Slaughterhouse Five

Starring: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
Director: George Roy Hill
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Product Description

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. s classic novel comes to life in this haunting and darkly humorous film from acclaimed director George Roy Hill.Billy Pilgrim (Michael Sacks) is an ordinary World War II soldier with one major exception: he has mysteriously become unstuck in time. Billy goes on an uncontrollable trip back and forth from his birth in New York to life on a distant planet and back again to the horrors of the 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden. This dazzling and thought-provoking drama co-stars Ron Leibman and Valerie Perrine.

System Requirements:

Running Time 104 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com essential video

Billy Pilgrim (Michael Sacks) has a problem with time: he keeps jumping about in his own life, principally between three key scenes. The "present" is a kind of glowing suburban bliss involving a dutiful wife, large house, and presidency of the local Lions; the "past" is being a prisoner of World War II and experiencing the firebombing of Dresden from the wrong side; the "future" takes place in a glass dome on the planet Tralfamadore, to which Billy has been mysteriously spirited along with the woman of his fantasies (Montana Wildhack, played by Valerie Perrine). It isn't meant to make too much sense, since the point is to represent a man (and a century) that has witnessed things too unbearable for a wholly sane person to make sense of. In fact author Kurt Vonnegut's anguished cry on the insanity of war is one of those completely unfilmable books, so director George Roy Hill gets points even for trying. The whole package is thought provoking in a wholly Vonnegutian way. All this, and Glenn Gould playing Bach as well. --Richard Farr

Customer Reviews:

Adequate...Only Supplemental to the Book.......2007-05-31

Slaughterhouse 5 is not unflimable. Nothing is but just because you can doesn't mean you should. The film translation of Vonnegut's masterpiece is nothing special but certainly no embarrassment. Saying a movie is not awful is hardly an endorsement. Leaves alot of the book out, which is understandable. Changes alot of the book and makes basically the same points, which is not understandable. Why not just leave it as is? Competently acted and cleverly directed in an early 70's low budget minimalist sorta way. The book has a certain snap to it that the movie fails to duplicate.

Ordered paper back bu t dvd was sent to my daughter.......2007-05-23

paperback bool ordered, not dvd

We will miss Kurt, but His Legacy Still Remains.......2007-05-14

Having heard of his passing this title came up on one of his numerous eulogies. I remebered it like it was yesterday, (it was) as one of my favorites that I only had on a very dusty VHS recording. No longer having a VCR, natural progression dictated an upgrade to Digital media and with it an addition to "my library", not the house library which covers a-z in themes and ideologies. It now joins the other greats I have amassed as a cornerstone piece. I will be adding other classics also but this will continue to be a favorite.
The story is clever and actually touches on several truisims, as we get older we tend to "time Travel" thru our memeries. A touch, a sound, a smell, sets us all on a journey back through our lives, not that we can ammend them as with the main character, but to re-live them through our memories time and time again.
Thanks Kurt, You will be missed,

Rikk Olson

Slaughter House Five.......2007-05-13

A very good movie if you enjoy history and sci-fi. Don't go for a snack during the movie or will will lose the plot.

Pure magic.......2007-02-16

I had first seen this film back in the early 70's and I ordered it immediately when I saw it was available on DVD.

The magic and the thrill is still here after three decades. Either me or the film did not grow old. Between you and me I grew, the film didn't. Still as fresh and rewarding as ever. Strongly recommended.

Average customer rating:

Adequate...Only Supplemental to the Book
Ordered paper back bu t dvd was sent to my daughter
We will miss Kurt, but His Legacy Still Remains
Slaughter House Five
Pure magic

Slaughterhouse Five
Starring: Michael Sacks , Ron Leibman , Eugene Roche , Sharon Gans , and Valerie Perrine
Director: George Roy Hill
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305077592
Release Date: 1998-03-18

Amazon.com essential video

Description

No one will believe Billy Pilgrim (Michael Sacks) when he says he has come "unstuck in time," reliving in aimless order all the events in his life. Living in seclusion in llium, New York, the timid widower is typing out a letter to the local paper about his time treks when suddenly, he is trapped behind German lines in wintry World War II Belgium. Next he is in his wedding bed with his wealthy weighty bride Valencia (Sharon Gans). Interspersed with his leapfrog adventures in time, Billy also finds himself being transported to and from the distant planet Tralfamadore, whose invisible inhabitants enclose him in a glass dome furnished with Sears Roebuck furniture and a kittenish Hollywood starlet (Valerie Perrine), to whom Billy is expected to make love. This big-budget production of Kurt Vonnegut's best-selling, semi-autographical novel, was shot in Czechoslovakia, Minnesota, and the Universial Studios sound stages, under a shroud of secrecy, with no publicist and little information provided to the press. The devout "Vonnegut cult" of college students feared that the complex, highly-stylizwd 1969 novel would defy screen adaptation. Critics differed on the bizarre, dreamlike film, but none could argue with the movie's message that the world is a collection of moments, "and if we're going to survive, it's up to us to concentrate on the good moments and ignore the bad."

Customer Reviews:

Adequate...Only Supplemental to the Book.......2007-05-31

Ordered paper back bu t dvd was sent to my daughter.......2007-05-23

paperback bool ordered, not dvd

We will miss Kurt, but His Legacy Still Remains.......2007-05-14

Slaughter House Five.......2007-05-13

A very good movie if you enjoy history and sci-fi. Don't go for a snack during the movie or will will lose the plot.

Pure magic.......2007-02-16

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