Slaughterhouse Five (1972)

It’s not easy to turn a Kurt Vonnegut Jr. novel into a movie; rent Breakfast of Champions some time and you’ll understand what I mean.

Director George Roy Hill and screenwriter Stephen Geller had better luck than most when it came to making the esteemed writers words come to life on the silver screen with their interpretation of Slaughterhouse Five.

The book tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a small-town optometrist whose life becomes ‘unstuck’ in time, meaning he is forced to relive random moments from his life without being able to predict when or where he will time travel next. One minute he’s sitting in his study writing a letter to the editor of the local paper, the next he’s behind enemy lines in World War II or off to the planet Tralfamadore where he’s kept as a sort of pet in a human zoo.

Hill and Geller make the most of the story’s framework, giving viewers a sense of Billy Pilgrim’s unusual life without losing the narrative thread, no easy task given the scope of the tale. The film is visually exciting, particularly the scenes at Dresden where Pilgrim was a POW when the allies bombed the peaceful city to rubble.

Michael Sacks, making his film debut, is terrific as Billy Pilgrim, giving the role just the right amount of wide-eyed innocence it needs to make it believable. Valerie Perrine is equally fun to watch as Montana Wildhack, the B-level actress who finds herself swept up to Tralfamadore to be Billy’s companion.

The real treat of the film is watching Ron Leibman as the angry coward Paul Lazzaro, whose tag line “Nobody (messes) with Paul Lazzaro” will ring in your ears long after you finish the film.

Starring Michael Sacks, Valerie Perrine and Ron Leibman.

IMDB Site.