"Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." These opening words of Kurt Vonnegut's famous novel make an effective and short summary of a haunting, funny film. For the screen, director George Roy Hill faithfully renders Vonnegut's black anti-war comedy about Pilgrim (well played in a low key by Michael Sacks), who survives the horrendous 1945 fire bombing of Dresden then lives simultaneously in his past as a naïve American POW and in the future as a well-cared-for zoo resident on the planet Tralfamadore (with zaftig Valerie ...
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"Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." These opening words of Kurt Vonnegut's famous novel make an effective and short summary of a haunting, funny film. For the screen, director George Roy Hill faithfully renders Vonnegut's black anti-war comedy about Pilgrim (well played in a low key by Michael Sacks), who survives the horrendous 1945 fire bombing of Dresden then lives simultaneously in his past as a naïve American POW and in the future as a well-cared-for zoo resident on the planet Tralfamadore (with zaftig Valerie Perrine as his mate). In the present, he's a middle-aged optometrist in Ilium, NY. If this sounds like a bit of a jumble -- it is. But viewers willing to watch carefully will find the movie as intricate and harmonious as Glenn Gould's plaintive renderings of the Bach keyboard pieces that decorate its soundtrack. It's not essential, but fans who read the short, poetic book will find it a treat in itself, and it will help them appreciate Hill's genius in bringing this "Children's Crusade" to the screen. In addition to Sacks, there are noteworthy performances by Ron Leibman (Norma's union man in Norma Rae) as Pilgrim's crazed nemesis and by radio/TV/movie legend, John Dehner as the arrogant Professor Rumfoord. Hill, of course, came to this film from a big hit, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and went on to triumph with The Sting one year later. The elaborate medieval and baroque architecture of pre-bombing Dresden was represented authentically in the film by scenes from Prague, since much of Dresden's architecture was lost to the bombing, and that city, in any case, was deep in East Germany, thus inaccessible at the time of filming. Michael P. Rogers, Rovi
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Add this copy of Slaughterhouse Five to cart. $45.03, new condition, Sold by Entertainment by Post - UK rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from BRISTOL, SOUTH GLOS, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2004.
Add this copy of Slaughterhouse-Five [Blu-ray] to cart. $99.99, new condition, Sold by Cinema Classics rated 1.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Philadelphia, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by Arrow Video.
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Seller's Description:
Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans, Valerie Perrine. New in new packaging. Language: English. Run time: 103 mins. Aspect ratio: 1.85: 1. Originally released: 1972.
Slaughterhouse-Five is a remarkable film. Often a movie from a novel isn't as true to the author's intent as this movie is. Our protaganist Billy Pilgrim should go down in history more often. Hopefully this sleeper of a movie will find a recurring audience to applaud its perceptions. Kurt Vonnegut lives again and again every time someone watches this grand film!
mehaul
Mar 27, 2010
The Traumatic Life Of Bill Pilgrim
TITLE: Slaughterhouse-five
GENRE: SciFi/metaphysics near term
CAST: Michael Sacks, Valerie Perrine, Eugene Roche and Ron Liebman
PLOT: This movie is about a character who moves back and forth in his life and as such, no real plot exists. But Vonnegut, who wrote the book the movie is based on, was an excellent story teller.and this is the story he told .The traumas of the protagonist in unravelled time are: a drowning event as a boy (his father threw him in a pool to force him to learn to swim) Getting separated from his troops in the Arden of WW-II, finding other US troops who end up wanting to kill him, being captured by the Germans, surviving the Dresden bombing of Feb 1945, almost being killed by the liberating Russians, getting experimental post war psyche testing, marrying a woman who's always promising to go on a diet, surviving a plane crash where all others died, Alien abduction and relocation to Trafalmadore and finally getting snipered by one of those US GI's from WW-II. There are two instances cited to give credence to his time travel contention: he knew the plane was going to crash and he knew where, when and how he was going to die.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT: 9 of 10; the use of flashback to construct a story had been in Literature for some time but this is one of the first successful applications of the technique to a quality motion picture. The sets are tremendous, from pre-bomb Dresden to post bombed Dresden, to his habitat on Trafalmadore.
DVD BONUS: None
ADDED NOTES: Roche is quickly recognized from his future involvements in TV's Soap, All in The Family, Night Court and as the 'Ajax Man' of US advertising history
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