Killer Of Sheep + My Brother’s Keeper (1973,
83/Milestone DVD Set)
Picture:
C/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Films: B
In the
middle of the Blaxploitation Cycle and long before The Black New Wave, Charles
Burnett was making films about The Black Experience that were raw, brutally
honest, innovative, groundbreaking, interesting, consistent and enduring. After all of this, it is shocking he has not
had the better revival he deserves. Now,
the great Milestone Films, with the equally great New Yorker Films and
filmmaker Steven Soderbergh have issued restored versions of two of his
films. Released as a DVD set, Killer Of Sheep (1973) and My Brother’s Keeper (1983) are two
exceptional looks at life through a truly independent lens.
Finally
issued in 1977, Sheep takes place in
Watts, where a son grows up with his father, who works at a slaughterhouse,
trying to survive. He is a realist, yet
has his own dreams and ideas. Filled
with irony, its 81 minutes are rich and sometimes hard to watch, so honest and
painful some of the moments can be.
However, I could not stop watching and Burnett proves to be a capable
filmmaker who remains way ahead of his time.
My Brother’s Wedding was originally rushed to theaters
in 1983 and promptly bombed, in a version that was not his cut of the
film. In 2007, he was able to finally
finish the film his way and a longer, better, more visionary film
resulted. What I liked about this one is
how it does not have a hint of phoniness most films about weddings (no matter
the race, color sex, age, etc.) the formulaic Hollywood versions always
have. Instead, it is a deeper, more
realistic and pulls no punches as a poor brother with no future prospects
working at his parent’s cleaners in South Central has to deal with seeing his
brother marrying into money and the fiancée is not exactly snob-free. Right Wing idiots would accuse this
acknowledgement of class division of starting some kind of “class war” but such
things only happen when such things are denied.
The 1.33
X 1 image in both cases look good in these restored editions, yet show their
age a bit and DVD’s limits do not help. Sheep is in black and white and looks
good simply because even with a low budget, real black and white stocks were
still available. It can be flat in detail,
but the source is so clean that you know the DVD is getting in a way a
bit. The second film is in color and
there is an improvement in detail and depth in both versions available here. Color is consistent enough, but I wondered
throughout how these would look on film prints or in HD presentations. Good thing they have been saved. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is monophonic ion both
cases and sounds just fine.
Extras
include a commentary track and three short films by Burnett (Several
Friends from 1969, The Horse from 1973 and When
It Rains from 1995) on the Sheep
disc, while the Keeper disc offers
liner notes by Armond White, reunion of the Sheep cast, Sheep
trailer and Quiet As Kept, Burnett’s
new short film about Hurricane Katrina, showing he has lost none of his edge. He may even be an auteur, but I would like to
see a little more of his work before I decide.
Hope it
happens. Don’t miss this set!
- Nicholas Sheffo
