Rating: 
Summary: Come Unstuck in Time With Billy Pilgrim
Review: I would've bet Kurt Vonnegut's novel was unfilmable. And I would've lost, baby! Lost! But losing's okay, because this George Roy Hill film is a well-made version of one of literature's wildest works. Michael Sacks plays WWII vet/optometrist Billy Pilgrim, a lost soul who's become "unstuck" in time, courtesy the fourth dimensional aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. So Pilgrim constant relives his horrific war experiences (like Vonnegut, he survives the Battle of the Bulge, becomes a prisoner and witnesses the Dresden firebombing in which more civilians died than in Hiroshima), his marriage to a woman (Sharon Gans) who gets fatter and fatter then dies in a car accident, his near-death experience in a plane crash and his time in an alien zoo with Playboy playmate Montana Wildhack (Valerie Perrine, looking super-sexy). The film's slow pace gives it a philosophical, thoughtful feel that fits the novel. The only discordant note is the slapstick quality of Gans' car crash death; it goes on a bit too long, as if the filmmakers felt the need to introduce some action to liven things up. Other than that, it's like the novel come to life, and almost as moving. Ron Liebman ("Norma Rae") gives a ferocious performance as revenge-obsessed Paul Lazzaro; to read his vicious speeches is one thing, to actually hear them adds just the right touch of horror. Eugene Roche plays decent, doomed Edgar Derby. So, what's it all about? The Tralfamadorians tell Pilgrim since they can see every moment in time simultaneously, the secret is to only look at the good ones. So Pilgrim tries to make the best of the situations he's in. The trick, evidently, is to remember to look surprised, and to accept that life is a mix of very pleasant moments inevitably followed by very horrible ones. Look for a young Perry King (TV's "Riptide") and Boss Hogg himself, Sorrell Booke as Sacks' father-in-law.
Rating: 
Summary: Misses A Point of the Novel
Review: In my opinion, one of the most heart-breaking aspects of the novel upon which this film was based was the possibility that Billy Pilgrim had to fantasize the Trafalmadorians to hide from the fact the people are RESPONSIBLE for their own actions. I thought the film presented the Trafalmadorians as real, without looking into the possibility that people might be responsible for the horrors they create. I think the best film adaptation of a Vonnegut novel is "MOTHER NIGHT."
Rating: 
Summary: Better than the book, from a Vonnegut lover
Review: Just amazing in scope, sense of humor, and performance.
Rating:
Summary: How's this for rare...a quality Vonnegut adaptation.
Review: Kurt Vonnegut is one of those writers who, when you hear about a movie adaptation of one of their works, you always immediately think "How the Hell are they gonna manage that?". His books are stream-of-consciousness tirades against the madness of mankind...not exactly cinema-ready audience pleasers. This has been proven by experimental disasters such as "Slapstick (of Another Kind)". But under the expert and fearless direction of George Roy Hill ("The Sting", "The World According to Garp", "Slap Shot", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), the movie version of "Slaughterhouse 5" has nothing to feel embarassed about when placed next the the excellent novel. The key to this, as in all great novel-movie transfers, is a worthy cast. And here we have one in spades. I don't think there's another movie made that has done such a bang-on job at matching the flesh and blood actors to their literary equivalents. Protagonist Billy Pilgrim is played perfectly withdrawn by Michael Sacks, with Sharon Ganz as his overweight, overprotective wife. He has become unstuck in time, forever bouncing around his own life. From the horrors of WWII to the mundane insanity of marriage, the film masterfully transitions between these random chronological events, till Pilgrim eventually ends up on display on the distant planet Tralfamadore, paired together with barely-clad sexpot Montana Wildhack. Viewers can enjoy the same laser-like accuracy in casting with the various supporting characters. Newcomers to Vonnegut might find themselves slightly unstuck through the meandering narrative, but the inherient quality of the film should see even confused moviegoers to the end of this cinematic Vonnegut masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: How's this for rare...a quality Vonnegut adaptation.
Review: Kurt Vonnegut is one of those writers who, when you hear about a movie adaptation of one of their works, you always immediately think "How the Hell are they gonna manage that?". His books are stream-of-consciousness tirades against the madness of mankind...not exactly cinema-ready audience pleasers. This has been proven by experimental disasters such as "Slapstick (of Another Kind)". But under the expert and fearless direction of George Roy Hill ("The Sting", "The World According to Garp", "Slap Shot", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), the movie version of "Slaughterhouse 5" has nothing to feel embarassed about when placed next the the excellent novel. The key to this, as in all great novel-movie transfers, is a worthy cast. And here we have one in spades. I don't think there's another movie made that has done such a bang-on job at matching the flesh and blood actors to their literary equivalents. Protagonist Billy Pilgrim is played perfectly withdrawn by Michael Sacks, with Sharon Ganz as his overweight, overprotective wife. He has become unstuck in time, forever bouncing around his own life. From the horrors of WWII to the mundane insanity of marriage, the film masterfully transitions between these random chronological events, till Pilgrim eventually ends up on display on the distant planet Tralfamadore, paired together with barely-clad sexpot Montana Wildhack. Viewers can enjoy the same laser-like accuracy in casting with the various supporting characters. Newcomers to Vonnegut might find themselves slightly unstuck through the meandering narrative, but the inherient quality of the film should see even confused moviegoers to the end of this cinematic Vonnegut masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Billy...The war is over !!!
Review: My all time favorite movie , read the book in 1973 and then saw the film on a late nite broadcast in the late 70's...When I got my first Video recorder this was one of the first films I bought....I have been looking to buy this on DVD for a long time and now I have it...The movie is well written and filmed , the music is outstanding and the acting is top notch...The German scenes of camps and halftracks and uniforms are right on the money...The story is a killer , time travel and insanity and fatherhood and anti-war themes run rampant....Dresden and the Feb. 1945 bombing are the central theme though and the storyline of this event is the thread that holds the movie together...Buy this movie and enjoy it many times....You need to view it at least a dozen times to catch all the plots and the dialouge and the great direction that was put into this story...
Rating:
Summary: Eh...what?
Review: Never having read the famous book I can not make any comparison between the movie and the novel. George Roy Hill has directed some great movies, such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Sting" and "A Little Romance". Here he uses relative unknown actors in a complex dramatic story involving time-travel by a man named Billy Pilgrim, between three different periods of his life. One of those times is during World War II and his time spent in a prisoner-of-war camp ("Slaughterhouse Five") in Dresden, Germany. He survives the fire-bombing which kills over 130,000 people, but is emotionally scarred after losing his friend. Another time is his post-war married life. The third time of his life is spent in a geodesic dome on the planet Tramalfadore, living with a soft-porn actress. The cuts between them are usually based on a common action. The movie is well acted and directed, and has good production values. It appears to have a good story somewhere in it, but after two viewings, I'm still not sure I found it.
Rating:
Summary: Cry Laugh and Gasp.
Review: One of the only movies I've seen that is better or rivals the book. Once again K. Vonneguts character description of the lead (Billy Pigrim) can be related to by less than 40% of us. But those that do will have a life long friend and confidante within Billy. This movie will have you rolling in the isles with laughter, sheading a pathetic tear for "I can relate" and gasping at the untold "fortune" and "misfortune" of the evolving characters. A must see for those that love life.
Rating:
Summary: Slaughterhouse Five full of irony
Review: Slaughterhouse Five is an excellent adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel about one man's journey back and forth in time between World War 2 and present day (1970's) America. If you haven't read the novel, you will spend the first part of the movie trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together which make up the sequence of his life. The movie deals with a number of different themes; the horrors and injustice of war, the possibility of time travel, space travel and premonition. The movie is full of ironies; Billy Pilgrim, an American of German ancestry, is sent to fight Germans in WW2. He is captured and becomes a POW in one of the "safest parts of Germany" - Dresden. It turns out Dresden suffered higher casualties than Hiroshima. As an American POW, he is bombed by his own people, the British and Americans. A good-natured POW is shot for looting while the bad Paul Lazzaro survives and prospers. A small figurine survives the bombing only to be broken afterwards. The figurine is symbolic of the city of Dresden itself; innocent, fragile, a senseless victim of the war. Billy Pilgrim survives the trauma of the war, a plane crash, losing his wife in a car crash and then takes a trip to Tralfamadore. The viewer is left to decide whether his space travel is really happening or the hallucinations of someone trying to cope with life's experiences. The story does have a positive message: try to put things into perspective; look at your life as a whole and not get bogged down in the day to day trials and errors. There is also a certain fatalism going on; things are going to happen that are outside of your control, there will be nothing you can do about them, just try to get on with it and enjoy the good times.
Rating:
Summary: Important Documentation of an Allied War Crime.
Review: Slaughterhouse Five was actually the place where some allied prisoners of WWII were being held in the city of Dresden. How prophetic this name was, as the British and American bomber commands turned a defenseless and beautiful city into the biggest slaughterhouse of WWII (without any military importance)! K.V. was one of those American POW's...This is his story of the biggest single allied crime of WWII.
| 
