My Brother's Wedding And Killer Of Sheep

Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep (1977) is quite simply one of the most haunting and evocative films that American cinema has managed to produce in the last thirty years. Filmed in an over-exposed black-and-white lighting style, which recalls early masterpieces of the silent screen such as Luis Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou (1929) and Kenneth McPherson’s Borderline (1930), Killer of Sheep is a sparse thought provoking work, both in terms of its narrative structure as well as its use of symbolic visual images of lambs being led to slaughter.

Produced while Burnett was still at film school in UCLA, the setting for the film is the same tumbled down back-streets of South Central Los Angeles that had earlier been made famous by Melvin Van Peebles in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971). Unlike Van Peebles, however, who chose this location and lurid blaxploitation narrative in order to critique the fractured nature of race relations in late 1960s America, Burnett’s less emotive, and more objectifying style of filmmaking seeks only to document the social context of inner-city poverty, amongst the black community.

The film’s skeleton storyline revolves around Stan, a stoic African-American slaughterhouse worker, struggling to provide for his wife and two kids. Stan’s resolute refusal to give in to the advice of friends and neighbours and simply quit his job, live off welfare and/or indulge in criminal activity is as moving a portrayal of self-sacrifice and self-reliance as has ever been made, and it leaves as much of an indelible mark on the viewer as it does on each member of his family.

The beauty and intelligence of Killer of Sheep is often revealed by the smallest of gestures, which in themselves are then allowed to give way to a deeper meaning. Mid-way through the film for instance, Stan’s son pleads for pocket money from his mother by addressing her as “ma’dear”, to which his father immediately shoots back: “Don’t be calling your mother ‘ma’dear’ boy. You’re not in the country now!” The implication of these words is clear. Without being explicitly told, the viewer slowly becomes aware that Stan and his family have travelled to California from one of the southern American states; almost certainly to escape the racist Jim Crow laws existing at the time.

 The second Burnett film in this 2 DVD box-set, My Brother’s Wedding (1983), is an altogether more narrative driven work. Filmed in brightly lit colours, in the same South Central location as Killer of Sheep, My Brother’s Wedding once again concerns the fractured nature of family relationships in the African-American community. The plot focuses of the life Pierce, who at the age of thirty finds himself living at home and working in his parent’s dry-cleaning business. Though relatively happy with his predicament, Pierce nevertheless feels an intense anger towards his upwardly mobile brother who has decided to move out of the community to become a successful lawyer in the city. Pierce’s anger is only intensified by the fact that his own mother is forever comparing her two sons unfavourably.

Rather than present Pierce as an envious two-dimensional character, however, Burnett managed to give weight to his plight by showing him, at various stages, caring for and bathing his infirm grandparents. Throughout My Brother’s Wedding, Pierce’s relationship with his brother is put into sharp relief by his intense friendship with an ex-school mate and recent ex-convict, called Sailor. The obvious failings in Sailor’s character are not readily apparent to Pierce primarily because - as with his grandparents – he requires his help. Since Pierce’s brother requires no such help and has happily joined the ranks of the middle-classes, the younger sibling feels shunned. It is only in the film’s closing scene – when Pierce, who has chosen to attend Sailor’s funeral rather than act as the best man at his brother’s wedding – that he is finally able to comprehend his own jealousy and fraternal failings.

Killer Of Sheep (1977)
Release Date: 20th October 2008
Director: Charles Burnett
Starring: Everett Silas, Jessie Holmes, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, Ronnie Bell, Dennis Kemper, Sally Easter & Angela Burnett
Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 1hr 23mins (approx.)
Special Features: Exclusive new 20 minute interview with Charles Burnett, Feature commentary with Charles Burnett and Richard Pea (Programme Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Centre), Burnett early shorts: Several Friends (1969, 21 minutes) and The Horse (1973, 13 minutes), Fully illustrated booklet.
RRP: £15.99
http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_10478.html

My Brother's Wedding (1983)
Release Date: 20th October 2008
Director: Charles Burnett
Starring: Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela Burnett, Eugene Cherry & Jack Drummond
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 3hrs 21mins (approx.)
Special Features:Exclusive new 13 minute interview with Charles Burnett, Burnett's short films When it Rains (1995, 13 minutes), Burnetts short film celebrating the value of community, as a benevolent man helps neighbour who faces eviction. Quiet as Kept (2007, 5 minutes), Burnetts short documentary concerning a former New Orleans family relocated after Hurricane Katrina, Fully illustrated booklet
RRP: £17.99
http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_10483.html

Dominic Kelleher