The Old Man Came Rolling Home

   Killer of Sheep illustrates the life of a working class, African-American by the name of Stan, who happens to be an employee at the local slaughter house. I chose to delve into a scene from [15:50-18:00] where Stan is shown working at the slaughterhouse.

   Within this scene, Stan appears to be cleaning up the factory like space and finishing up his days work. Throughout the film, the slaughterhouse scenes represent the violent nature of society in the 1960s-1970s, Stan's personal ties to violence through his upbringing, and the blatant violence of slaughtering sheep. Stan's time spent in the slaughterhouse is an avenue for improvement of his life through finances, although his living situation does not change within the film. Yet, the slaughterhouse is a vehicle for the violence that is instilled in Stan; a violence that harbors within him that never seems to surface.

   Following Stan's shift duties, he returns home to his family. At approximately [17:31], the camera pulls from inside the slaughterhouse and moves outside to establish a shot of the building itself. At this time, the chiming in of children singing "This Old Man..." The lyrics of this harmless children's rhyme are key to the scene and the overall picture that is taken for the film:
           
           "This old man, he played one,
             He played knick-knack on my thumb;                        
             With a knick-knack paddywhack,
             Give the dog a bone,
             This old man came rolling home."

    The song is key in understanding Stan's position in his family, at work, and in society. "This old man...," correlates to Stan's age and to the often used terminology for a husband or male lover as "my old man." Stan's move from childhood to adulthood is reflected in the opening scene of the film when he is being reprimanded by his father over a neighborhood fight. By the time we are able to formally meet and watch Stan he is very much an adult, with a wife and children to care for. By placing the children's song at the end of Stan's shift, the audience can grasp Stan's place in the slaughterhouse and in 1970s society by focusing on the line "Give the dog a bone, this old man came rolling home." A dog. Stan and other African Americans surrounding him are subjected to the racial injustice of being compared to by a dog. Dogs roam the streets, dogs are aggressive, dogs are filthy when not taken care of, and more importantly dogs are subjects of ownership. Stan is owned by society. Stan is owned by his father's lessons. Stan is owned by poverty. Stan is owned by the socioeconomic white workplace.


   Stan's struggles with making a name for himself and making a substantial amount of money for his family are accurate portrayals of the society that Charles Burnett aimed to capture. There were hundreds, thousands, millions of characters like Stan in America at the time. Following race riots and civil rights protests, Killer of Sheep strives to capture an audience by association. African American viewers can relate through personal struggle with race in America, stories from relatives who lived during that time, public forums of the news documenting a new horror for members of the Black community almost daily, whereas viewers from other racial identifications, more specifically White/Caucasian viewers, can experience Stan's story through the relationship to their own struggles financially, social discrimination towards women in America, the relationship between being white during a time of racial inequalities, and being associated with the trivial issues that Stan and many others within the film are dealing with.
                                         

Love On the Road

In the 1969 film, Easy Rider, the story of two free-spirited friends traveling East on their motorcycles in search for a life better than the ones they are living, the experience of love between the men and their motorcycles can be seen through the various shots and camera angles used throughout the film.

Director Dennis Hopper, who also stars in the film as Billy the Kid, chooses to shoot the motorcycles from various angles to demonstrate their significance in the journey. There is something fascinating about the way the bikes are seen on camera, because there is an element of life brought to them. They are no longer the objects of transportation, but the tool that both brings life to the men and takes it away. The motorcycles are vehicles for mobility and the force to driving the two men towards their dreams, but the relationship established between the drivers and the bikes is stronger than just man and machine.

A love story. Yeah, it sounds crazy, but hear me out. Through the various camera angles, the bike takes on the position of a woman. For example, there is a panning tilt shot of Captain America's bike that we viewed in class, where he is shoving the money into the gas tank, that resembles the shots that were often used to move up on a woman's leg in previous films. This scene, as in many others, places a particular sexual desire on the machine. Also, the idea of Captain America inserting the money into the bike, suggests "penetration" which could be read similarly to a man penetrating a woman, also known as sexual intercourse.Emphasizing this femininity and sexuality of the bike, the men are continuously "riding," which is often a term that relates explicitly to sex.

Although we see both Captain America and Billy the Kid interacting and having social relations with women throughout the film, there is no established relationship or significant other figure present. Except their bikes. The motorcycles are there with them through everything, and become the substitute for a relationship. The care and protection the men put into their bikes takes away from it as a possession and brings light to the fact that it means much more to them than just a bike.