Maybe it’s just because it’s not PC to criticize this movie, but this was the worst piece of cinema I’ve seen in a very long time. The acting was terrible, no trace of a plot, the sound was very poor quality, the stream of vignettes were derivative and without purpose. A few beautiful shots, but that amounted to about a minute or two in a glacially paced movie.
shareI don't know that this movie is great art in the sense that it was all planned by a great artist in full control of his abilities. But what makes it important is how it shows a real slice of life of this community in a critical decade.
Because the movie was shot on such a low budget, the settings and most of the people were all genuine. By showing long sequences without dramatic cuts you get a sense of what their lives were like every day. The sense of hopelessness is profound, along with what happens when you live life without long-term goals or a sense that you can improve your lot by working at it every day. The main character usually tries to do the right thing, but you get the sense that it doesn't matter even if he does.
Seeing this 1977 film today, you know what's in store for this community that the filmmakers didn't at the time. In the film most families are still intact albeit fragile. Most crime is petty, and not apparently gang-related. And you don't see any major drug use. But after seeing this film you can understand just how easily something like crack arriving a few years later could completely destroy any sense of community and families.
I could understand someone making the criticism the OP made about a film like "Out Of Brooklyn", which was acted and directed so badly it was laughable, but this film was acted and directed so well, I felt like it was REAL life, not REEL life.
The fact that it was shown on the CUNY channel, and then discussed for over half an hour by two film scholars, who agreed it was a masterpiece, shows how clueless the OP and his supporters are about neo-realist film.
@sgcim
To be fair, Straight Out Of Brooklyn was actually pretty good for what it was, considering that the director himself was barely out of his teens at the time, and had never directed a film before. It was a low-budget indie film like KILLER OF SHEEP, just not an arthouse flick, that's all. I love low-budget indie films, so I didn't have that much of a problem with it. Plus being African-American, I could relate to a lot of the cultural aspects of it,which was fun for me.
I'd read about Killer of Sheep for years, and when I finally saw it, it reminded me of an Italian neo-realist flick---as if someone decided to shoot one about black folks in L.A., rather than Italians in Rome, Italy. I'm used to the mistakes and flubs from indie films made in any era, and this one is no different. It's basically a slice-of-life indie film with a unique look at the lives of working-class black people in L.A. in the late '70's. Burnett was then part of a group of black filmmakers calling themselves the L.A. Rebellion, I think, who wanted to make films that went against the grain of Hollywood depictions of black people at the time, which this film certainly did. So,therefore, it clearly wasn't made with commercial consideration in mind at all. The OP and other people obviously have issues with it because of that, but that's obviously because they don't appreciate the little joys, moments, and treasures that can be found experimental indie films,that's all. Whatever your opinion about this film, there's no question that its approach to its subject matter was unique for the time and place in which it was made---which is the reason a lot of people are still impressed with it today.
There's a movie called Bless Their Little Hearts made in 1984 written by Chales Burnett, and directed by Billy Woodberry, that I feel is superior to Killer Of Sheep! There's an actual plot, the character development is better, and the acting is better. It's made in the same style of Killer Of Sheep(Italian Neo-Realist) but better.
shareThere's a movie called Bless Their Little Hearts made in 1984 written by Chales Burnett, and directed by Billy Woodberry, that I feel is superior to Killer Of Sheep! There's an actual plot, the character development is better, and the acting is better. It's made in the same style of Killer Of Sheep(Italian Neo-Realist) but better.
share