Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)

I didn't come to Kurt Vonnegut's excellent novel Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death until about two years ago, but I am now decidedly a fan (I later read somewhere that this book is considered the perfect novel for smart 14 year old boys, so make of that what you will). Even while reading the book I couldn't help but think it presented a very difficult prospect for cinematic adaptation, what with all the unstuck-in-timeness and all, as a consequence I really wasn't expecting all that much from director George Roy Hill's 1972 film version, so I'm delighted to say just how much those expectations were upset. Slaughterhouse-Five gets it, it strikes the right tone, somehow incorporates the majority of what you'll find in the novel, and very wisely uses a cast of unknowns. While Michael Sacks film career never really took off, he was the perfect Billy Pilgrim, a quite man who keeps his sense of awe, whether it be while serving in the second world war, training his beloved dog Spot, or finding himself in an alien zoo on the planet Tralfamadore..

The novel was the fruition of Vonnegut's long sought attempt to capture in writing his experience as an Allied POW survivor of the viscous carpet bombing of the old German city of Dresden. Vonnegut presents his tale through a fictional surrogate (though the author makes a brief cameo in the book suffering from a sever stomach aliment) and in his own unique style. It's genera bending, incorporating history, science fiction, domestic life, comedy, drama, satire and more. The disjointedness of the presentation is chief among both the book and movies strengths. We see the impact of those days in Dresden set against the panorama of an entire life, and see the deep impressions left by witnessing those horrors. Beyond the absurdist surface reading the text is often interpreted as a metaphor for post traumatic stress syndrome, and the story works well on both levels. This movie packs a lot into a 104 minutes but I never felt overwhelmed, though perhaps I would have had I not first read the book. There are a few things missing or chopped, like the character of Eliot Rosewater being cut to one scene, but I found on the whole this to be a very satisfying adaption, and I'm glad they made it in the 70's, it wouldn't have seemed as radical if made today. ***1/2