Charles Burnett’s most acclaimed film comes to 4K in a special edition that adds new interviews and documentaries to Milestone Films’ excellent restoration extras. The first chronicle of the Los Angeles Black experience creates an intimate portrait of how life is lived, how feelings are suppressed and how attitudes are passed on to the next generation. Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore and Charles Bracy star; Charles Burnett produced, wrote, photographed, edited and directed.

Killer of Sheep
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1262
1977 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 80 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 27, 2025 / 49.95
Starring: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett, Eugene Cherry, Jack Drummond, Delores Farley.
Cinematography: Charles Burnett
Film Editor: Charles Burnett
Written by Charles Burnett
Produced by Charles Burnett
Directed by Charles Burnett

One of Milestone Films’ best-promoted restorations comes to the 4K format — Killer of Sheep, which was among the first fifty films chosen in 1989 by the U.S. Library of Congress for its National Film Registry. Previous to that, Charles Burnett’s film always ‘made lists’ but saw relatively few showings. Burnett is cited in countless scholarly footnotes, yet few critics knew that he made other films as well. Back in the early 2000’s, Milestone Film and Video re-premiered Burnett’s films on museum and repertory screens across the country.

Killer of Sheep plays out in Los Angeles’ Watts ghetto. It is loosely centered on Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a family man with a job slaughtering livestock in a meat packing company. Stan loves his wife and children but is becoming emotionally numb; when he isn’t sitting silent at the dinner table, he lectures his nervous young son about becoming a man. Stan’s wife (Kaycee Moore) can’t get him to open up about his problems, which are all too obvious. They’re stuck in poverty, the neighborhood is depressing and options are non-existent. Stan’s friends are mostly unemployed; during the week they drink in the alleys and frighten the small children. Stan’s only other visitors are a pair of criminals looking for a third partner. Stan is unresponsive to their challenge to join them in a robbery. His wife ends up chasing them away.

Burnett’s camera observes life in Watts in fine detail, making dramatic speeches unnecessary. Watts is not a healthy place to grow up. Stan’s small daughter makes her mother smile when singing along with the radio, but any kid over the age of five must learn to deal with a hostile world. Stan’s son has fallen into the habit of crying for attention whenever he thinks things are unfair. As if acknowledging how little their lives are worth, groups of little boys throw rocks at passing trains and play dangerous games in junk-strewn vacant lots. Smaller kids watch as their older brothers show how tough they are. At one point Stan sees some boys leaping across a rooftop gap between two second-story apartments, pretty much asking for a fatal accident. Stan doesn’t intervene.

A measured pace lets us contemplate Stan’s situation and his sense of self-worth. He’s too mature to openly despair over things that are nobody’s fault. At one point he buys a car engine from a man in an apartment, in an attempt to get his buddy’s car running. They pay the money and haul the engine block down several flights of stairs, only to ruin it through a careless mistake. Must everything be so hopeless?  Of course he’ll waste his money. Of course the effort will end in useless humiliation.

Stan’s wife cannot inspire him to relax or to get out in the sunlight, but she understands him too well to lose her temper. When she’s alone in the house, she feels like a prisoner as well. In one scene they dance slowly to music from the radio, just taking quiet pleasure in being together. The moment is sublime.

In the 1970s almost all feature films with African-Americans in major roles were in the blaxploitation genre. Killer of Sheep distinguishes itself by ignoring commercial trends and showing black lives up close. It’s also not an idealized family film, like the popular Sounder. A critical comparison of Burnett’s approach to the Italian neorealist films of De Sica and Zavattini only goes so far. Burnett does not impose irony or sentiment on the fitful, day-by-day lives of his characters. The acting is good where it counts, with Henry Gayle Sanders particularly good; the experience of two tours of duty in Vietnam shows in his eyes.

The film excels in its simple observation of people. Burnett filmed with friends and acquaintances, actors that make up in authenticity what they sometimes lack in naturalness. The camera catches great moments with the children as they mirror the self-destructive behavior of their parents. Some boys throw dirt at the freshly wash hung on a clothesline, laughing at the young girl whose day they’ve just ruined. Her reaction is a proud stare of contempt, refusing to give them the pleasure of seeing her upset.

Charles Burnett is among the most acclaimed filmmakers to come from UCLA in the 1970s. UCLA had its share of pretenders and hustlers and fiery politicos, but Burnett is an accomplished cinematographer with serious artistic ambitions. His Killer of Sheep is an intimate social document and a moving emotional experience.

The Criterion Collection’s 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray of Killer of Sheep is a new 4K digital restoration approved by director Charles Burnett. The 4K disc carries the feature and a commentary, and the extra Blu-ray has the feature plus all the video extras.

Burnett’s fine B&W photography translates well to the 4K format even though the film was shot in 16mm. The show waited a long time for its first restoration due to Burnett’s use of an eclectic soundtrack: needle-drop songs by Paul Robeson, George Gershwin, Dinah Washington, Earth Wind & Fire and Faye Adams, to name just a few. The proper licensing of the music was Killer of Sheep‘s biggest hurdle for that restoration by Milestone Films and The UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Criterion’s disc producer Elizabeth Pauker worked closely with Milestone’s Dennis Doros and Amy Heller to give the disc a worthy docket of extras. The main older item is an excellent audio commentary with the director in discussion with Richard Peña of The Lincoln Center. Two of Burnett’s short films are included as well. Several Friends is a promising early effort that includes a fight, a washing machine that needs installing and somebody’s white girlfriend (future director Donna Deitch). The Horse (1973) is a moody color piece with a mostly white cast and a short-story ambience.

Criterion’s new video extras begin with a conversation between Charles Burnett and his star, Henry Gayle Sanders. Barry Jenkins offers a think-piece on the film, and Jacqueline Stewart interviews Burnett in a 2010 UCLA Oral History project. From UCLA’s Ross Lipman comes a short film about a 2007 cast reunion at Santa Monica’s Dolores café. Finishing up is a documentary on Burnett by Robert Townsend, from 2019.

The insert folder contains an essay by Danielle Amir Jackson, that gives the film a nice overview while examining Charles Burnett’s sensitive portrait of family dynamics, a lot of it conveyed through the perceptions of children.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Killer of Sheep
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Audio commentary with Charles Burnett and Richard Peña
New interviews with Burnett and actor Henry Gayle Sanders
New appreciation by Barry Jenkins
Two short films by Burnett: Several Friends (1969) and The Horse (1973)
Excerpt from the 2010 UCLA LA Rebellion Oral History Project, featuring an interview with Burnett by Jacqueline Stewart
Documentary A Walk with Charles Burnett (2019) by Robert Townsend
Documentary by Ross Lipman on 2007 cast reunion
Trailer.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed: May 17, 2025
(7328kill)

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