監督はジョージ・ロイ・ヒル。
大ヒットした「明日に向かって撃て!」と「スティング」の間に製作されたのが本作です。
カート・ヴォネガット(当時はカート・ヴォネガット・ジュニア名義)の原作小説に基づいたものとは言え、1972年のアメリカ映画としては前例がないと思える程、時間と空間を自由自在に行き来しながらストーリーが進行します。
同監督の「ガープの世界」(1982年、こちらはジョン・アービング原作)同様、スラップスティックの形を取りながら悲劇、残酷譚が描かれていることも含めて、当時としては実験的とも感じられる構成だと思います。
とは言え、場面転換の前後で意味付けはきちんと成されており、高い完成度であることは間違いありません。
70年代後半に名画座(!)で鑑賞しましたが、直接的な説明表現を廃し、映像の積み重ねによって全体像を浮かび上がらせる演出ゆえに、初見では本作の世界観を自分の中で整理出来ませんでした。
当時はレンタルや家庭用のビデオも普及しておらず、映画館以外ではTV放映(東京12チャンネルで時々やってましたね)を観るか小説を読むしか追体験の方法は無かったので、ハヤカワSF文庫の助けなしには理解不能だったかもしれません。
この物語は、心のタイムトラベルの形を取りながら、白日夢、妄想、あるいは人生の走馬灯の様にも解釈出来ます。
そのいずれかかもしれず、あるいはそのいずれでもないのかもしれない。
重層的なその世界観が、混沌とした私たちの現実と重なると思え、素晴らしい。
グレン・グールドによるピアノ曲が、メイン・テーマとしてフィーチャリングされているのも印象的です。
(因みに「羊たちの沈黙」で流れるゴルトベルグ変奏曲も長らくグレン・グールドの演奏だと思い込んでいたのですが、実はジェリー・ジマーマンという方だそうです)
冒頭でバッハのピアノ協奏曲第5番が流れる中、雪原を独り彷徨う主人公の姿は、心の内面を掘り下げていく映画だということが観る側に伝わってくる演出だと感じました。(無論、当時は彼の名前も曲名も知りませんでしたが)
戦場に迷い込み途方に暮れる彼に、やはり12チャンネルで午後によく放映されていた映画「まぼろしの市街戦」(1966年、フランス)を重ねて観ていたのかもしれません。
マザコンで自閉症気味、常に薄笑いを浮かべる主人公ビリーは、私たちが抱く勇敢な兵士像とは対局の存在です。
また、彼が遭遇する「事故」の場面に登場する仮面の男たちからは、「イナゴの日」(1975年、アメリカ)のクライマックスを想起する不気味さ、不条理さが伝わってきました。
その意味で、本作は従来の価値観を否定し映像の新たな可能性を切り開いた一連のアメリカン・ニューシネマにおける隠れた名作といえるのかもしれません。
「そろそろ、お別れの時間が来た様です。こんにちは。そして、さようなら」
日本語音声の津嘉山正種さんの声は、本当に若くて繊細です。
飯塚昭三さん、大木民夫さん、千葉耕市さんらによる豪華な吹替えも素晴らしい。
本DVDでの鑑賞をお勧めいたします!
スローターハウス5 [Blu-ray]
¥3,500¥3,500
フォーマット | Blu-ray, 色, ドルビー, ワイドスクリーン |
コントリビュータ | ロン・リーブマン, ペリー・キング, ヴァレリー・ペリン, ジョージ・ロイ・ヒル, マイケル・サックス, ユージン・ロッシュ, シャロン・ガンス, ジョン・テラー |
稼働時間 | 1 時間 44 分 |
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商品の説明
あの爆撃が私から離れない! ! 自由に生きる時と空間を求めてさすらうタイム・マシン放浪者……
傑作SF小説を鬼才ジョージ・ロイ・ヒル監督が完全映画化!
【INTRODUCTION】
時空旅行を筋書きの軸としながら、作者本人が体験した第二次世界大戦のドレスデン爆撃の様子を盛り込んだ、
1969年発表のカート・ヴォネガットの有名SF小説の映画化作品。
カンヌ映画祭での受賞のほか、SFの世界で最も古く、最も権威あるヒューゴー賞、さらにジャンル映画の祭典、サターン賞も受賞している。
監督は「明日に向って撃て! 」(69)、「スティング」(73)、「ガープの世界」(82)など名作、大ヒット作を手掛けた巨匠ジョージ・ロイ・ヒル、
さらに音楽をゴルトベルク変奏曲で知られる作曲家グレン・グールドが担当、
原作者に「原作よりよくできている」と言わしめたSFの傑作。
日本でも早川書房から原作翻訳本が発売されており、カルト的人気を集めている。
【CAST】
マイケル・サックス
ユージン・ロッシュ
ロン・リーブマン
シャロン・ガンス
ヴァレリー・ぺリン
ジョン・テラー
ペリー・キング
【STAFF】
監督:ジョージ・ロイ・ヒル「明日に向って撃て! 」「スティング」「ガープの世界」
原作:カート・ヴォネガットJr
脚本:スティーヴン・ゲラー「バラキ」
ポール・モナシュ「明日に向って撃て! 」「キャリー」
デデ・アレン「ハスラー」「俺たちに明日はない」「アリスのレストラン」「セルピコ」「狼たちの午後」「ブレックファストクラブ」
ロスラフ・オンドリチェク「パパ/ずれてるゥ! 」「ガープの世界」「アマデウス」
音楽:グレン・グールド
美術:ヘンリー・バムステッド「スティング」「許されざる者」「ミスティック・リバー」「ミリオンダラー・ベイビー」
登録情報
- アスペクト比 : 1.78:1
- 製品サイズ : 30 x 10 x 20 cm; 80 g
- EAN : 4988003841676
- 監督 : ジョージ・ロイ・ヒル
- メディア形式 : 色, ドルビー, ワイドスクリーン, Blu-ray
- 時間 : 1 時間 44 分
- 発売日 : 2016/12/7
- 出演 : マイケル・サックス, ユージン・ロッシュ, ロン・リーブマン, シャロン・ガンス, ヴァレリー・ペリン
- 字幕: : 日本語
- 言語 : 日本語 (Mono), 英語 (Mono)
- 販売元 : キングレコード
- ASIN : B01LCN8OAQ
- ディスク枚数 : 1
- Amazon 売れ筋ランキング: - 165,547位DVD (の売れ筋ランキングを見るDVD)
- - 1,327位外国の戦争映画
- - 3,117位外国のSF映画
- - 10,058位ブルーレイ 外国映画
- カスタマーレビュー:
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「ビリーは、けいれん的時間旅行者である。つぎの行先をみずからコントロールする力はない。したがって旅は必ずしも楽しいものではない」(早川文庫SF302 『スローターハウス5 カート・ヴォネガット・ジュニア 伊藤典夫=訳』P.35)。原作には著者による副題がついています。「子供十字軍 死との義務的ダンス」。
ドレスデン無差別爆撃を中心素材にして、現在・過去・未来を行きつ戻りつするビリー・ピルグリム(マイケル・サックス。ピルグリムは「巡礼」ですね)の眺める自身の人生と世界。著者のヴォネガットは本作を「戦争小説」といっています。一方でトラルファマドール星での、アメリカのグラマー女優モンタナ(ヴァレリー・ペリン)との下りは本作の重要なツイストとなっており、奇妙なSFテイスト、浮遊感漂う軽さもあわせもっています(異星人が「結合」に興味津々なのは笑えます「Are you making love?」)。ジョージ・ロイ・ヒルは『スティング』の前にこんなユニークな映画を撮っていたのですね。
説明することは難しい不思議な作品です。それぞれのシークエンス内は普通なのですが、ビリーが別の時、別の地へ突然に移動します(テレポーテイションやタイムスリップとは違います)。さらに、別ヴァージョンの先行レビュアーの、のじりさまがご指摘のように
エンディングから冒頭へ繋いで観るとビリーの人生が永遠であるかのようです。メビウスの輪みたいですね。時間から解き放たれるということは、考えてみれば永遠を生きるということなのかも知れません。しかし不死ではありません。誕生から死を何度もランダムにワープするのですから・・。
なぜ、けいれん的時間旅行をするのか。星人のせいか飛行機事故の影響か、ビリーの幻覚か・・。映画は理由を説明しません。原作を昔に読んでいたので、ときに難解と評される本作、初鑑賞時も面食らうことはなかったです。冒頭で自身が時間旅行者だということはちゃんと述べられています。いったん過ぎ去った時間は二度と戻って来ないという現実認識は錯覚にすぎない、云々という記述が原作にあります(P.39)。
映像としてとりたててどうということはないのですが(トラルファマドール星の描写は新鮮でした)時間移動のつなぎ目の編集に絶妙の工夫をこらしていて唸らされました。また、対独戦線の雪の白が印象的です。そこに流れるバッハ。グレン・グールドの演奏です。グールドによるバッハは全編に使われていて、本作の空気を物悲しく支配しています。ここでの演奏はCD, Glenn Gould at the cinemaで聴くことができます。本映画のための選曲、それともオリジナル「演奏」なのでしょうか。
映像は多くの老いと死にあふれています。人だけでなく犬(愛犬スポット)もそうです。同監督の後年の佳作『ガープの世界』を思い出させます。死と隣り合わせの人生。いや、死を内包しているといったほうがよいでしょうか。時間旅行を繰り返すビリーは自身の死をも何度も体験している、と語ります。つらいことを何度も新鮮に追体験するのでしょうか。それともその度に薄れていくのでしょうか。不幸も重力から解き放たれてその重みを失うのでしょうか。そうであれば原作で繰り返し使われる言葉、「そういうものだ」(So it goes)という境地に達するのもうなずける気がします。
1945年2月13日。ドレスデン爆撃・・。直截な爆撃シーンはありませんが、防空壕の扉を開けると外はすでに・・というところは登場人物ともども愕然とします。原作の訳者あとがきによると、爆撃は1945年2月13日深夜から14日の朝にかけて英米軍により行われたということです。高性能爆薬と焼夷弾の爆撃と掃射です。死者は3万5千から20万の間、現在(あとがき1978年当時)では控えめにいって13万5千が公式な数字らしいです。連合国側が1963年までこの爆撃をひたかくしにしていたときき、驚きです。都市が一夜にして廃墟と化したのです。ヴォネガット自身が体験したそうです。
本作はなぜか私の中では映画『キャッチ=22』とペアになっています。時制を行き来する構成と、戦争の不条理を扱っているせいかも知れません。多くの死が溢れているせいかも知れません。一方がお好きな方には他方も是非楽しんでいただいたいと思います。また、原作もエヴァーグリーンです。小説『タイタンの妖女』『母なる夜』とともに大いにお薦めです。
人生という「旅は必ずしも楽しいものではない」。
こんにちは、さようなら。そういうものだ。Hello, farewell. So it goes.
Slaughterhouse-five 1972 U.S. Universal Pictures
ドレスデン無差別爆撃を中心素材にして、現在・過去・未来を行きつ戻りつするビリー・ピルグリム(マイケル・サックス。ピルグリムは「巡礼」ですね)の眺める自身の人生と世界。著者のヴォネガットは本作を「戦争小説」といっています。一方でトラルファマドール星での、アメリカのグラマー女優モンタナ(ヴァレリー・ペリン)との下りは本作の重要なツイストとなっており、奇妙なSFテイスト、浮遊感漂う軽さもあわせもっています(異星人が「結合」に興味津々なのは笑えます「Are you making love?」)。ジョージ・ロイ・ヒルは『スティング』の前にこんなユニークな映画を撮っていたのですね。
説明することは難しい不思議な作品です。それぞれのシークエンス内は普通なのですが、ビリーが別の時、別の地へ突然に移動します(テレポーテイションやタイムスリップとは違います)。さらに、別ヴァージョンの先行レビュアーの、のじりさまがご指摘のように
エンディングから冒頭へ繋いで観るとビリーの人生が永遠であるかのようです。メビウスの輪みたいですね。時間から解き放たれるということは、考えてみれば永遠を生きるということなのかも知れません。しかし不死ではありません。誕生から死を何度もランダムにワープするのですから・・。
なぜ、けいれん的時間旅行をするのか。星人のせいか飛行機事故の影響か、ビリーの幻覚か・・。映画は理由を説明しません。原作を昔に読んでいたので、ときに難解と評される本作、初鑑賞時も面食らうことはなかったです。冒頭で自身が時間旅行者だということはちゃんと述べられています。いったん過ぎ去った時間は二度と戻って来ないという現実認識は錯覚にすぎない、云々という記述が原作にあります(P.39)。
映像としてとりたててどうということはないのですが(トラルファマドール星の描写は新鮮でした)時間移動のつなぎ目の編集に絶妙の工夫をこらしていて唸らされました。また、対独戦線の雪の白が印象的です。そこに流れるバッハ。グレン・グールドの演奏です。グールドによるバッハは全編に使われていて、本作の空気を物悲しく支配しています。ここでの演奏はCD, Glenn Gould at the cinemaで聴くことができます。本映画のための選曲、それともオリジナル「演奏」なのでしょうか。
映像は多くの老いと死にあふれています。人だけでなく犬(愛犬スポット)もそうです。同監督の後年の佳作『ガープの世界』を思い出させます。死と隣り合わせの人生。いや、死を内包しているといったほうがよいでしょうか。時間旅行を繰り返すビリーは自身の死をも何度も体験している、と語ります。つらいことを何度も新鮮に追体験するのでしょうか。それともその度に薄れていくのでしょうか。不幸も重力から解き放たれてその重みを失うのでしょうか。そうであれば原作で繰り返し使われる言葉、「そういうものだ」(So it goes)という境地に達するのもうなずける気がします。
1945年2月13日。ドレスデン爆撃・・。直截な爆撃シーンはありませんが、防空壕の扉を開けると外はすでに・・というところは登場人物ともども愕然とします。原作の訳者あとがきによると、爆撃は1945年2月13日深夜から14日の朝にかけて英米軍により行われたということです。高性能爆薬と焼夷弾の爆撃と掃射です。死者は3万5千から20万の間、現在(あとがき1978年当時)では控えめにいって13万5千が公式な数字らしいです。連合国側が1963年までこの爆撃をひたかくしにしていたときき、驚きです。都市が一夜にして廃墟と化したのです。ヴォネガット自身が体験したそうです。
本作はなぜか私の中では映画『キャッチ=22』とペアになっています。時制を行き来する構成と、戦争の不条理を扱っているせいかも知れません。多くの死が溢れているせいかも知れません。一方がお好きな方には他方も是非楽しんでいただいたいと思います。また、原作もエヴァーグリーンです。小説『タイタンの妖女』『母なる夜』とともに大いにお薦めです。
人生という「旅は必ずしも楽しいものではない」。
こんにちは、さようなら。そういうものだ。Hello, farewell. So it goes.
Slaughterhouse-five 1972 U.S. Universal Pictures
2018年8月12日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
王様記録社の再発廉価Blu-rayの宿命として、
ジャケ背表紙に「死ぬまでにこれは観ろ!2018」とチープに刷られているが、
大丈夫。リヴァーシブル仕様になっているので裏ジャケは通常デザイン。
ご安心してお買い求め下さい。
ジャケ背表紙に「死ぬまでにこれは観ろ!2018」とチープに刷られているが、
大丈夫。リヴァーシブル仕様になっているので裏ジャケは通常デザイン。
ご安心してお買い求め下さい。

王様記録社の再発廉価Blu-rayの宿命として、
ジャケ背表紙に「死ぬまでにこれは観ろ!2018」とチープに刷られているが、
大丈夫。リヴァーシブル仕様になっているので裏ジャケは通常デザイン。
ご安心してお買い求め下さい。
ジャケ背表紙に「死ぬまでにこれは観ろ!2018」とチープに刷られているが、
大丈夫。リヴァーシブル仕様になっているので裏ジャケは通常デザイン。
ご安心してお買い求め下さい。
このレビューの画像

2014年1月16日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
明日に向かって撃て1969
スティング1973
ガープの世界1982
の名匠ジョージロイヒル監督による1972年作品。
村上春樹大明神が学生時代に見て打ちのめされた
と どこかに書いてはったので購入した。
DVD が高すぎるのでVHS で購入した。
まず音楽は文句なくすばらしい。
現在と過去と妄想がヒンパンに入れ替わる構造も、
まあついていける。
問題はだな、、、、特になし。
ドレスデンの美しい風景をたっぷり見せた後に
崩壊したドレスデンを見せるので、
衝撃はヒトシオである。
名作1972といえる。
先輩兵士との友情物語が心地よかった。
、、、、、、、、、、、、
追記
「コメディーと並置しないと本物の暴力は描けない」
って、この映画のことだったんだなあ
スティング1973
ガープの世界1982
の名匠ジョージロイヒル監督による1972年作品。
村上春樹大明神が学生時代に見て打ちのめされた
と どこかに書いてはったので購入した。
DVD が高すぎるのでVHS で購入した。
まず音楽は文句なくすばらしい。
現在と過去と妄想がヒンパンに入れ替わる構造も、
まあついていける。
問題はだな、、、、特になし。
ドレスデンの美しい風景をたっぷり見せた後に
崩壊したドレスデンを見せるので、
衝撃はヒトシオである。
名作1972といえる。
先輩兵士との友情物語が心地よかった。
、、、、、、、、、、、、
追記
「コメディーと並置しないと本物の暴力は描けない」
って、この映画のことだったんだなあ
2008年3月24日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
原作のテイストは十分生かした上で、ロイ・ヒル監督の変幻自在振りが素晴らしいです。映像の美しさとカッティングの見事さ、暖かい視点とクールな描写。「明日に向かって撃て」と「スティング」の間に製作された、みごとな手腕の円熟ぶりなのに正当に評価されていないのには、正直失望です。しかし逆に後の「ガープの世界」も含め、あまりにナチュラルな筆致が素晴しすぎるリアリティを生むために、まったくその価値を見落とされている気もします。是非ロイ・ヒル監督および本作の再評価を強く望む次第です。
2014年11月27日に日本でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
本編99分。 吹替えは15分くらい字幕になる箇所あり。本作は編集(モンタージュ)が複雑で、時制もバラバラなので、
吹き替えはあると大変見やすいかと思います。字幕だとなかなか物語に入り込めないかもしれません。
吹替えの音質はヘッドフォンで多少割れ気味でしたが、ディスクのせいかどうか不明です。70年代の吹替えなので、重低音はがっかりするぐらいないです。
画質は(16:9ビスタ)水準以上かな。特にブルーレイを待つ必要もないかと思います。
吹き替えはあると大変見やすいかと思います。字幕だとなかなか物語に入り込めないかもしれません。
吹替えの音質はヘッドフォンで多少割れ気味でしたが、ディスクのせいかどうか不明です。70年代の吹替えなので、重低音はがっかりするぐらいないです。
画質は(16:9ビスタ)水準以上かな。特にブルーレイを待つ必要もないかと思います。
他の国からのトップレビュー

Za09
5つ星のうち2.0
Abysmal Blu ray Telecine!
2017年8月2日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
The movie itself garners a 5/5 - I LOVE IT! It is so Kubrickian!
The Blu ray telecine: EGADS!!! What a horrifyingly blown-out image. At approximately 22:31 where the night train rolls into the German prisoner of war camp you can barely make out the image because it is overwhelmingly crawling with film grain. I mean crawling so badly that it takes on the shape of some type of digital horror monster almost like it's alive.
At the beginning of the film, where Billy Pilgrim is walking through the snow drifts, there are tons of specks and glitches that ruin the whole 'abandoned in nowhere' psych of the presentation. I mean, it interferes greatly with the attempt to enjoy the filmic atmosphere. So, there was absolutely no digital restoration done for this Blu ray.
Then, there's the audio which only plays through the center-channel speaker. If you happen to have a pretty kicking center-channel (which I DO have) then it might be tolerable, for you but not for me. I hate companies that do lazy mono transfers and assign them to the center-channel speaker. Give me a BREAK, make it two-channel mono and make sure it gets assigned to the left/right speakers so that it is capable of spatial depth!
As stated above, this Blu ray transfer stunk so bad that at 22:31 I ejected the Blu ray and put in the Universal SD DVD that was released in 2004 and is anamorphic. NIGHT and DAY difference, which translates into the following description: I never thought I'd see this happen when an SD DVD blows a Blu ray out of the water!! The 2004 SD DVD also looks near perfect in the opening snow sequence. Not only that, the mono audio is CORRECTLY encoded to go to the left/right speakers.
This transfer to Blu ray is complete TRASH. Do yourself a favor and get the Universal 2004 SD DVD.
The Blu ray telecine: EGADS!!! What a horrifyingly blown-out image. At approximately 22:31 where the night train rolls into the German prisoner of war camp you can barely make out the image because it is overwhelmingly crawling with film grain. I mean crawling so badly that it takes on the shape of some type of digital horror monster almost like it's alive.
At the beginning of the film, where Billy Pilgrim is walking through the snow drifts, there are tons of specks and glitches that ruin the whole 'abandoned in nowhere' psych of the presentation. I mean, it interferes greatly with the attempt to enjoy the filmic atmosphere. So, there was absolutely no digital restoration done for this Blu ray.
Then, there's the audio which only plays through the center-channel speaker. If you happen to have a pretty kicking center-channel (which I DO have) then it might be tolerable, for you but not for me. I hate companies that do lazy mono transfers and assign them to the center-channel speaker. Give me a BREAK, make it two-channel mono and make sure it gets assigned to the left/right speakers so that it is capable of spatial depth!
As stated above, this Blu ray transfer stunk so bad that at 22:31 I ejected the Blu ray and put in the Universal SD DVD that was released in 2004 and is anamorphic. NIGHT and DAY difference, which translates into the following description: I never thought I'd see this happen when an SD DVD blows a Blu ray out of the water!! The 2004 SD DVD also looks near perfect in the opening snow sequence. Not only that, the mono audio is CORRECTLY encoded to go to the left/right speakers.
This transfer to Blu ray is complete TRASH. Do yourself a favor and get the Universal 2004 SD DVD.

Dennis W.
5つ星のうち2.0
One of the poorest quality Blu-rays I have ever seen
2018年1月27日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
The movie itself is a 4-Star for me, but this Blu-ray edition quality (or lack thereof) has pulled it down. This is perhaps the worst example of what the Blu-ray format is capable of, and I feel like it was a total waste of my money.
In the first place, the print from which the digital transfer was made was probably of a lower quality, perhaps a second- or third-run print, and very noisy throughout, even in the better-lit scenes. Then, the digital processing was so heavy-handed with noise reduction and compression that the final result is a pasty, haloed mess with severely crushed shadows and highlights.
I watch my films on a high-quality Sony SXRD projector and 92-inch Da-Lite Matte screen in a lighting-controlled room, and so my expectations are high, but this Blu-ray is more like VHS tape quality. I own an NTSC anamorphic DVD copy of this film which is noticeably better than this Blu-ray, sad because this is a film I like and I long for a more movie theater-like experience for it.
Perhaps someday BFI or Criterion will do a proper digital transfer from good film elements.
In the first place, the print from which the digital transfer was made was probably of a lower quality, perhaps a second- or third-run print, and very noisy throughout, even in the better-lit scenes. Then, the digital processing was so heavy-handed with noise reduction and compression that the final result is a pasty, haloed mess with severely crushed shadows and highlights.
I watch my films on a high-quality Sony SXRD projector and 92-inch Da-Lite Matte screen in a lighting-controlled room, and so my expectations are high, but this Blu-ray is more like VHS tape quality. I own an NTSC anamorphic DVD copy of this film which is noticeably better than this Blu-ray, sad because this is a film I like and I long for a more movie theater-like experience for it.
Perhaps someday BFI or Criterion will do a proper digital transfer from good film elements.

J. L. Sievert
5つ星のうち5.0
Time-tripping survivor
2016年11月27日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
Slaughterhouse Five is a lament for the human condition. Arguments for and against the destruction of Dresden are moot. Right and wrong are nullified by the destruction itself, engulfed by the fact of the firestorm. The city reduced to rubble, dust, debris and ash in a matter of hours, here one moment, gone the next, remains the salient truth. Dresden is thus emblematic — like Hiroshima and Nagasaki — of what man can do if he puts his mind to it.
Eight hundred Allied bombers approached the city on the night of 13 February 1945. The first wave flattened the city, the second — dropping napalm-like incendiary bombs — torched what remained. Thousands burned to death, though most suffocated, oxygen sucked from the air and their lungs by the flames.
Vonnegut survived in his air lock, a meat locker buried two stories underground, Schlachthof-fünf by name, or Slaughterhouse five. A fluke, naturally, that he was there, a contingency that he and his lot survived the firestorm when thousands of Germans did not. The moment of panic-fear wiped away all human distinctions when the air-raid sirens sounded, the instinct to survive superseding all else, thus saving him and his comrades.
Counterpoint concerning the city is beautifully established in the film. It is first viewed in silhouette along the banks of the Elbe, its gables, turrets and towers dark against a white sky just after dawn. It’s viewed from the barred windows of a cattle car that carries the prisoners into the city. In the novel Vonnegut writes that “the skyline was intricate and voluptuous, enchanted and absurd. It looked like a Sunday school picture of Heaven to Billy Pilgrim [Everyman protagonist in the story].”
From the central station the prisoners are marched through the city to their detention camps. Wide eyes, open faces. Classical music, no dialogue as the film follows them. All this beauty, this Baroque splendour, after what they have seen in this awful war: blood, mud, pain and death. The streets are cobblestone, the buildings ornate. The local people, mostly civilians, watch them on parade, filthy and bedraggled. These locals just look, saying nothing. So this is what we have been fighting? Yes, Dresden was off the beaten track, rather isolated by the war. Thus it was hardly protected, all the big guns elsewhere.
Dresden, Florence of the Elbe, famous for its Meissen porcelain miniatures and Renaissance architecture. Loved throughout Germany and Europe. Destroy this? Why? Who would think to? And yet… There is always ‘and yet’ in this life.
It is early February 1945. That is when the prisoners arrive. Nobody in Dresden knows it now but in less than two weeks the city, founded in the 12th century, will be gone.
How can Vonnegut (and George Roy Hill, director of the film) tell such a story? How does art compete with napalm? Wisely, they acknowledge it cannot. They let the destruction speak for itself.
As for us, humanity, victims of ourselves and our devices, we react as expected, traumatised by the damage. We time trip, lose our minds, have nervous breakdowns. Or we would as Billy does. The film is about this journey, the journey of the pilgrim called Pilgrim to save his sanity and humanity in the aftermath of Armageddon.
Billy’s PTSD will time trip him through all sorts of dark burlesque that parodies normality. This includes the postwar middle-class American family Billy is tangentially a part of, a normality made by conformity, consumption and patriotism. Billy as war hero, husband, father, home and dog owner, Lions Club president, successful optometrist. Red-white-and-blue middle American — especially white. The land of the Midwest, doubtlessly, Trump country in the making. Having survived Dresden, he’s now asked to survive this. How can he? By time tripping, his shell-shock nightmares refusing to release him. What is real and what’s a dream? Dresden or this? — the family dog, corpulent wife, spoiled children, big lawn and big cars.
He’s saved, it seems, by Montana Wildhack, a buxom starlet who likes to take her clothes off in film. Billy fantasizes about her. So does his teenage son Robert who sits wild-eyed on the toilet with magazines featuring her nudity. Father and son seem united in aesthetic taste, as we see in one family scene at a drive-in movie. Flashing her wares on the big screen, Montana shares a Roman bath with a callow young centurion, soon to be made a man. Outraged, mum and daughter avert their eyes. Not so father and son. Both gape and salivate.
This being Vonnegut, of course Billy and Montana will have to meet. They do so, but not here on Earth where most people meet. They meet on Tralfamadore, a planet in a distant star system. Billy and dog Spot are abducted by aliens — Tralfamadorians — to be studied. Billy and Spot live in a glass dome on the planet. The atmosphere is noxious, largely composed of cyanide, so walking the dog outside the dome is not an option. Billy’s masters (whom we hear but don’t see) want him to be comfortable, but he is not. Though he loves Spot, he feels isolated and lonely. The aliens read his thoughts and teleport Montana Wildhack to the planet and dome. She arrives shrieking, panicked and topless, her only raiment a thin G-string. Billy smiles upon her arrival, pleased with both the courtesy of his hosts and Montana’s contours.
They get to know one another rather quickly, become affectionate, mate (beneath the ‘night canopy’, which Billy routinely requests for privacy when they copulate, which is frequent). Time passes and they sire a child — a little boy, the first human being not born on Earth.
Curiously, Billy is able to revisit Earth but when his daughter and her husband refuse to believe his claims about Tralfamadore, Montana and the baby he decides to permanently relocate to the other planet. Apparently.
Maybe that’s what Vonnegut really wants to say. Maybe any planet that can perpetuate and countenance the destruction of Dresden forfeits its status as a pleasure dome. Billy will take his chances elsewhere, isolation, cyanide and other negativities be damned. Back home in the dome loyal dog, sexy mate and healthy son await him. Also, it should be noted that Tralfamadore’s temporal make-up does not include past and future. The present is the be-all and end-all on that planet.
So in the end Montana with her top off becomes Billy’s call to sanity. Survivor indeed.
Eight hundred Allied bombers approached the city on the night of 13 February 1945. The first wave flattened the city, the second — dropping napalm-like incendiary bombs — torched what remained. Thousands burned to death, though most suffocated, oxygen sucked from the air and their lungs by the flames.
Vonnegut survived in his air lock, a meat locker buried two stories underground, Schlachthof-fünf by name, or Slaughterhouse five. A fluke, naturally, that he was there, a contingency that he and his lot survived the firestorm when thousands of Germans did not. The moment of panic-fear wiped away all human distinctions when the air-raid sirens sounded, the instinct to survive superseding all else, thus saving him and his comrades.
Counterpoint concerning the city is beautifully established in the film. It is first viewed in silhouette along the banks of the Elbe, its gables, turrets and towers dark against a white sky just after dawn. It’s viewed from the barred windows of a cattle car that carries the prisoners into the city. In the novel Vonnegut writes that “the skyline was intricate and voluptuous, enchanted and absurd. It looked like a Sunday school picture of Heaven to Billy Pilgrim [Everyman protagonist in the story].”
From the central station the prisoners are marched through the city to their detention camps. Wide eyes, open faces. Classical music, no dialogue as the film follows them. All this beauty, this Baroque splendour, after what they have seen in this awful war: blood, mud, pain and death. The streets are cobblestone, the buildings ornate. The local people, mostly civilians, watch them on parade, filthy and bedraggled. These locals just look, saying nothing. So this is what we have been fighting? Yes, Dresden was off the beaten track, rather isolated by the war. Thus it was hardly protected, all the big guns elsewhere.
Dresden, Florence of the Elbe, famous for its Meissen porcelain miniatures and Renaissance architecture. Loved throughout Germany and Europe. Destroy this? Why? Who would think to? And yet… There is always ‘and yet’ in this life.
It is early February 1945. That is when the prisoners arrive. Nobody in Dresden knows it now but in less than two weeks the city, founded in the 12th century, will be gone.
How can Vonnegut (and George Roy Hill, director of the film) tell such a story? How does art compete with napalm? Wisely, they acknowledge it cannot. They let the destruction speak for itself.
As for us, humanity, victims of ourselves and our devices, we react as expected, traumatised by the damage. We time trip, lose our minds, have nervous breakdowns. Or we would as Billy does. The film is about this journey, the journey of the pilgrim called Pilgrim to save his sanity and humanity in the aftermath of Armageddon.
Billy’s PTSD will time trip him through all sorts of dark burlesque that parodies normality. This includes the postwar middle-class American family Billy is tangentially a part of, a normality made by conformity, consumption and patriotism. Billy as war hero, husband, father, home and dog owner, Lions Club president, successful optometrist. Red-white-and-blue middle American — especially white. The land of the Midwest, doubtlessly, Trump country in the making. Having survived Dresden, he’s now asked to survive this. How can he? By time tripping, his shell-shock nightmares refusing to release him. What is real and what’s a dream? Dresden or this? — the family dog, corpulent wife, spoiled children, big lawn and big cars.
He’s saved, it seems, by Montana Wildhack, a buxom starlet who likes to take her clothes off in film. Billy fantasizes about her. So does his teenage son Robert who sits wild-eyed on the toilet with magazines featuring her nudity. Father and son seem united in aesthetic taste, as we see in one family scene at a drive-in movie. Flashing her wares on the big screen, Montana shares a Roman bath with a callow young centurion, soon to be made a man. Outraged, mum and daughter avert their eyes. Not so father and son. Both gape and salivate.
This being Vonnegut, of course Billy and Montana will have to meet. They do so, but not here on Earth where most people meet. They meet on Tralfamadore, a planet in a distant star system. Billy and dog Spot are abducted by aliens — Tralfamadorians — to be studied. Billy and Spot live in a glass dome on the planet. The atmosphere is noxious, largely composed of cyanide, so walking the dog outside the dome is not an option. Billy’s masters (whom we hear but don’t see) want him to be comfortable, but he is not. Though he loves Spot, he feels isolated and lonely. The aliens read his thoughts and teleport Montana Wildhack to the planet and dome. She arrives shrieking, panicked and topless, her only raiment a thin G-string. Billy smiles upon her arrival, pleased with both the courtesy of his hosts and Montana’s contours.
They get to know one another rather quickly, become affectionate, mate (beneath the ‘night canopy’, which Billy routinely requests for privacy when they copulate, which is frequent). Time passes and they sire a child — a little boy, the first human being not born on Earth.
Curiously, Billy is able to revisit Earth but when his daughter and her husband refuse to believe his claims about Tralfamadore, Montana and the baby he decides to permanently relocate to the other planet. Apparently.
Maybe that’s what Vonnegut really wants to say. Maybe any planet that can perpetuate and countenance the destruction of Dresden forfeits its status as a pleasure dome. Billy will take his chances elsewhere, isolation, cyanide and other negativities be damned. Back home in the dome loyal dog, sexy mate and healthy son await him. Also, it should be noted that Tralfamadore’s temporal make-up does not include past and future. The present is the be-all and end-all on that planet.
So in the end Montana with her top off becomes Billy’s call to sanity. Survivor indeed.

FictionFan
5つ星のうち3.0
Film of the Book comparison... includes some minor spoilers...
2017年2月23日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
The film begins by showing us Billy typing a letter to a newspaper, explaining that he is 'unstuck in time', travelling backwards and forwards through his own life. This is quite an effective short-cut, though unlike in the book it's not really expanded on later to show why Billy had decided to make his story public. In the book, we are told Billy's story by a narrator who makes us aware that it's a fable, a form he is using because he feels he wants to say something profound about the bombing of Dresden. This isn't mentioned in the film, so that the viewer is put in the position of having to assume that Billy's life is “real”, which in turn means that the events perhaps take precedence over the meaning – the reverse of what happens in the book.
Then the film starts to move through Billy's life, concentrating on his experiences in WW2 as a prisoner of war first in the camps and then later in Dresden before and after the bombing of the city. Although it shifts in time, the film feels as if it takes a more linear approach to Billy's life – more or less starting at the beginning and ending at the end, but with detours along the way. The book seems more jumbled, more fragmented, and therefore gives, I feel, a clearer picture of Billy's disorientation.
When I look at the notes I took while watching, it turns out it's primarily a list of things the film misses out. This is a pity, since I'd say it's a brave and partially successful attempt to bring a complex and difficult book to the screen. Michael Sacks as Billy gives a good performance though I felt that somehow he made film Billy fit his life better than the Billy in the book did. He doesn't seem as scared in his early army career, nor as disconnected in the later scenes, and he's played a little more for laughs – and is perhaps more likeable, in fact. For example, in the book we know he doesn't ever really love his wife – the major reason for him marrying her is that she happens to be the daughter of his boss. I didn't feel that came across much in the film – she is made rather annoying, but we don't get inside Billy's head to know how he feels about her. I'm not normally a fan of having a narrator doing a voiceover in a film, but with a book that is so concerned with what's happening inside the main character's head, I began to feel it would have helped to fill some of the gaps.
While I don't think the book is really science fiction, nonetheless Billy's visits to the planet Tralfamadore are central, and I was surprised at how underplayed this aspect is in the film. For a start, Hill has wimped out of showing the odd-looking Tralfamadorians, turning them into an invisible species instead. And, rather annoyingly and completely in line with '70s cinema (my unfavourite decade of film), Billy turns up on the planet in his night wear, whereas the girl turns up nicely naked and with plenty of pert chest jiggling, so that the lascivious males in the audience have something to drool over while the lascivious females have to make do with their imaginations, unless they happen to have a dressing gown fetish. And then they wonder why we became feminists...
The science fiction author from the book doesn't appear either, though I didn't feel this was a great loss since he seemed a bit extraneous anyway. Much more oddly, the phrase “So it goes” is entirely missing from the film. Anyone who has read the book will know that it's used as a sort of chorus every time a death occurs, as a sort of semaphore to mark both the inevitability and futility of war. I can see that, without a voiceover, it would have been quite difficult to shoehorn this in, but without it, I felt the point was left rather unclear. In fact, the film seems to send another message, focussing on a small (and rather trite) part of the Tralfamadorian philosophy, that life is made up of moments and we should concentrate on the good ones. Very little is made of the, to me, deeper part of their philosophy – the part that draws Billy into this particular delusion – that if one can travel backwards in one's life, one can in a sense keep people alive by visiting them in the past, thus reducing the finality of death. Part of this message comes from another scene that's also missing – where Billy sees old war movies running in reverse, so that it appears that the dead come back to life, and that the Germans, rather than shooting planes down, are in fact lifting them back into the sky. The omission of this central and moving scene is a strange decision indeed.
Unfortunately the film left me entirely unmoved in the end. While it's quite entertaining in parts, and has its shocking moments, overall it lacks the depth and power of the book. It's too linear, we don't get a real idea of what's going on in Billy's mind, and I felt that some of the major points in the book were either omitted entirely or weren't sufficiently explored. The rather odd “happy ending” that is tacked on therefore came as less of a surprise than it should have done. So in the Book v. Film Battle the winner is clear... the Book!
Then the film starts to move through Billy's life, concentrating on his experiences in WW2 as a prisoner of war first in the camps and then later in Dresden before and after the bombing of the city. Although it shifts in time, the film feels as if it takes a more linear approach to Billy's life – more or less starting at the beginning and ending at the end, but with detours along the way. The book seems more jumbled, more fragmented, and therefore gives, I feel, a clearer picture of Billy's disorientation.
When I look at the notes I took while watching, it turns out it's primarily a list of things the film misses out. This is a pity, since I'd say it's a brave and partially successful attempt to bring a complex and difficult book to the screen. Michael Sacks as Billy gives a good performance though I felt that somehow he made film Billy fit his life better than the Billy in the book did. He doesn't seem as scared in his early army career, nor as disconnected in the later scenes, and he's played a little more for laughs – and is perhaps more likeable, in fact. For example, in the book we know he doesn't ever really love his wife – the major reason for him marrying her is that she happens to be the daughter of his boss. I didn't feel that came across much in the film – she is made rather annoying, but we don't get inside Billy's head to know how he feels about her. I'm not normally a fan of having a narrator doing a voiceover in a film, but with a book that is so concerned with what's happening inside the main character's head, I began to feel it would have helped to fill some of the gaps.
While I don't think the book is really science fiction, nonetheless Billy's visits to the planet Tralfamadore are central, and I was surprised at how underplayed this aspect is in the film. For a start, Hill has wimped out of showing the odd-looking Tralfamadorians, turning them into an invisible species instead. And, rather annoyingly and completely in line with '70s cinema (my unfavourite decade of film), Billy turns up on the planet in his night wear, whereas the girl turns up nicely naked and with plenty of pert chest jiggling, so that the lascivious males in the audience have something to drool over while the lascivious females have to make do with their imaginations, unless they happen to have a dressing gown fetish. And then they wonder why we became feminists...
The science fiction author from the book doesn't appear either, though I didn't feel this was a great loss since he seemed a bit extraneous anyway. Much more oddly, the phrase “So it goes” is entirely missing from the film. Anyone who has read the book will know that it's used as a sort of chorus every time a death occurs, as a sort of semaphore to mark both the inevitability and futility of war. I can see that, without a voiceover, it would have been quite difficult to shoehorn this in, but without it, I felt the point was left rather unclear. In fact, the film seems to send another message, focussing on a small (and rather trite) part of the Tralfamadorian philosophy, that life is made up of moments and we should concentrate on the good ones. Very little is made of the, to me, deeper part of their philosophy – the part that draws Billy into this particular delusion – that if one can travel backwards in one's life, one can in a sense keep people alive by visiting them in the past, thus reducing the finality of death. Part of this message comes from another scene that's also missing – where Billy sees old war movies running in reverse, so that it appears that the dead come back to life, and that the Germans, rather than shooting planes down, are in fact lifting them back into the sky. The omission of this central and moving scene is a strange decision indeed.
Unfortunately the film left me entirely unmoved in the end. While it's quite entertaining in parts, and has its shocking moments, overall it lacks the depth and power of the book. It's too linear, we don't get a real idea of what's going on in Billy's mind, and I felt that some of the major points in the book were either omitted entirely or weren't sufficiently explored. The rather odd “happy ending” that is tacked on therefore came as less of a surprise than it should have done. So in the Book v. Film Battle the winner is clear... the Book!

Random Tandem
5つ星のうち5.0
Brilliant adaptation for the big screen.
2013年7月21日に英国でレビュー済みAmazonで購入
Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five has become one of the classic anti-war novels. It was always set to be a challenge to turn it into a movie and upon its original release it received mixed reviews. Some were critical of the linear chronography of the movie, when the book has a more fluid approach to its time-lines. The acting performances and filming were great, although I suspect it helps enormously if you've read the book beforehand.
Aspects of the book are auto-biographical. During the second world war Kurt Vonnegut was a young US soldier serving in Germany. He saw at first hand the terrible destruction caused by allied bombing of the city of Dresden. When he started to write the book, some years later, his wife implored him not to turn it into some glorification of war with all the soldiers portrayed as heroic athletic icons. Consequently, the main character - Billy Pilgrim - is a clumsy outsider, suffering post-traumatic stress, constantly being picked on by his immature fellow servicemen. The underlying message perhaps being that while all armed forces like to think they'll recruit the best and train them well, the reality is that in wartime standards inevitably have to change. As Billy tries to cope with his stress he withdraws into himself and we share what is going on in his imagination. Despite his severe psychological problems, Billy runs a successful business in the years after the war, marries and raises a family - but continues to have stress-related flashbacks and periods of hospitalisation. He is also kidnapped by aliens - but maybe that's just in his head... Recommended.
Aspects of the book are auto-biographical. During the second world war Kurt Vonnegut was a young US soldier serving in Germany. He saw at first hand the terrible destruction caused by allied bombing of the city of Dresden. When he started to write the book, some years later, his wife implored him not to turn it into some glorification of war with all the soldiers portrayed as heroic athletic icons. Consequently, the main character - Billy Pilgrim - is a clumsy outsider, suffering post-traumatic stress, constantly being picked on by his immature fellow servicemen. The underlying message perhaps being that while all armed forces like to think they'll recruit the best and train them well, the reality is that in wartime standards inevitably have to change. As Billy tries to cope with his stress he withdraws into himself and we share what is going on in his imagination. Despite his severe psychological problems, Billy runs a successful business in the years after the war, marries and raises a family - but continues to have stress-related flashbacks and periods of hospitalisation. He is also kidnapped by aliens - but maybe that's just in his head... Recommended.