In 2007, thirty years after its completion, filmmaker Charles Burnett's masterpiece, Killer of Sheep, was finally released for public distribution. Shot in B&W for less than $10,000, Burnett's bleak portrayal of one African-American man's working class life in the Watts district of Los Angeles drew comparisons to Italian directors such as Fellini and Rossellini and was named by Time magazine as one of the ten best films of 2007. Its appearance at the 2007 Atlanta Film Festival (as part of a Charles Burnett retrospective) drew enormous crowds and praise; since then, the film has been named one of the 100 essential films of all time by the National Society of Film Critics and was among the first fifty films to be inducted into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.Want to place a hold on this DVD? Click here.
That Metallica is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 4 is no surprise. What is suprising is recent word that they will be joined by Jason Newsted, the former bassist whose departure in 2001 was anything but civil. Newsted joined Metallica after the 1986 death of Cliff Burton, killed in a horrific bus accident during the European leg of the band's Damage, Inc. tour. Which brings us to Master of Puppets, the last studio album to feature Burton and the band's first album to be certified gold. Will Newsted and his former bandmates play nice long enough to get through the ceremonies in Cleveland? Will he even show up? Who knows. But in the meantime, you can take a trip back to a kinder, gentler time with the album that helped make the boys a household name.
