It may fill you with despair or offer up relief, but you will not be unmoved.
Comment
09/07/07
Killer of Sheep (1977)
95
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:21
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.4/10
Consensus: By turns funny, sad, and profound, Killer of Sheep offers a sympathetic and humane glimpse into inner-city life.
Theatrical Release:Mar 30, 2007 Limited
Reviews for Killer of Sheep
Top CriticBurnett's documentarian empathy, coupled with his easygoing skill as a dramatic essayist, result in a film that doesn't look, feel or breathe like any American work of its generation.
08/02/07
Top Critic[A] gem ...
06/14/07
Top CriticA milestone of eloquent understatement that captures the daily life of have-nots as few American movies have.
06/08/07
Top CriticIndependence is a subject Mr. Burnett knows well. After all, he was indie well before the term entered the film vocabulary. And it all started with the sheep killer with sad, distant eyes.
06/01/07
Top CriticKiller of Sheep is unlike any other American film of its time or any other.
05/31/07
Top CriticA worthy, fascinating film that shows the influence of Bresson and of the Italian neorealists.
05/18/07
Top CriticEverything about Burnett's film has multiple meanings, even its title.
05/10/07
Top CriticCharles Burnett's timeless and poetic Killer of Sheep is one of those 'found' films that never should have been lost in the first place.
05/10/07
Top CriticThe strength of this little movie is its artlessness, the non-plotted story acted by non-actors, the raw unpretentiousness of real life in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles.
04/22/07
Top CriticSo sad. So lovely. So profound.
04/20/07
Top CriticPurposefully uneventful and made in a minor key, Killer of Sheep moved me to tears. Contemporary audiences may not recognize it as a great movie. There's not an ounce of slick in it; it's neither manipulative nor hurried.
04/20/07
Top Critic... a seminal American feature ...
04/09/07
Top Critic... still has the power to move us.
04/09/07
Top CriticKiller of Sheep, largely hidden from view for three decades, is an American masterpiece, independent to the bone.
04/04/07
Top CriticIn this blueprint are all sorts of interesting and unusual things.
04/01/07
Top CriticWhat an inexpressibly sad, strange and lovely movie it is.
03/30/07
Top CriticHere's to the miracle of a buried classic granted the opposite of a killing -- here's to life.
03/28/07
Top CriticAs fresh and observational as it was 30 years ago, Killer of Sheep seems even more universal now.
03/27/07
Top CriticKiller of Sheep can be seen (and reseen) as a great -- the greatest -- cinematic tone poem of American urban life.
03/26/07
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