Candace took some time out of her hectic schedule to watch "Killer of Sheep," the 1977 film by Charles Burnett (http://www.killerofsheep.com/).

Described by their website as "Killer of Sheep examines the black Los Angeles ghetto of Watts in the mid-1970s through the eyes of Stan, a sensitive dreamer who is growing detached and numb from the psychic toll of working at a slaughterhouse." For the first time this film is shown on the big screen, at the I.F.C. in New York City. Here is Candace's review:

“Killer of Sheep”
Candace L.

Every now and then, it pays to be Black. It usually happens right around the time the police shoot another black guy armed with a banana, an iconic TV personality gets caught in an embarrassing sex scandal or another study is released showing that the ‘Dollar Menu’ is the number one killer of Blacks. Just as the negativity reaches an all-time high and you start wishing for vitiligo, you’re sent a purple pill of deliverance in the form of an unanticipated smile from a stranger, a young guy in a hoodie who holds the backdoor open for you on the bus or in my case, a seat in a sold-out movie theatre. This phenomenon has occurred exactly twice in similar settings. During the opening weekend of “Batman Begins,” there were two seats surrounding a group of Latino kids. With a theatre packed elbow-to-elbow, I watched couple after couple file past, ask them if the seats were available and walk away disappointed or pissed. Ever the optimist, at least when it comes to the chance to see a 50-foot projection of Christian Bale, I figured I’d ask anyway. The Puerto Rican delegates conferred and after a brief powwow, decided to hold their sweaters on their laps so I could sit down. They made some comment about letting me in because I seemed nice, but what I seemed was not White, unlike all the other people they rejected. That’s solidarity in action as far as I’m concerned, and until my reparations check comes in the mail, a little reverse racism will have to suffice.

Fast forward to a sold-out IFC Theater during the “Killer of Sheep” opening weekend and lo and behold, a row of roughly ten white people jump at the opportunity to have me step on their feet as I climb to one of few empty seats against the wall. I thought nothing of it until the end of the film, when my Indian friend, who sat in the same seat one row behind me, related that the people she climbed over hated her. I told her of my red carpet treatment to which she said, “I guess because it was a black movie.” You guess right my not-quite-brown-enough friend. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those White people and their misplaced sense of duty. For your compassion, I will ignore the fact that you did not know which parts of the movie were okay to laugh at.

With such a wonderful welcome, I was ready to enjoy Charles Burnett’s 1977 graduate film, “Killer of Sheep,” already labeled a masterpiece by The New York Times. But let’s not get too romantic. “Killer of Sheep” is quite possibly one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, but “Dog Day Afternoon” it is not. There’s a certain frame of mind you have to be in to understand what makes this movie so dope and I’m not sure what that is. Maybe after sitting through so many Wayans comedies that felt like one long fart joke, I was refreshed to see jokes that came from genuine everyday humor. “Killer of Sheep” is the rare ghetto movie where no promising young athlete gets tragically shot at the end. “Killer of Sheep” is such a departure from the norm that the rush of excitement and hopefulness that floods you after viewing it is quickly met with a wave of depression because you know no one is making movies like this right now.

Even after seeing it twice, I can’t think of one American film featuring a predominately black cast that compares to it. In the Italian Neorealist tradition, but by no means exclusively patterned after it, the film features a cast of non-professional actors and a non-traditional plot, in that there is none. The story consists of moments shared by Stan, an insomniac worker at the local slaughterhouse, and his family and friends. It feels like a home video, except everybody is funny and there are no five-minute shots of the cameraman’s feet. Throughout, you can’t help but see Burnett’s influence on Spike Lee, particularly in his grad thesis film “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.” “Sheep” and “Joe’s” are watershed moments in what could have been called the Black New Wave, uncompromising films documenting, not sensationalizing, Black urban life. But where Mr. Lee wears his politics on his sleeve, Burnett has no such designs.

“Sheep” takes place in an impoverished Watts neighborhood, filled with Southern-sounding residents constantly admonishing each other ‘to stop acting country.’ Stan’s family includes his beautiful sexually frustrated wife, his precocious young daughter and coming-of-age son, who spends more time throwing debris at his friends by the train tracks than sitting at home. Stan is not much of a homebody himself, keeping busy by listening to the criminal plans of his friends and on occasion, helping out with their bad ideas. Really, anytime you buy a car engine out of someone’s living room, you have to expect something to go wrong... like Ben Stiller wrong.

The beauty in “Killer of Sheep” is its uncanny ability to unite its audience. As someone born several years after the film’s initial release, I did not completely catch why Schlitz beer on the hood of a car was so funny to the fifty-somethings watching the film alongside me. But seconds later, as we all observed how the Schlitz beer gets into the car, that was all that mattered, as the entire room erupted into laughter.

After this initial viewing, I concluded that “Killer of Sheep” was amazing because it held no stereotypes. That was a premature assessment. More accurately, Burnett takes the Black film trifecta: liquor, sex and church, and manipulates these familiar motifs in a way that sets “Killer of Sheep” apart from your stereotypical ‘in the hood’ flick. Gone are the traditional pimps and hos, addicts and criminals, students and corner store intellectuals. Rather Burnett blends all aspects of Black people, the charm and charity, the fly and the barely functioning, into something so simple, it’s too brilliant to be true. But isn’t that the life most Black people are living? I remember attending college with bright Black law students who wanted nothing more than to become the next Damon Dash. Smart yet dumb, overweight yet athletic, cute yet bipolar – Burnett takes the dichotomies we all represent on a daily basis and throws them up on celluloid, saying, ‘This is average.’ Abnormal are representations that depict all Black men and women as useless fathers, sex-hungry animals, heartless gold diggers and naïve romantics. Burnett shows that at any given moment, you could seamlessly weave your way between several of these categories and still get to work on time the next morning. No special effects, no melodramatic soliloquies about the state of things and thankfully, no overwrought feel-good climaxes. Stan’s family is just as poor at the end of the movie, with no upward mobility in sight, as they were at the beginning.

Usually I think it’s a cop-out to call something great based on what it’s not. “Killer of Sheep” originally came out in limited release at the bottom half of the decade that spawned “The Mack,” “Black Caesar” and “Superfly.” One could conclude, it’s not blaxploitation, so it must be good and righteous. But there are some questionable depictions, such as the car engine scheme that fails, two men who casually steal a television set in broad daylight and Stan’s overall sourness, another nod to the ever-popular notion of the (financially or emotionally) downtrodden Black male. Are they real? Definitely. Are they common? Yes, and that might be part of the problem.

Yet, what Black film needs is balance. Burnett gives you lush visuals of ghetto life and some hard-to-love depictions of Black folks as well. Love it or hate it, “Killer of Sheep” makes you think long after you have left the theatre. I was dragged to see “Daddy’s Little Girls” a month ago and until I wrote this sentence, hadn’t the need to think about it since. Well I guess that’s not true. I initially wondered why Idris Elba doesn’t work more and how Mr. Perry keeps getting funding. But other than that, no thoughts whatsoever. Ultimately, in today’s film climate, “Killer of Sheep” does not have top box office potential. It’s too smart to pander and not violent enough to show the ghetto we are used to seeing on screen. On the bright side, it does have Blacks drinking alcohol, having children and holding jobs. Almost like real people.

~~~~~

It is painful in the extreme to live with questions rather than with answers, but that is the only honorable intellectual course. (c) Norman Mailer

I saw the film at the Siskel Film Center in Chicago many years ago. I really liked it.

to have her movie review anchored like that.

>to have her movie review anchored like that.

you causing trouble!

and I've never had an anchor!

did u review this movie? if you didnt, then maybe that is why it didnt get anchored. Candace writes music reviews on some website, i forget the name though.

Let me parse this out for you.

Usually movie *reviews* don't get anchored. Movie *discussions* often get anchored.

So the fact that this is touted on the front page, and the message page and is brought on here and anchored tells me that this person, Candace L., of whom I have never heard, must be a VERY important person who has somehow deigned to offer her services to okayplayer in order to write a review of a film that's obscure enough that the thread on it that already exists on this board certainly wasn't anchored, and is already dropping steadily. So it's not the movie that's so important. Must be the writer. You say you've heard of her before but you can't remember where?

I've never heard of her.
Nettrice doesn't know who she is.
You don't know where you've heard the name before.

If she's really important, then I'm clearly out to lunch on it.

So I asked "Who is Candace L?"

see also: http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=4277209&mesg_id=4277209&page=

OKP Music Reviews

she's REALLY important, then.

i didnt say anything about importance. im just saying where she is from. u were the one bitchin that ur invisible review of this movie didnt get anchored. random stuff gets anchored all the time. fucking recor got soemthing anchored. not only that but something on grindhouse. this is pivotal black film. but i await ur review on the new ice cube film. i can hardly wait.

to me complaining that my review of this movie didn't get anchored.

Dude, I never said that.

I haven't seen the movie.

I haven't reviewed the movie.

R.I.F.

I don't want to get you in trouble.

At least the review didn't suck.

"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

I caught this flick last weekend and loved it. So interesting to see a movie about Black people in Watts before drugs changed the landscape. The night I saw the movie nobody was laughing at all. My friend and I were so confused: "what the hell is wrong with these people, why aren't they laughing?" It definately wasn't comedy but the light moments were hilarious. Its a great flick, I hope it gets a wider re-release.

2 posts?

This movie is doing more for okay-registration than Things Fall Apart did.

it was fucking great. saw it at the jacob burns. i loved it.

this is starting to get really weird, lol


~~~~~

It is painful in the extreme to live with questions rather than with answers, but that is the only honorable intellectual course. (c) Norman Mailer

my sister (who is not candace) told me about it, so i went with her.

is it coming out as a re-release??
or will it be on dvd anytime soon??

peace

http://www.killerofsheep.com/

I'm not going to remove what I had said, but I received my answer.


Now, the original post:
Wow. Before PTP became PTP, I don't think anyone received attention for their reviews. Why the special attention?





JOHN BOOK'S MYSPACE
http://www.myspace.com/crutmusic

THE RUN-OFF GROOVE
http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/113996

BOOK'S MUSIC Podcast
http://booksmusic.podomatic.com/

GREASE BALL RALLY
http://www.greaseballrally.com/

because this was posted and anchored by "okayplayerOK".

janey dont be such a hater.
its a great flick, who really cares who "Candice L" is?!

There are so many people on this thread who think that I'm attacking the review. I'm not. I've read other (professional) reviews of the film that make me want to see it, and I said in the original thread on this film that I've got it marked on my calendar.

But most interesting to me is the fact that so many of the people on this thread who are actively supporting the poster and the anchor are very very new. What's that about? Are you an alias for Candace L herself? Or did you register in order to support her? Or did this film, of all the many many topics on these boards as a whole, provide you with the sudden irresistable impulse to register and post?

This is all really weird.

...you're going to get that knock on your door by some guys dressed in black okayplayer hoodies and sunglasses (it already happened to me).

!!!

I've laid in supplies just for such an event

check you calendars, boys and girls

JOHN BOOK'S MYSPACE
http://www.myspace.com/crutmusic

THE RUN-OFF GROOVE
http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/113996

BOOK'S MUSIC Podcast
http://booksmusic.podomatic.com/

GREASE BALL RALLY
http://www.greaseballrally.com/

>Wow. Before PTP became PTP, I don't think anyone received
>attention for their reviews. Why the special attention?

***************
www.myspace.com/angoleiro
www.myspace.com/manjingaparty

Dewey: What’s up? Struggle is up, brutha. O-pression is up, brutha. Salami eggs and bacon. My name is Dewey Obababa-OOOOOhh-mamase-mamasa-mamakosa... Jenkins.
Riley: Nigga what?

black independent film class..

about the references to "down home" amidst the L.A. urban environment..

but "Bush Mama" by Haile Gerima...thats my movie

my prof. was friends with haile. that movie is nothing short of amazing

I think I wrote my best paper ever in life on that movie too..

I watched it a good 10 times..

we had like 4 2 hour class periods of alot of discussion on this movie...

I wish I could remember it all...

I think especially important is Stan's impotence and how the construction of his character goes so far beyond traditional stereotypes..

also the references to "down home"..

I really like this film though...

I highly recommend Bush Mama also from the same UCLA school of film makers..

Julie Dash's short film Illusions is good too...

I dare y'all not to tear up during the dancing scene.
______________________________________________________________________
Only AFFLECK Can Stop...
The MoonRaper

i loved it, because i recognized it. i even got a horrible dvd transfer from 2002 that i've watched repeatedly. i caught a screening of it back in late 04 with a few hundred college students tho, and not one kid enjoyed it. by comparison, they felt "nothing but a man" was "300."

interestingly enough, i'm writing a term paper on this flick right now. i got an interview with Todd Boyd tomorrow about the significance of this flick.

-30-

WE DID IT FOR FRANCHISE

http://www.myspace.com/ikemoses

but that was kinda the point..

There was hopelessness & despair throughout the film but seeing the kids enjoy themselves inspite of their surroundings was nice to see. The kids were so cute!! Stan's wife was hot. Poor Stan though, dude couldn't catch a break or make love to his wife. Now I hear that he is supposedly impotent (sp?) but I thought it was because he didn't want any more children. I guess the former would make more sense.

LOVED IT

The entire time i felt like i was watching a Gordon Parks photo come to life. I kept thinking of all of those old black and white childhood photos of my mom with her pressed yet all over the place pigtails and my dad looking ashy, mischeivious and happy.

some of the cinematograpy was dooooope. just the way certain shots were set up and executed were awesome for such an amatuer production.

I can't wait for this to come out on DVD so i can buy a copy for my parents. i think they'd love it for a lot of nostalgia reasons.

and another thing... why was i the first one in our theatre to officially laugh out loud when Stan got on his son about calling his mama "Madiera" lol that one hit close to home.

>The entire time i felt like i was watching a Gordon Parks
>photo come to life.

Okay,I don't mean to hate, but I left feeling kind of unfulfilled when I saw the movie. I am used to there being a big conflict or rising action of some sort. The imagery was good, the jive slang was cool, but I felt like nothing happened. It was like a depressing episode of "Seinfeld" with African-Americans. Maybe I should watch it again. I would still get it on DVD for nostalgia purposes.