Slaughterhouse-Five
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Movie Reviews of Slaughterhouse-Five
Movie Review: "Could we have the 'night canopy', please?"
Summary: 5 Stars
George Roy Hill's vastly underrated and often misunderstood 1972 sci-fi classic is available on DVD at last (or once again...I have never personally seen an available copy of the purported first DVD release-it must have gone out of print rather quickly). Hill does an admirable job with Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "unfilmable" story about Billy Pilgrim, a quiet and somewhat milquetoast Everyman (Michael Sachs) who has become "unstuck in time"; living/reliving random moments of his life in a kind of eternal "shuffle play". Without giving too much away, I'll just tell you that UFO's, WW 2, a sexy B-movie queen (played by Valerie Perrine-oh my!), suburban Americana, Zen philosophy, time travel, the End Of The Universe and intergalactic zoos all enter the mix, and believe it or not, it all makes perfect sense. In the hands of a lesser director, this type of risky book-to-film could have been a real mess (a la the most recent Vonnegut-to-screen "Breakfast Of Champions"). Hill manages to pull it off with the same class and finesse he would later apply to the equally 'unfilmable' John Irving story "The World According To Garp" (F.Y.I.-Hill's resume also includes "Butch Cassidy", "The Sting", "Slapshot" and "A Little Romance"!). The 2004 DVD transfer features a crisp widescreen picture and passable mono audio (no "extras", but I would suggest reading the book as an "extra"!) A must-have for fans of cerebral sci-fi.Movie Review: Is Anybody Else Out There Unstuck Too?
Summary: 5 Stars
The past, the present and the future: memories, experience and hopes. This is what we create by living. To an unknown extent it is our actual creation, for 'reality' is a very human thing. Billy Pilgrim has been traumatised by war, as has his fellow soldiers. His lesson is: try to remember the good things, try and forget the bad things. It might not be a noble philosophy, but in a world where he does not easily fit, whether it is a concentration camp or a middle class blancmange dream home, it is valuable information to get him by. Slaughterhouse Five is a very rare thing, a film that tries to make sense both out of the atrocity of war and the hysterical blandness of conformity. It never falters. It is convincing from first scene to last, spun on the fulcrum of Michael Sacks' minimalist acting style, which veers from puzzled incomprehension to calm acceptance, while everybody around him goes their mad, mad way. 'Unstuck in time' means chronological time is abandoned for thematic paralleled jump cuts. The film is not experimental however. Its technique is more subtle. The temporal sequence is disrupted not by the director showing off his technique, which is the usual thing, but by the character's mind. Billy is in shock, and must heal himself. What an eerie species we must appear to extraterrestials. Bach has the last word (on the soundtrack, as he does in Solaris as well).Movie Review: My favorite move of all time
Summary: 5 Stars
I think this is the only movie ever adapted from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s work that turned out well. It is the story of a old man that says that he is unstuck in time and is experiencing his life in random order, like Shuffle Play mode. He has also been abducted by aliens and is not only living on Earth, but also in a alien space zoo on the planet Tralfamadore, with an abducted porn star named Montana Wildhack. Vonnegut used this silly science-fiction premise to tell his true story of surviving the firebombing of Dresden, Germany when he was a POW during WWII. The soundtrack music is Bach's Brandenburg Concertos played by Glenn Gould. We also briefly meet characters from two of Vonnegut's other important novels, "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" and "Mother Night". While I would have liked to see one particular extra on the DVD (the unavailable PBS special "Between Time and Timbuktu"), I still have to give this release 5 stars because the movie is that good. It's the perfect blend of comedy and tragedy. Is the hero really experiencing time in a different way because of his exposure to an alien race, or are we just watching the delusions of a mentally ill old man? You decide.Movie Review: "Hello ~ Farewell"
Summary: 5 Stars
`Slaughterhouse Five' based on the Kurt Vonnegut book of the same name was released in '72. It is the story of an unassuming, quiet, introspective young man named Billy Pilgrim (Michael Sacks). Billy has a good profession, he's a dentist. He has a nice home in the suburbs, a loving but somewhat overbearing wife, two children and a dog. He's as dull and normal as anyone could be, except for one thing. Billy has become unstuck in time.
While the rest of Billy's family and community go about their daily lives Billy is busy traveling back and forth in time. Back to WWII and the time he spent as an American POW In Dresden, Germany or forward to view his own death. Even beyond death to the planet Tralfamadore where he can spent time with the lovely Hollywood actress Montana Wildhack (Valerie Perrine) who mysteriously disappeared without leaving a clue to her possible whereabouts.
Psychosis or Reality? Only the residents of the planet Tralfamadore know for sure.
A quirky classic you're sure to enjoy!
Movie Review: So it goes
Summary: 5 Stars
Successfully adapting a Vonneget book is one of the hardest things to achieve in the art of film adaptation. This is why five other attempts were considered failures or were met with bad reviews. Stephen Geller's Slaughterhouse-Five is a different story. Slaughterhouse-five tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man unstuck in time. Billy is constantly drifting from the war in Dresden to his unpleasant life in the suburbs, and his life with a cute girl on the planet Tralfamadore. This film manages to do Kurt Vonnegut's novel justice, mostly due to the great transitions that lay down a sort of pattern to Billy's time travel. Michael Sacks plays Billy Pilgrim in the exact fashion in which the character was conceived but I think the other characters come out quite different than the book. I feel that Slaughterhouse-Five is an over all great achievement. Five stars to director George Hill,screenwriter Stephen Geller and producer Paul Monash, cast and crew.