Charles Burnett’s landmark yet little-available exploration of Black lives in 1970s Los Angeles is finally seen as intended
Killer of Sheep’s production largely reflects the hardscrabble, determined lives of its central characters: Charles Burnett shot his student thesis film on a shoestring budget of $10,000 from 1972 to 1973, yet it wasn’t completed and released until 1977 on the festival circuit. Despite its instant acclaim, the struggle to properly license the film’s famed soundtrack compilation of iconic Black artists — and a rapidly deteriorating original negative — meant that Killer of Sheep existed in a cultural limbo for decades. Despite its scarcity, the film was one of the first to be inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry and was later named by multiple critics’ groups as one of the most essential films of all time. Milestone Films resurrected Burnett’s debut film in a long-awaited restoration in 2007–but it wasn’t until this new release by the Criterion Collection that Killer of Sheep can finally be seen as originally intended.
Killer of Sheep mainly unfolds as a scattershot series of poetic and insightful vignettes of life in the streets of the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, home to many African-American families who fled the South in search of potential prosperity in America’s post-WWII industrialization boom. For all intents and purposes, our lead is Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), who works long hours at a nearby slaughterhouse to provide for his family, though he’s tempted to supplement his meager income via various schemes his neighbors and friends solicit Stan’s help with. Stan, however, is adamant that he and his family will survive–denying the creeping realities of their poverty however he can. Stan also denies the impact that his bloody job has on his overall well-being, often returning home in a fugue state that leaves him little room for emotional connections or growth with his neglected, nameless wife (Kaycee Moore) and family.
When I first reviewed Killer of Sheep for my Catching Up with the Classics series, one of my primary takeaways was that the film was “aimless and exhausting,” frustrated with the little connective tissue or sense of progress between the film’s segments. In revisiting the film roughly seven years later, I feel like I didn’t try hard enough to reckon with Burnett’s film on its own level, despite recognizing how the film deliberately and sensitively depicted the lives of its characters caught in an insurmountable machine of institutionalized poverty and capitalism. Each of the film’s sequences have a remarkable tenderness to them, refusing to frame the struggles of Stan and others as tragedy meant to be consumed by a more privileged audience. The lack of structure seems to deliberately play against such expectations of cause-and-effect beliefs on poverty and economic immobility — that in a world where such lives are often exploited for status-quo-stabilizing narratives, Charles Burnett gives his characters the freedom to exist on their own terms.
There’s still sharp insight found in how this time is spent, one of the few resources these characters have at their disposal. The re-purposing of neighborhood ruins, devastated in the infamous riots of months before, as an impromptu playground is analyzed by critic Danielle Amir Jackson in her accompanying essay as a reflection of how the adults’ hard-won, near mindless lives take root early on in childhood. “It is play tinged with the aroma of guerrilla warfare, a preparation for rebellion,” she writes. “Or for the daily battles of living in a community that is isolated, under-resourced, and under siege.” Yet while I’d originally viewed these sequences as the origins of the shambolic malaise that Stan (among many) suffer from in their never-ending quest to provide for their families, what was far more visible in this viewing was the sense of fearless joy still at their core. It was a sense of earnest living in spite of circumstance or tragedy, rejecting the instinct to weigh down or discount such joy or ambition with a sense of Sisyphean inevitability. While that may be a reality of life in this film, particularly during Stan’s slaughterhouse sequences, the adults’ moments of happiness or connection, as much as these playground ruins reveal, underscore that finding what there is to live for is just as important a reality to showcase and consider.
The restoration of the film’s final song, a track of Dinah Washington’s cover of “Unforgettable,” helps to crystallize this further. Removing the echoing reprisal of “This Bitter Earth,” previously played during a failed moment of emotional intimacy between a zombie-like Stan and his wife, there’s a sense of tentative hope to these still-bloody closing moments. There’s celebrations of joy and renewal–like a pregnant neighbor–that fuel Stan’s smiling return to the slaughterhouse, suggesting that even though this brutal, repetitive struggle is crucial to his existence, Stan may just yet be able to break the self-destructive impact his work has on him. The existence of this release at all is enough to fill one with such vital hope–that even after decades of circumstantial silence and neglect, the tenacity of Burnett and his creatives is now finally restored in the way Killer of Sheep was always meant to be seen–with story and soundtrack intact, in stunning A/V quality, and with a reverential package of Special Features.
Video/Audio
Criterion presents “Killer of Sheep” in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio on both 2160p 4K UHD and 1080p discs. The transfer is sourced from a 4K restoration of a 16mm fine-grain master positive created from the original camera negative, accompanied by a new audio restoration and mix. This new restoration is a collaboration between the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Milestone Films, and the Criterion Collection. Of note, this version newly reinstates Charles Burnett’s original choice for the film’s closing soundtrack, Dinah Washington’s recording of “Unforgettable.” SDH subtitles are available for the feature, as well as Burnett’s short films.
Even in its original DVD release back in 2007, Killer of Sheep’s layered black-and-white cinematography won over audiences finally able to see the film after years of unavailability. Now fully restored in 4K UHD, Criterion showcases the film’s broad palette and playfulness with light and shadow. Scenes can be harshly lit and dread-inducing, such as Stan’s dance with his wife or a daughter playing with dolls in a closet, full with overexposed chaotic joy or intense heat during sequences of children playing at deserted train tracks, or a beautiful mix of the two extremes such as sheep being led from outside pens into the darkness of the slaughterhouse to come.
While the imagery can range from sharp to fuzzy in focus, these imperfections have more to do with the original quality of the available elements than any weaknesses inherent in this diligent, impactful restoration. The film’s Audio, presented here in a Monaural track, likewise varies across the film. However, the much-discussed soundtrack of the film, featuring tracks by Dinah Washington, Paul Robeson, and Earth, Wind & Fire, is prominently featured alongside the central dialogue, bringing a distinct, nuanced quality.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary featuring Charles Burnett and film scholar Richard Peña, ported over from Milestone’s 2007 DVD release of the film.
- Charles Burnett on Killer of Sheep: The writer-director of Killer of Sheep sits down for a new interview discussing his initial studies at UCLA, his involvement with the Black Rebellion contingent of student filmmakers, his mission to use Killer of Sheep as a way to counteract more widespread Hollywood narratives about Black life, and the film’s years-long unavailability due to music rights issues.
- Henry Gayle Sanders on Killer of Sheep: In a newly filmed interview, the lead actor of Killer of Sheep discusses how he came to Los Angeles as an author before pursuing his acting career, his relationship with Burnett, shooting anecdotes like the filming of the famous engine block carrying scene, and his later film appearances such as in Ava DuVernay’s Selma.
- Barry Jenkins on Killer of Sheep: The acclaimed director of Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Underground Railroad reflects on his relationship with Burnett’s film from his days as a beginning film student (wryly asking variations of, “How do you measure up to Killer of Sheep as a student thesis film?”) through later cinematic revisits as a filmmaker in his own right. He particularly praises how Burnett captures the dignity and rich inner lives of his subjects, adopting Burnett’s approaches in his own explorations of Black life across history.
- Charles Burnett Short Films: Criterion presents restorations of two surviving Burnett UCLA student films, Several Friends (1969)and The Horse (1973), the latter of which is preceded by an optional introduction by Burnett.
- LA Rebellion Oral History Project: A newly-produced documentary featuring a 2010 interview between Burnett and Jacqueline Stewart, in which they discuss the “LA Rebellion” collection of Black UCLA filmmaking students that Burnett was a part of, the challenges of Killer of Sheep’s production, and the movement’s goal of spotlighting authentic Black narratives with the resources at their disposal.
- A Walk with Charles Burnett: A 2019 56-minute documentary previously featured on Criterion’s release of Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger, featuring Burnett as he tours locations used in that film and Killer of Sheep alongside documentarian Robert Townsend. In between locations, Burnett reflects on his filmmaking career and his childhood growing up in the neighborhoods he’d later preserve in his films.
- Cast Reunion: An archival cast reunion from 2007 brings together Sanders, Charles Bracy, Kaycee Moore, and Nate Hardman at a Santa Monica coffee shop ahead of a restoration premiere at Los Angeles’ NuArt cinema.
- Trailer for Killer of Sheep’s 2025 restoration.
- Essay: Critic Danielle Amir Jackson examines Killer of Sheep through the lens of the overarching history of the Watts neighborhood in what would become greater Los Angeles, how Burnett’s childhood there informed the development of both Killer of Sheep and his career as a filmmaker, and the winding journey for Killer of Sheep to be seen as its director originally intended.
Killer of Sheep is now available on 4K UHD + Blu-ray and Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
