Milestone's Killer of Sheep.

Killer of Sheep "is a genuinely great film, and now it has reached DVD as only one component of a superb two-disc set from Milestone Film and Video," writes Dave Kehr in the New York Times. The set includes My Brother's Wedding and four short films by Charles Burnett. "If it were a short story by Faulkner, The Horse would have become an anthology piece decades ago."

"On the surface merely a mood piece about the enervating, dead-end existence of being black in 1970s America, Killer of Sheep attains an inexplicable elemental power, an almost primal thrust and mystery that suggests, at least to the willing viewer, millennia of godless desperation, human embattlement and food-chain horror," writes Michael Atkinson at IFC News. "It's a ghost movie, returned to haunt us."

Updated through 11/14.

"Among the first fifty films to be inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, and named one of 100 Essential Films of all time by the National Society of Film Critics, the reputation Burnett's work has earned is richly deserved," writes David Walker at DVD Talk. "Killer of Sheep is a brilliant film, stunning in its perceived simplicity, heartbreaking in its honesty, and unparalleled in its humanity." As for the DVD, "While the picture quality on this disc may not be up to some people's standards in general, it is amazing given the quality of older prints that were in circulation." What's more, "because My Brother's Wedding is not really the sort of film that necessarily warrants its own release, it makes for a great bonus on this disc."

Earlier: "Interview. Charles Burnett" and "My Brother's Wedding"; and Ed Gonzalez at Slant.

Update: This set is "a remarkable conveyor of the sheer range of Burnett's work," writes Glenn Kenny. "The freedom, the humanity, the sheer strangenes of his movies is immeasurable; I've said it before and I'll say it again, but these are the qualities that make Burnett a kinsman of Jean Vigo."

Update, 11/14: "I'm not sure what to add to the praise to get people to see Killer of Sheep, so maybe it's time to roll out the blurbs: if you buy one DVD this year, make it this one." Credit: Nicolas Rapold, L Magazine.

Posted by dwhudson at November 13, 2007 8:39 AM