Slaughterhouse FiveKurt Vonnegut was one of the most beloved of modern American authors, most notably for works such as Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions and, especially, 1969's Slaughterhouse Five. Naturally, a successful novel quickly becomes a target for Hollywood and the film version of Slaughterhouse Five came out in 1972 to critical acclaim (even picking up the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes) and complete box office failure. Michael Sacks plays Billy Pilgrim, a man who has become 'unstuck in time'. This means he experiences events in his life not in order, but rather as seemingly random moments. His experiences centre around three separate parts of his life - his 'past' as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany during World War II, his 'present' as a married optometrist in suburban America and his 'future' as an abductee by aliens to the planet Tralfamadore accompanied by a nubile Hollywood starlet (Valeria Perrine). The fractured narrative forms both the film's strength and its weakness. The first half of the movie carries little drive; we see Pilgrim in a prisoner of war camp and in suburbia, yet there is nothing to force his actions forwards. The sole motivating factor for the audience is the curiosity to see how the pieces of Pilgrim's life fit together. Fortunately, as these pieces correlate in the second half of the picture, proceedings gather momentum and a certain ambiguity arises. It is subtly suggested that Pilgrim's ability to travel in time is not real, but merely a psychological disorder. He is hospitalised post-war where a fellow patient describes him as insane and he undergoes shock therapy. He is in a plane crash as an older man and is hospitalised once more - his grown children question whether he is mentally capable. Not to mention that the only companion in his visit to Tralfamadore is the actress who represents his ideal fantasy woman. Slaughterhouse Five is an oddly low-key movie. Events unfurl at a leisurely pace, with an emotional distance kept throughout. This is partially due to the disconnected plotting, but also from the generally detached nature of the Pilgrim character. He is an observer of life, rather than one who takes part. His story is one of memory, his objective to treasure the good moments and forget the bad. Conversely, the movie itself lingers instead on suffering and we see only the tragedies and disappointments of Pilgrim's life until he finally gets his happy ending. Director George Roy Hill (a double Oscar winner for The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) uses some winking visual metaphors in places. The stoic young faces of the pubescent German guards in Dresden are intercut with the stony visages of statues of the city. More overtly, Pilgrim is shown at one point struggling with a huge grandfather clock, eventually being pinned beneath it. Whilst insidious, such touches only serve to further distance the audience from emotionally investing in the film. The result is an intelligent, thoughtful film that dwells on the tragedy of war in a less direct manner than most. It introduces themes and messages worthy of debate and analysis, elegantly juggling numerous timelines without ever becoming confusing. As a piece of entertainment, however, Slaughterhouse Five remains somewhat underwhelming.
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