Killer of Sheep is supposed to be some kind of neo-realist slice of life, I think. But those who found even those films to contrived and plot driven will probably enjoy this movie, that has no story and no resolution. Some people will love this film, but I found that, accurate at its look at the lives of the characters may be, there was not much of a reason to care.
It also hard to understand what there is to care about. The sound on this low-budget feature is very bad, and the characters speak in a thick Ebonic dialect. This means that much of the dialogue is hard to understand (I was not the only person who felt this way). Since the movie is plotless, it crucially important that we understand the character relationships. The movie is about a black family in a big city (I know from what I read it's Los Angeles). The father (Henry Gayle Sanders) works as a slaughterer at a meat packing plant. He has two kids and a wife. He's basically a good guy but is occasionally harassed by two men who may or may not be gangsters. His kids are okay but often play rough. He helps a friend move his car engine (in the best scene in the movie). And that's about all. So much of this movie the characters speaking, and too often I couldn't understand what they are saying.
The photography is grainy, black and white. It is the movie best features and in a way works too well, since it makes the setting look like nothing we've ever seen. The film is so detached from any real location, it almost seems like a science fiction film or a fantasy. The visuals are so evocative that they defeat the movies obstensive purpose of realism.
I respected this movie a lot. I liked what it tried to do. I support low buget filmmaking, but it's clear that this movie had too low a budget then it needed. Although I doubt I would join this movie's cult if I understood the dialogue more, I might have gotten into the grove of the characters' lives. Maybe.
Killer of Sheep (1977)