Watching the film "Killer of Sheep" was considerably difficult for me for a multitude of reasons. Before I get into the details of the film I would like to mention that in general, I am typically never a fan of any works of realism mainly because of how bland and strenuous they can be. I understand that realism is the attempt to portray accurate representations of reality, but that doesn't mean they all need to be hopelessly dismal and lifeless!
In the case of this movie, the attempt to portray realism virtually killed this movie for me. Making the movie in black and white (even though color films were being made at that time) did nothing to add to the nature of the film. I must also add that the background music was very poorly done and therefore lent nothing to the film's tone and only made my mood towards the film even more distasteful. The reason I had such a difficult time understanding the film was because of it's lack of plot and character development. Guess what! In true realism of reality, people are still dynamic and there is a story to be told. This film had neither of those two qualities. Absolutely no attempt was made to develop any connection to the characters, therefore I had no emotional ties to any the characters. Despite my best efforts to locate any solid introduction, rising action, climax, or resolution to the film, I found none of the above. The transitions from seen to seen left me without any firm understanding of what had occurred during that scene and it didn't flow well into the upcoming scene. Reading the synopsis of the film was the only way I was able to actually understand what the plot was supposed to be. I believe that I have learned nothing from watching this movie despite my best intentions.
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