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Slaughterhouse-Five (film)

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Slaughterhouse-Five
original film poster
Directed byGeorge Roy Hill
Screenplay byStephen Geller
Based onSlaughterhouse-Five or The Children's Crusade
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Produced byPaul Monash
StarringMichael Sacks
Ron Leibman
Valerie Perrine
CinematographyMiroslav Ondrícek
Edited byDede Allen
Stephen Rotter (assistant editor)
Music byGlenn Gould
Production
company
Vanadas Productions
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • March 15, 1972 (1972-03-15)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Slaughterhouse-Five is a 1972 science fiction film based on Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 novel of the same name about a writer who tells a story in random order of how he was a soldier in World War II and was abducted by aliens. The screenplay is by Stephen Geller and the film was directed by George Roy Hill. It stars Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, and Valerie Perrine, and features Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans, Holly Near, and Perry King. The scenes set in Dresden were filmed in Prague.[1] The other scenes were filmed in Minnesota.

Vonnegut wrote about the film soon after its release, in his preface to Between Time and Timbuktu:

"I love George Roy Hill and Universal Pictures, who made a flawless translation of my novel Slaughterhouse-Five to the silver screen ... I drool and cackle every time I watch that film, because it is so harmonious with what I felt when I wrote the book."

Plot

The film follows the novel in presenting a first-person narrative from the point of view of Billy Pilgrim (Sacks), who becomes "unstuck in time" and experiences the events of his life in a seemingly random order, including a period spent on the alien planet of Tralfamadore. Emphasis is placed on his experiences during World War II, including the firebombing of Dresden, as well as time spent with fellow prisoners of war Edgar Derby (Roche) and the psychopathic Paul Lazzaro (Leibman). His life as a husband to Valencia (Gans) and father to Barbara (Near) and Robert (King) are also depicted, as they live and sometimes even enjoy their life of affluence in Ilium, New York. A "sink-or-swim" scene with Pilgrim's father is also featured. The scenes of extraterrestrial life on Tralfamadore feature Hollywood starlet Montana Wildhack (Perrine).

Cast

Music

Slaughterhouse-Five is the first of two feature films for which Glenn Gould supplied the music; Bach Concerto #5 in F Minor, BWV 1056, and Concerto #3 in D Major, BWV 1054 were recorded at Columbia Studios with the Columbia Symphony orchestra; some selections came from existing recordings, and two featured other artists, including Rudolph Serkin, piano, with Casals conducting Brandenburg Concerto #4 in G Major, BWV 1049, III Presto. The film used such a small amount of music that the soundtrack album added atmospheric excerpts from Douglas Leedy's synthesized triple album Entropical Paradise.

The prolonged rendition of the final movement of Bach's fourth Brandenburg concerto accompanies a cinematic montage as the main character first encounters the city of Dresden.

Awards

The film won the Prix du Jury at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival,[2] as well as a Hugo Award and Saturn Award. Both Hill and Geller were nominated for awards by their respective guilds. Sacks was nominated for a Golden Globe.

See also

References

  1. ^ Canby, Vincent. "New York Times movies pages". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
  2. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Slaughterhouse-Five". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
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