Rating of
2/4
"Slaughterhouse Five" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/02/20
Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time, travelling backwards and forwards between moments in his life including his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II and his time as a zoo exhibit on the alien planet of Tralfamadore.
Kurt Vonnegut’s blackly humorous and surreal semi-autobiographical Slaughterhouse Five is one of my favourite novels and I was curious to see how it would make the transition to the silver screen, particularly in the hands of George Roy Hill whose other projects have included The Sting and Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. Unfortunately, stripped of the talents of Newman and Redford Slaughterhouse Five fails to live up to the potential of these genre classics. Michael Sacks lacks the presence and charisma to be the focal point of this surreal journey and the wry wit and unsentimental yet moving commentary provided by Vonnegut’s beautifully understated prose is sorely missing from the film version. It does have its moments – the aftermath of the bombing of Dresden is powerful and the scenes on Tralfamadore have a B-movie charm, – but it feels more like someone faithfully reciting the events of the book rather than capturing its true spirit because the sly humour never really lands on screen.
Like the adaptation of Catch 22, it’s a brave attempt at a very difficult story to fully capture and as such is something of a heroic failure.
