The “wrong-headed” 1977 review Roger Ebert actually apologised for 30 years later
Roger Ebert revisited his 1977 review of Charles Burnett’s *Killer of Sheep* and apologised for dismissing the film as boring. Three decades later, he recognised that its quiet, uneventful style made a larger statement about poverty, constrained choices and the dignity of its characters.
Burnett made the low-budget film with mainly non-professional actors. Set in Watts, it follows a slaughterhouse worker and his family through daily routines rather than a conventional plot. Ebert later called his original criticism “so wrong-headed”, saying the film’s stillness conveyed sadness and loss.
In short
- Ebert apologised for his 1977 review of *Killer of Sheep*.
- He later saw its quiet style as a larger statement.
- The film depicts life shaped by poverty and limited choices.
Explained simply
Roger Ebert was a prominent American film critic, while Charles Burnett is a filmmaker whose work often focuses on Black life in the United States. Burnett made Killer of Sheep on a low budget, using mainly non-professional actors and setting the story among a family in Watts, a neighbourhood in Los Angeles.
The film follows a slaughterhouse worker and his family through ordinary routines, with little of the plot or action common in many films. Its quiet style reflects the limits poverty places on people’s choices and shows the dignity of characters living with those limits.