Film Review: Slaughterhouse-Five

"I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it’s a very poor scheme for survival." - Kurt Vonnegut

Chances are you may have heard of Slaughterhouse-Five; it's one of the highly-tutted classics of science fiction, penned by the ever-eccentric Kurt Vonnegut.  As of this writing, I've never actually read the book, but this movie seems to capture the gist of things.  It's a very strange, surrealist story that chronicles a man's life and death through a series of random time-jumps.  The man was a prisoner in WWII (and the actual slaughterhouse was his residence), before raising a dysfunctional family afterwards, and then being abducted by aliens.  Yep, strange stuff indeed.

The film will be most memorable for the rough and dirty war scenes, the sporadic family outbursts, and the scenes on Tralfamadore.  Part of it drag a little, but there's enough interesting scenes to pull the film together and maintain interest, especially for fans of sci-fi, war movies, or bizarre cinema in general.

I have no idea how close of an adaptation this movie is to the book, but on its own merits, the film does an interesting job of using its random narrative structure to show the character at the different phases of his life; really, it shows somewhere between three to five different narrative strings at once.  Some scenes run into each other, with characters in one timeline finishing off dialogue from another, or scenes mirroring each other so that they're intercut together.  It makes the film run as one long and smooth stream of consciousness, while exploring the character's life, memories, and psyche in full.  In a way, you probably could interpret this whole film as the memories, memoirs, and dreams of a man who's either mentally insane or dead.  As such, the film may subtly hint as some underlying themes of life, death, and the human condition.

If there's anything to complain about, it's just the sheer randomness of the story, for even with its constant focus on the main character, it never settles on any specific plot structure or tangible form.

The film has quality photography and really excellent editing.  Acting is a bit over-the-top, but it gets the job done really well, and the writing is not bad.  This production has fine-looking sets, props, and costumes.  Music is not bad either.

For bringing a literary classic to life, the film is worthwhile seeing.  As random and strange as it is, I'd recommended some caution:  rent it and see what you think for yourself.

4/5 (Entertainment:  Pretty Good | Story:  Good | Film:  Good)