyms.) I loved how the movie became a little snap shot of a time gone by, this is right before the gangs and the crack hit the neighborhood.
Anyway, I don't really know what to say about this film except I really enjoyed - there were several scenes that genuinely surprised me and made me laugh. I just checked and the film is available on netflix. Definitely a movie worth putting in your queue.
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