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DVD Slaughterhouse Five
Billy Pilgrim (Michael Sacks) has a problem with time: he keeps jumping about in his own life, principally between three key scenes. The "present" is a kind of glowing suburban bliss involving a dutiful wife, large house, and presidency of the local Lions; the "past" is being a prisoner of World War II and experiencing the firebombing of Dresden from the wrong side; the "future" takes place in a glass dome on the planet Tralfamadore, to which Billy has been mysteriously spirited along with the woman of his fantasies (Montana Wildhack, played by Valerie Perrine). It isn't meant to make too much sense, since the point is to represent a man (and a century) that has witnessed things too unbearable for a wholly sane person to make sense of. In fact author Kurt Vonnegut's anguished cry on the insanity of war is one of those completely unfilmable books, so director George Roy Hill gets points even for trying. The whole package is thought provoking in a wholly Vonnegutian way. All this, and Glenn Gould playing Bach as well. --Richard Farr
My review of SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Dr. John R. Baker
I watch A LOT of movies and even review movies online as a hobby. This film is my very favorite movie of all time (and after 46 years of living, that says a lot). Vonnegut to me, uses Billy Pilgrim as a virginal character (although in the film he does produce two children with his wife). He is like an innocent who goes through world war II and tries to avoid doing harm. As a result of a misunderstanding while a prisoner of war, he makes a lifelong enemy. We see Pilgrim's life process..his ups and downs, and his otherworldly adventures and in this movie, we are shown a new way of experiencing life...as the Tralfamadorians say..the secret to living in a crazy world is to concentrate on the good times and ignore the bad. If I only had one movie to watch on a desert island..it would be this one. Two thumbs and five stars all the way!
How's this for rare...a quality Vonnegut adaptation.
Kurt Vonnegut is one of those writers who, when you hear about a movie adaptation of one of their works, you always immediately think "How the Hell are they gonna manage that?". His books are stream-of-consciousness tirades against the madness of mankind...not exactly cinema-ready audience pleasers.
This has been proven by experimental disasters such as "Slapstick (of Another Kind)". But under the expert and fearless direction of George Roy Hill ("The Sting", "The World According to Garp", "Slap Shot", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), the movie version of "Slaughterhouse 5" has nothing to feel embarassed about when placed next the the excellent novel. The key to this, as in all great novel-movie transfers, is a worthy cast. And here we have one in spades. I don't think there's another movie made that has done such a bang-on job at matching the flesh and blood actors to their literary equivalents. Protagonist Billy Pilgrim is played perfectly withdrawn by Michael Sacks, with Sharon Ganz as his overweight, overprotective wife. He has become unstuck in time, forever bouncing around his own life. From the horrors of WWII to the mundane insanity of marriage, the film masterfully transitions between these random chronological events, till Pilgrim eventually ends up on display on the distant planet Tralfamadore, paired together with barely-clad sexpot Montana Wildhack. Viewers can enjoy the same laser-like accuracy in casting with the various supporting characters.
Newcomers to Vonnegut might find themselves slightly unstuck through the meandering narrative, but the inherient quality of the film should see even confused moviegoers to the end of this cinematic Vonnegut masterpiece.
Eh...what?
Never having read the famous book I can not make any comparison between the movie and the novel.
George Roy Hill has directed some great movies, such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Sting" and "A Little Romance". Here he uses relative unknown actors in a complex dramatic story involving time-travel by a man named Billy Pilgrim, between three different periods of his life. One of those times is during World War II and his time spent in a prisoner-of-war camp ("Slaughterhouse Five") in Dresden, Germany. He survives the fire-bombing which kills over 130,000 people, but is emotionally scarred after losing his friend. Another time is his post-war married life. The third time of his life is spent in a geodesic dome on the planet Tramalfadore, living with a soft-porn actress. The cuts between them are usually based on a common action.
The movie is well acted and directed, and has good production values. It appears to have a good story somewhere in it, but after two viewings, I'm still not sure I found it.
This 1966 masterpiece by Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger) is set in the heady atmosphere of Swinging London, and stars David Hemmings as an unsmiling fashion photographer hooked on ephemeral meaning attached to anything: art, sex, work, relationships, drugs, events. When a real mystery falls into his lap, he probes the evidence for some reliable truth, but finds it hard to reckon with. Vanessa Redgrave plays an enigmatic woman whose desperation to cover something up only seems like one more phenomenon in Hemmings's disinterested purview. This is one of the key films of the decade, and still an unsettling and lasting experience. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Vanessa Redgrave - David Hemmings Director(s): Michelangelo Antonioni DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Ranking No. 21 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films, this 1940 classic is a bit dated in its noble sentimentality, but it remains a luminous example of Hollywood classicism from the peerless director of mythic Americana, John Ford. Adapted by Nunnally Johnson from John Steinbeck's classic novel, the film tells a simple story about Oklahoma farmers leaving the depression-era dustbowl for the promised land of California, but it's the story's emotional resonance and theme of human perseverance that makes the movie so richly and timelessly rewarding. It's all about the humble Joad family's cross-country trek to escape the economic devastation of their ruined farmland, beginning when Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) returns from a four-year prison term to discover... More Info about this DVD Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 06 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This Mike Todd production was a star-studded, multi-million dollar extravaganza when first released in 1956. It remains enjoyable family fare, but time has somewhat dulled its shine. Still, it compares favorably to the overly long, TV mini-series starring Pierce Brosnan and Eric Idle.
Elegant David Niven plays the neurotically punctual Phileas Fogg, a British gent who is spurned on by a wager to prove he can travel around the world in 80 days. He is accompanied by his valet, played with persnickety humor by Cantinflas.
Nominated for several Academy Awards, this was written by John Farrow (Mia's dad) and S.J. Perelman, based on Jules Verne's 1873 classic. The fun part is the razzle-dazzle. Todd knew what he was doing with all those exotic locales and over 40 cameo appearances,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): David Niven DVD Release Date: Released the 18 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The most famous and sublime treatment of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, John Ford's My Darling Clementine is by any measure one of the most classically perfect Westerns ever made. Henry Fonda plays a hard, serious Wyatt Earp leading a cattle drive west with his brothers when a stopover in the wild town of Tombstone ends in the murder of his youngest brother. Wyatt takes up the badge he had turned down earlier and tames the wide-open town with his brothers (Ward Bond and Tim Holt), all the while waiting for the wild Clantons (led by Walter Brennan's ruthless Old Man Clanton) to make a mistake. Victor Mature delivers perhaps his finest performance as the tubercular gambler Doc Holliday, an alcoholic Eastern doctor escaping civilization in the Wild West. Ford takes great liberties... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Henry Fonda - Linda Darnell Director(s): John Ford DVD Release Date: Released the 06 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Considered by many to be Federico Fellini's most beautiful and powerful film, La Strada was the first film to reveal the range of Guilietta Masina, whose poignant performance as the childlike Gelsomina recalls Chaplin's Little Tramp. The bubbly, waiflike Gelsomina is a simpleton sold to the gruff, bullying circus strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) as a servant and assistant. Treated no better than an animal, Gelsomina nonetheless falls in love with the brute Zampanò. When they join a small circus they meet Il Matto (Richard Basehart), a clown who enchants Gelsomina and relentlessly taunts Zampanò, whose inability to control his hatred of Il Matto (literally, "the Fool") leads to their expulsion from the circus and eventually to the film's fateful conclusion.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Anthony Quinn - Giulietta Masina - Richard Basehart Director(s): Federico Fellini DVD Release Date: Released the 18 November 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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