Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.


Novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is considered of the premier storytellers in American literature with his themes of irony and dark humor often put into the world of science fiction and fantasy. One of his greatest and most beloved novels was “Slaughterhouse-Five”, a story about a man named Billy Pilgrim who is unstuck in time as he travels through his days in 1945 World War II during the Dresden firebombing, his home in New York as a middle-aged optometrist, and in the planet Trafalmador with a Hollywood starlet. In 1972, filmmaker George Roy Hill decided to film an adaptation of the strange, sci-fi, anti-war story that is set with a non-linear narrative. With a screenplay by Stephen Gellar, “Slaughterhouse Five” is a fascinating film that bends genres where Hill truly captures Vonnegut’s absurd, strange world of fantasy.

The story begins in early 1970s upstate New York as a woman named Barbara Pilgrim (Holly Near) and her husband Stanley (Gary Waynesmith) is searching for her father Billy Pilgrim (Michael Sacks). What Barbara doesn’t know is that Billy is unstuck in his mind recalling the days when was serving as a chaplain in Germany during the final months of World War II. In his memory, he recalls trying to run away from Germans where he encounters a brash, crazed soldier named Paul Lazzaro (Ron Liebman). Then, Billy finds himself in his middle-aged form where he’s in the planet Trafalmador with his mate and Hollywood film starlet Montana Wildhack (Valerie Perrine) where he’s imagining himself but is back in his WWII days where the Germans capture him and Lazzaro. After the death of a friend of Lazzaro, the crazed soldier swore to kill Billy after the war is over sometime in the future.

After arriving in camp, Billy befriends a veteran soldier named Derby (Eugene Roche) who takes care of Billy after being sick. Billy meanwhile keeps having strange flashback of his childhood including a future memory when he returns from the war hiding from his mother. Then, Billy is transported to his days after the way where he had just married Valencia (Sharon Gans), who swore to lose weight for him so he could love her more. Billy looks at his strange post-war life as an optometrist. Back in his war life, after encountering a man who knew him named Wild Bob Cody (Robert Blossom), he, Derby, and Lazzaro are moved to a camp with some English troops to the city of Dresden. Billy meanwhile looks on to his post-war life where he seems to have it all despite a troubled son in Robert (Perry King) who has a fondness for pornography and troublemaking. One day when the family is watching a movie, Valencia is disgusted at the movie while Billy is staring at Montana, who is in that movie.

After arriving at Dresden, Billy notices the peaceful tranquility the city has in comparison to most German places while the German troops let the prisoners look on to the city. Then Billy is transported back to his post-war life in the early 1970s where before leaving on a plane for a convention with Valencia’s father (Sorrell Booke), he sees a man in a ski mask thinking that the plane will crash. Eventually it does where a distraught Valencia drives recklessly to the hospital only to die upon her arrival. Billy becomes the sole survivor where during his stay; he is roomed with an arrogant professor named Rumford (John Dehner) who plans to write a book on the firebombing of Dresden. Billy knew Rumford plans to make a scathing book as he tries to tell him of what really happened where after being offered to fight with Germany against the Russians because of Communism, he and his fellow soldiers hid under a bunker because of the firebombing.

Billy is transported back to present time where after returning home and having a meeting with Robert, who became a solider for the Vietnam war, is suddenly abducted by aliens where he finds himself in Trafalmador and is later joined by Montana. Realizing he’s about to face death, he’s beginning to wonder what is real and where is he in time.

While its non-linear structure is at times, hard to follow and can often lead to inconsistency, “Slaughterhouse Five” still proves to be a fascinating film and if it was done in a more traditional structure, the film and story wouldn’t really work. With credit given to screenwriter Stephen Gellar for making Vonnegut’s strange novel into an offbeat script, George Roy Hill is really the man who helped capture Vonnegut’s vision. Hill brings in a film with loads of ambiguities and images that is absurd and thought provoking, notably the war scenes that shows its ugliness and grim humor and in the 1970s scenes, Hill brings the unfulfilling world of marriage. With a vast cinematography from Miroslav Ondrieck, who plays with color, notably in the upstate New York scenes where the grass’ color changes, Henry Bumstead on production design, and wonderfully paced editing from Dede Allen. The film has a strange look where in its sci-fi motif; everything plays itself as another film while Glenn Gould’s orchestral score (that includes the work of Johan Sebastian Bach) of melancholia and humor is wonderfully executed in giving the film its absurd tone.

Then there’s the film strong cast that is filled with wonderful yet small performances from John Dehner, Sorrel Booke, Perry King, Robert Blossom, Gary Waynesmith, and Holly Near. The film’s most conscience performance goes to Eugene Roche as the wise Derby who tries to control the crazed Lazzaro while serving as a guide for the young Billy where Roche brings innocence despite a tragic foreshadowing. Sharon Gans is hilarious as the naïve, annoying Valencia with her undying love for Billy that is often reckless and spoiled although her character can be a complete nitwit yet her performance gives some much needed humor to the often grim film. Ron Liebman is great in the crazed role of Lazzaro with his psychotic performance of a man, misguided by his anger while Valerie Perrine is beautiful in her role as the flimsy Hollywood starlet. Michael Sacks offers as the film’s best performance with his mix of youthful naiveté as the young man and the bored tone of himself as an old man. Though Sacks hadn’t done much since this movie, he brings in a complex, masterfully crafted performance as the film’s protagonist.

While not up to par with films like “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting”, “Slaughterhouse Five” is still one of George Roy Hill’s finer efforts. While it didn’t become a hit until years later, the film would win a Special Jury Prize from the 1972 Cannes Film Festival while fans of Vonnegut praised the film. With a recent DVD reissue in 2004 with a wonderful video transfer that gives new light to one of the more underrated films of the 1970s. “Slaughterhouse Five” is a film for those who love time travel and absurd situations. With a great cast, Hill’s offbeat direction, and genre-bending storylines, it’s a movie that really stands out.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age