Killer of Sheep (1978)

“One of the most acclaimed L.A. Rebellion movies…a sharply observed, lyrically romantic drama of a young paterfamilias in Watts named Stan, whose harsh job in a slaughterhouse leaves him embittered and depressed.” — Richard Brody, The New Yorker

SYNOPSIS

PROGRAM NOTE

National treasure Charles Burnett’s debut feature is a quietly monumental portrait of everyday life in Watts. It captures the rhythms, struggles, and small joys of a community often overlooked. Shot in black-and-white 16mm as Burnett’s UCLA master’s thesis for less than $10,000, the film follows Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a weary slaughterhouse worker navigating the demands of his job, family, and neighborhood. Alongside his wife (Kaycee Moore) and children, he moves through routines both mundane and profound: fixing the sink, laying linoleum, attending to his children, and responding to the unexpected interruptions of daily life. 

Structured as lyrical vignettes rather than a conventional plot, Killer of Sheep showcases the influence of Italian Neorealism by locating poetry in the seemingly ordinary: children at play, neighbors passing through, fleeting moments of humor, tenderness, and exhaustion. Burnett’s careful attention to gesture, body language, and the ambient rhythms of the community conveys deep empathy for his characters and the quiet dignity of lives lived with values but without opportunities. Anchored by a remarkable soundtrack spanning blues, jazz, R&B, and classical music (including Louis Armstrong’s unforgettable “West End Blues”), Burnett brilliantly renders Watts as a landscape of longing, resilience, and grace. 

Selected for the National Film Registry in 1990, Killer of Sheep has earned enduring acclaim as a singular achievement in American cinema. Presented in a luminous 4K restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Milestone Films, and the Criterion Collection, audiences can now experience Burnett’s masterpiece as it was meant to be seen: intimate, meditative, and profoundly human.