It’s time to add this long-forgotten Kurt Vonnegut adaptation and essential masterpiece to your queue

Few authors are as celebrated as Kurt Vonnegut. From the outside, one could easily mistake the celebrated counterculture writer for someone who simply writes dark, silly paperbacks with a science fiction twist. If you actually delve into one of his works, you’ll quickly realize that Vonnegut is much more than just a whimsical comic book ghost. Books like Cat’s cradle, The Sirens of Titanand the criminally underrated Galapagos prove that Vonnegut seamlessly gives his readers a hilarious time while serving up his completely unique brand of satire. Although he has a lot of popular titles, most people know him for his 1969 masterpiece: Slaughterhouse Fiveand for good reason. On the one hand, it’s one of the best anti-war novels you can find, with a powerful commentary on PTSD to boot. It might be a strange time to add that this is a strong contender for one of the funniest books ever written. Vonnegut is a master comedian who takes readers through devastating scenes from World War II, healing our souls with his offbeat sense of humor. In addition to the rich themes and tone, this is a highly imaginative story that overturns all conventional narrative structures. Vonnegut guides readers through the life of his protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, in a way that he describes as “unbound in time.” This is more than just a narrative approach; It is actually the way Pilgrim experiences his own life. We are thrown in and out of different eras and events throughout his life, from middle age into childhood, forward into his older years, back into his teenage years, and so on. To put it simply: Slaughterhouse Five is unique.

Given all this, it’s hard to imagine how anyone in the world could attempt to bring Pilgrim’s story to the big screen. That is, if you cast a ghost like prime time George Roy Hill If you’re in the director’s chair, you might have gold on your hands. What came out of it was 1972 Slaughterhouse Fivea brisk 104-minute retelling of Vonnegut’s sprawling tale. Somehow Roy-Hill did the impossible and made a damn good film out of his source material, so good that it received a nomination for the Palme d’Or at the 25th Cannes Film Festival. Roy-Hill’s film perfectly combines Vonnegut’s signature mix of sincerity and absurdity while being performed by a cast of little-known actors whose non-celebrity status helps bring these iconic characters easily to life. Slaughterhouse Five is an anomaly in the world of Vonnegut film adaptations. Films like Mother’s Night And Breakfast of Champions have done their best to bring the author’s voice to life, but with little success. Considering its critical acclaim, not to mention the fact that it’s based on one of the most famous books of its time, how do you like a movie? Slaughterhouse Five fall by the wayside to the extent that it did?

Slaughterhouse-Five was considered by many to be an unadaptable novel

Bringing books to the big screen is never easy. Since the advent of cinema, filmmakers have continually tried to bring their favorite literary works to life. Most of the time, fans moan about these adaptations. It’s not hard to understand why either. No matter how much detail a filmmaker puts into their film, it is impossible for them to capture exactly what an author creates in a novel. Written language gives readers the space and enough tools to create their own version of the book world. Films, on the other hand, are what they are, leaving viewers with next to nothing to put together themselves. However, most books can still be adapted without causing too much excitement. Bringing solid works to life rarely feels risky. When you delve into genre territory, things start to feel out of place. If any book belonged in this area, then Slaughterhouse Five would absolutely end up in this camp.

While Slaughterhouse FiveThe biggest hurdle seems to be the novel’s unconventional structure; there have been plenty of films that have jumped through time. The biggest challenge Roy-Hill and Co. had to face was bringing Vonnegut’s voice to life. The novel is told from Pilgrim’s point of view, so Vonnegut is essentially as much the main character as his protagonist. His writing style is The an integral part of what makes this book so great. Although Vonnegut’s novels are not always told from the first person perspective, they all carry his unique voice. This is the reason why hardly any feature films are based on his works and the most important indicator why most adaptations of his books are unsuccessful.

George Roy-Hill was an unpredictable but fantastic choice to adapt Slaughterhouse-Five

Luckily it could have been the 70s The Decade for dark, cynical comedies. The works of Hal Ashby And Robert Altman are more than proof of this. While Roy-Hill may not be the first person you think of when you round up images of the decade’s great comedies, he was still a fantastic filmmaker. Slaughterhouse Five landed right between its director’s two most famous films; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid And The stitch. These two classics prove that Roy-Hill can handle the dramatic rhythms of Vonnegut’s novel while keeping it lively and entertaining. Even at its darkest, this thing continues to move at a brisk pace. Given that many of the World War II scenes are sandwiched between ridiculous scenes from other points in Pilgrim’s life, Slaughterhouse Five never stays serious for very long. No one should ever doubt Roy-Hill’s ability to bring weight to his films. The real test was whether he could make his film as bizarre and funny as the source material.

Is Slaughterhouse Five a comedic masterpiece like the book before it? Well, not necessarily, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Vonnegut’s narrative touch is the main part of what makes his novel so funny. Everything is presented so dryly, apatheticly and unimpressed that you can’t help but laugh. This type of comedy rightly cannot be left off the page. However, Roy-Hill’s film is only as funny as it needs to be. Its weighty themes are balanced by enough strange lines and ideas from Vonnegut, giving us a film that flows with a hypnotic, dark lightness. It may not have the same tone as the novel, but it finds its own perfect atmosphere. Without giving it away, some may be disappointed by the way Roy-Hill brings the fantastical elements of the novel to life. It’s all presented in a more down-to-earth manner than this particular reader originally imagined, and certain elements are avoided due to a lack of execution, but make up for it with the cool 70s sci-fi aesthetic.

Michael Sacks is the perfect choice to lead Slaughterhouse-Five

While Roy-Hill can be credited with much of the film’s success, the cast is also awesome. Michael Sacks as Billy Pilgrim is a revelation. Just as Roy-Hill gives his film the perfect Vonnegut tone, Sacks manages to present the author’s dialogue in a way that is both faithful to the source material and appears natural. Why he couldn’t have a career after that, I’ll never know. The fact that he wasn’t a star probably plays a big part in bringing Pilgrim to life. He doesn’t bring the baggage of expectations with him in the way that someone would like Dustin Hoffman could have. Would Hoffman have been great? Probably, but we would think more about the rest of his career or his filmography than focus on Pilgrim’s journey. At Sacks we don’t have this problem.

Vonnegut is hard to adapt, but Roy-Hills is Slaughterhouse Five manages to go its own way while doing justice to its source material. The author himself was even a fan of the film. In the preface to Between time and TimbuktuVonnegut stated, “I love George Roy-Hill and Universal Pictures, who have done a flawless translation of my novel.” Slaughterhouse Five to the screen. I drool and cackle every time I watch this movie because it’s so consistent with how I felt when I wrote the book. “Everyone needs to get down to Vonnegut’s level. Slaughterhouse Five won’t be exactly what fans expect, but it’s a masterpiece in its own right, directed and brought to life by a filmmaker of the highest caliber as the source material continued to linger in the cultural zeitgeist. There will never be a better time to bring this book to the big screen. Let’s hope film fans become aware of this underrated classic sooner rather than later. Hey, if we’re all not stuck in time, then maybe everyone is. “That’s how it works.”

Slaughterhouse Five is available to rent on Prime Video in the US

Slaughterhouse Five

Release date

March 15, 1972

director

George Roy Hill

Pour

Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans, Valerie Perrine, Holly Near, Perry King, Kevin Conway, Friedrich von Ledebur, Ekkehardt Belle, Sorrell Booke, Roberts Blossom, John Dehner, Gary Waynesmith, Richard Schaal, Gilmer McCormick, Stan Gottlieb, Karl-Otto Alberty, Henry Bumstead, Lucille Benson, John Wood

Duration

100 minutes

writer

Stephen Geller

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Rent on Prime Video