Slaughterhouse Five

UPC: 025192354922

Studio: Universal Studios

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, War Violence]

Summary: "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time." These opening words of Kurt Vonnegut's famous novel make an effective and short summary of a haunting, funny film. For the screen, director George Roy Hill faithfully renders Vonnegut's black anti-war comedy about Pilgrim (well played in a low key by Michael Sacks), who survives the horrendous 1945 fire bombing of Dresden then lives simultaneously in his past as a na?ve American POW and in the future as a well-cared-for zoo resident on the planet Tralfamadore (with zaftig Valerie Perrine as his mate). In the present, he's a middle-aged optometrist in Ilium, NY. If this sounds like a bit of a jumble -- it is. But viewers willing to watch carefully will find the movie as intricate and harmonious as Glenn Gould's plaintive renderings of the Bach keyboard pieces that decorate its soundtrack. It's not essential, but fans who read the short, poetic book will find it a treat in itself, and it will help them appreciate Hill's genius in bringing this "Children's Crusade" to the screen. In addition to Sacks, there are noteworthy performances by Ron Leibman (Norma's union man in Norma Rae) as Pilgrim's crazed nemesis and by radio/TV/movie legend, John Dehner as the arrogant Professor Rumfoord. Hill, of course, came to this film from a big hit, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and went on to triumph with The Sting one year later. The elaborate medieval and baroque architecture of pre-bombing Dresden was represented authentically in the film by scenes from Prague, since much of Dresden's architecture was lost to the bombing, and that city, in any case, was deep in East Germany, thus inaccessible at the time of filming. ~ Michael P. Rogers, Rovi

Category: Science Fiction

Awards: Best Director – Directors Guild of America New Star of the Year - Male – null Jury Prize – Cannes Film Festival New Star of the Year - Male – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: [None specified]

Slaughterhouse Five

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 05/25/2004

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DDM2.0 Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Runtime: 104 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Subtitles: French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Unstuck in Time (Main Titles) [5:55]
2. Behind Enemy Lines [3:32]
3. Time Tripping [7:48]
4. Shock Therapy [7:54]
5. Sink or Swim [4:11]
6. Out of This World [8:49]
7. Electing a Leader [6:18]
8. A Beautiful City [7:56]
9. Schlachthof 5 [7:04]
10. Emergency Entrance [8:24]
11. Either Us or Them [8:03]
12. The Aftermath [3:52]
13. Alien Abduction [5:16]
14. End of the World [2:26]
15. Time to Mate [5:38]
16. Collection of Moments [4:59]
17. Live Again [4:20]
18. End Titles [:50]

Derek Armstrong

In tackling a big-screen adaptation of Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut's classic novel about a man who becomes temporally unstuck, director George Roy Hill and screenwriter Stephen Geller took on an unenviable task. Chief among their challenges was how to keep the viewer oriented within the story, when the protagonist himself is in a constant state of disorientation. As it turns out, following the scattershot rhythms of the novel works pretty well, provided the various timelines proceed forward more or less chronologically. The film shrewdly accomplishes this by using Billy Pilgrim's POW experience as a narrative through line, only mildly tempering Vonnegut's trademark structural wildness in the process. Michael Sacks gets Billy's essential passivity down perfectly. By lingering only temporarily in the moments of his life, Billy is rarely present enough to be anything more than an observer, a man without the spine to keep from getting cuffed around by life's bullies and hardships. However, Billy isn't tragic either; his gradual understanding of his own state of consciousness, provided by an alien race who keep him caged as a zoo attraction (with a Hollywood starlet as his companion), allows him to harmonize with the perpetual now-ness of the past, present and future. As the discussion thus far indicates, Slaughterhouse-Five is no walk in the part on a Sunday afternoon. Fans attuned to Vonnegut's unique wavelength and black humor are likely to get more out of the film than those coming in cold. However, a second viewing is well worthwhile if it means bringing the uninitiated on board with this original and finely crafted film, from a director in the midst of his creative peak. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Sorrell Booke  Actor 
Karl Otto Alberty  Actor 
Lucille Benson  Actor 
Gilmer McCormick  Actor 
Kevin Conway  Actor 
Perry King  Actor 
Gary Waynesmith  Actor 
Stanley Gottlieb  Actor 
Richard Schaal  Actor 
Holly Near  Actor 
John Wood  Actor 
John Dehner  Actor 
Frederick Ledebur  Actor 
Henry Bumstead  Actor 
Stephen Geller  Screenwriter 
George Roy Hill  Director 
Jennings Lang  Producer 
Paul Monash  Producer 
Glenn Gould  Composer (Music Score) 
Michael Sacks  Actor 
Ron Leibman  Actor 
Eugene Roche  Actor 
Sharon Gans  Actor 
Valerie Perrine  Actor 
Roberts Blossom  Actor 

Country: USA