Film Forum

U.S., 1977
Directed by Charles Burnett
With Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy
Approx. 80 min. DCP.

“A hardworking, poorly paid man (Henry G. Sanders) — a father and husband — has fallen into melancholia; the simplest tasks in his life are fraught with difficulty. The affectingly beautiful scenes include children playing in the nooks and crannies of buildings and a heartbreaking moment of thwarted romance, when the hero refuses to respond to the fervent embraces of his wife as they dance to Dinah Washington’s ‘This Bitter Earth.’” – David Denby, The New Yorker

KILLER OF SHEEP has been digitally restored to 4K and remastered by UCLA Film & Television Archive, Milestone Films, and the Criterion Collection.

A KINO LORBER / MILESTONE FILMS RELEASE

Trailer

Reviews

“AN AMERICAN MASTERPIECE, INDEPENDENT TO THE BONE.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING DEBUTS IN MOVIE HISTORY.”
– Terrence Rafferty

“A milestone of eloquent understatement capturing the daily life of have-nots as few American movies have.”
– Wesley Morris

“Burnett regards faces, lives, children, friends, neighbors, in a loosely strung-together series of episodes that don’t add up to much, while they somehow add up to everything. His black-and-white images and deliberate editing create a sense of serene resignation; this is how it is, and ever shall be.”
– Roger Ebert