Written by Stephen Geller, from Kurt Vonnegut's novel. Billy Pilgrim comes 'unstuck in time', flits from Dresden 1945, to suburban married life, and to 'bliss' trapped on the planet Tralfamadore with a movie star. Or, a young soldier is so traumatised by his war experiences and by a plane crash and the death of his wife that he goes a little nuts. Or, scenes from a life, with Tralfamadore as an allegorical death / rebirth message (that greeting - 'Hello Goodbye' - could be based on the Roman expression 'Ave Atque Vale').
Anyway, it's a tremendous experience, brilliantly photographed and edited (Miroslav Ondricek and Dede Allen), inventive, blackly humorous, compassionate, crazy. Benefits also from a range of classical Bach - Concerto #5 in F minor, (slow movement), Concerto #3 in D Major for harpsichord and the Brandenburg Concerto #4 in G Major.
An unfamiliar but good cast: Michael Sacks as Billy (his first of only 14 films, one of which was Sugarland Express), Ron Leibman (the army nutter Lazzaro), Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans (Billy's wife Val), Valerie Perrine, Friedrich von Ledebur.
The scene where his wife goes crazy in her Cadillac is just amazing, as are the frequent time jumps.
Production design Henry Bumstead, art direction Alexander Golitzen & George Webb.
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| When Billy first encounters Montana Wildhack on screen, it's no surprise she is later summoned / he summons her to Tralfamadore, topless (or 'Tralfamadore', depending on your reading) |
Last word from Vonnegut, soon after its release, in his preface to 'Between Time and Timbuktu':
"I love George Roy Hill and Universal Pictures, who made a flawless translation of my novel Slaughterhouse-Five to the silver screen ... I drool and cackle every time I watch that film, because it is so harmonious with what I felt when I wrote the book."
(Interesting though that he didn't give any credit to the scriptwriter.)
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