MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Up 4,665 this week

Killer of Sheep (1979)

 -  Drama  -  20 June 2008 (UK)
7.3
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.3/10 from 2,977 users   Metascore: 94/100
Reviews: 29 user | 83 critic | 21 from Metacritic.com

Stan works in drudgery at a slaughterhouse. His personal life is drab. Dissatisfaction and ennui keep him unresponsive to the needs of his adoring wife, and he must struggle against ... See full summary »

Director:

Writer:

0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 110 titles created 01 May 2011
 
a list of 600 titles created 2 months ago
 
a list of 1006 titles created 8 months ago
 
a list of 25 titles created 24 Jun 2011
 
a list of 1001 titles created 27 Sep 2011
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Killer of Sheep (1979)

Killer of Sheep (1979) on IMDb 7.3/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Killer of Sheep.
3 wins. See more awards »
Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Drama | Fantasy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

A sensitive seven-year-old girl living a small village in 1940 rural Spain is traumatized after viewing James Whale's "Frankenstein" and drifts into her own fantasy world.

Director: Víctor Erice
Stars: Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent
Paris, Texas (1984)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his wife and son four years before... See full summary »

Director: Wim Wenders
Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Sam Berry, Dean Stockwell
Contempt (1963)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

Paul Javal is a writer who is hired to make a script for a new movie about Ulysses more commercial, which is to be directed by Fritz Lang and produced by Jeremy Prokosch. But because he let... See full summary »

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Stars: Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

Drama about a woman who assists her friend to arrange an illegal abortion in 1980's Romania.

Director: Cristian Mungiu
Stars: Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.

Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee
Viridiana (1961)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

Viridiana, a young nun about to take her final vows, pays a visit to her widowed uncle at the request of her Mother Superior.

Director: Luis Buñuel
Stars: Silvia Pinal, Francisco Rabal, Fernando Rey
Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

Twelve episodic tales in the life of a Parisian woman and her slow descent into prostitution.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Stars: Anna Karina, Sady Rebbot, André S. Labarthe
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

Story of two men drag racing across the USA in a primer grey 55 chevy. Wilson is the mechanic, James Taylor is the driver.

Director: Monte Hellman
Stars: James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird
Persona (1966)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

A nurse is put in charge of an actress who can't talk and finds that the actress's persona is melding with hers.

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Stars: Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Margaretha Krook
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

A group of 50's high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied West Texas town that is slowly dying, both economically and culturally.

Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd
Tokyo Story (1953)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city; but the children have little time for them.

Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Stars: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

A woman's life is derailed en route to a potentially lucrative summer job. When her car breaks down, and her dog is taken to the pound, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes ... See full summary »

Director: Kelly Reichardt
Stars: Michelle Williams, Lucy, David Koppell
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
Stan (as Henry Gayle Sanders)
...
Stan's Wife
Charles Bracy ...
Bracy
...
Stan's Daughter
Eugene Cherry ...
Eugene
...
Stan's Son
Slim
Delores Farley
Dorothy Stengel
Tobar Mayo
Chris Terrill
Lawrence Pierott
Russell Miles
Homer Jai
Johnny Smoke
Edit

Storyline

Stan works in drudgery at a slaughterhouse. His personal life is drab. Dissatisfaction and ennui keep him unresponsive to the needs of his adoring wife, and he must struggle against influences which would dishonor and endanger him and his family. Written by Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Genres:

Drama

Certificate:

See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Official Sites:

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

20 June 2008 (UK)  »

Also Known As:

Matador de ovejas  »

Box Office

Budget:

$100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$31,728 (USA) (6 April 2007)

Gross:

$339,884 (USA) (19 October 2007)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

No permits were obtained in the filming of the movie. See more »

Goofs

After Stan and his friend load the engine block on the truck, they drive away and it falls out, and a car is then seen parked along the curb. The car was not there when they carried the engine out. See more »

Quotes

Man: [first lines]
Man: [to his older son] You let anyone jump on your brother again, and you just stand and watch - boy, I'll beat you to death! I don't care who started what, or whether he was winnin' or losin'; well, you get a thick oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, a goddam brick, get *anything*, and you knock the shit out of whoever fightin' your brother! 'Cause if anything was to happen to me or your mother, you ain't got nobody except your brother. And this goes for him, too - and he knows! You're the one that keep ...
[...]
See more »

Connections

Referenced in Hollywoodn't (2009) See more »

Soundtracks

"Mean Old Frisco Blues"
Written by Arthur Crudup
Performed by Arthur Crudup
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
A piece of humanity
13 April 2008 | by (Los Angeles, CA) – See all my reviews

It's not about blacks, it's not even necessarily about the poor, it's a piece of humanity through the eyes of a sensitive filmmaker, and as such is a subtle and delicate thing. Unfortunately, all the 'hooplah' (Library of Congress, student film, etc.) about the movie I think basically buries the beauty of this movie for many viewers.

The beauty of this movie are in the subtle details that Burnett catches. The film has been described as being 'documentary' in style, but to call it that misses the deeper beauty of many of the scenes. To call it a 'slice of life' may be a bit more accurate, but even that doesn't sit well with me- it implies a sort of haphazard, random, cutesy story meant to seem ordinary but 'mean' more, or end up wrapping itself around a common Hollywood plot and message (love conquers all, try hard and don't give up, etc.) This movie is more like a wonderfully telling and sensitive and subtle piece of poetry. Without a significant plot line, all there may be are details, but the devil is in the details. Details captured from real life, not clumsy metaphors to assigned like a color-by-number picture.

I don't like giving ratings, especially too soon after I see a movie. But I'll rate it a 9 for now, and perhaps revise later (though I doubt I will ever lower my score.) A movie like this can be challenging to watch. There's no parts to piece together or 'figure out', there are no big character arcs or big dramatic moments. I'll leave it to each own's opinion whether this is a good or bad thing, but all the hyperbole aside, in my opinion this is a great movie.


4 of 6 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
the emperor has no clothes joenusbaum
Any reason why this was moved to the saved section of my Netflix queue? chicoman06
Killer of Sheep back in theaters! doctorface
VHS or DVD? Oblomov_81
Release in UK? Beardos_Film_Watcher
Etta James akirakurosawa05
Discuss Killer of Sheep (1979) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?