Slaughterhouse-Five is my all-time favorite novel, and Vonnegut is probably my favorite author, too. I've heard mixed things about this film and was curious as to whether or not this is worth a watch if I hold the novel in such high regards.
shareWhy WOULDN'T you want to see it if it's your favorite novel? Of course, see it.
shareOP, I am/was with you. Vonnegut is also a favorite of mine, and I always cringe at film versions of my favorites.
That being said-- watch it, with a mind that it was a *conscientious* attempt to be true to the novel....but at the same time knew it never could be. There is no "poo-tweet" or "So it goes" in the film, and that's, I believe, the filmmakers respected their inability to portray Vonnegut's "dialogue", and so focus their best on the vingettes from the novel to tell *Pilgrim's* story...not Vonnegut's.
Please watch it -- post, and let me know what you think!!
So I finally got around to watching the film, and I liked it. Not as much as I had hoped I would, but overall it was good. I thought the spirit of the novel was kept in tact, though it's been years since I read the novel, and the few scenes I do remember from the novel were done really well. This was no easy feat, and I cannot this was an easy film to piece together. But, I also find myself agreeing with your thoughts. It's very much Pilgrim's story, and there were plenty of good moments, the major fault was in the pacing, I think.
shareThere is a huge problem with SH5 and Vonnegut. That is, the story is completely meaningless. Perhaps that is what people like about it. Perhaps the enjoyment is that the main character somehow survives his overwhelming depression through total schizophrenia. It is all about human frailty and the way to avoid coming apart at the seams is to delve into insane escapism. It' s a Walter Mitty life of perpetual fantasy - day dreaming your life away. And, I believe the reason people like the film and the book is because Vonnegut shows us that if his character Pilgrim can survive a thousand times more of a horror of a life, so can you survive your own little self possessed horror. All you have to do is pretend you really don't care and that you can mentally fall off onto another world where living in a zoo is better than the reality your life is trapped in.
Reality bites. Fantasy rocks. That's the pointless point of it all.