Does it do the book justice?
I read the book today, loved it, and want to get a feel for how it was adapted to film. To the letter? To the spirit/themes? What did/didn't people like about the translation from book to film?
shareI read the book today, loved it, and want to get a feel for how it was adapted to film. To the letter? To the spirit/themes? What did/didn't people like about the translation from book to film?
shareEvery book that gets turned into a film must undergo changes to fit it into a reasonable running time meaning that certain characters, scenes and dialogue must be either omitted, combined, or used verbatim. For what it's worth, Vonnegut himself loved the film and praised it incessantly.
shareNot really.
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.
I read the book several times, long time before watching the movie, and after that too. I love the book so much. But I also liked the movie. I was happy to discover Vonnegut story turned into a movie. The movie was quite good in capturing the spirit and the story of the book. What appears as travels to Trafaldamore it's actually bouts of schizophrenia or other psychiatric syndrome experienced by Billy later in life. Maybe it's an extreme case of PTSD turned psychotic.
Both the book and the movie have a strong antiwar message.
I agree it's better to read the book before watching the movie.
There is that line in the movie when Billy tells his kids how he's living on Tralfamadore with Montana, and the daughter asks "isn't that the actress who disappeared?". Makes the whole thing ambiguous.
shareThe better question is: is it a book that deserves justice, or even attention? I was a huge Vonnegut fan in the 60s, and then I grew up. I read all his novels and short stories. Today, I’ve no interest at all in revisiting them. What seemed innovative then, seems forced, strident and, worst of all, quaint today. He has not stood the test of time. That’s not a bad thing. Neither has Norman Mailer.
Who? Exactly.
Given that Vonnegut is one of those writers whose true power is in how he tells his stories, in his own distinct voice & literary style, I'd say that the film is as good an adaptation as we could hope to get. It benefits from being made in the early 1970s, because it's still in tune with the cultural zeitgeist then.
As for Vonnegut being passé, as some posters have suggested, I couldn't disagree more. The issues of human absurdity, stupidity, cruelty, apathy & indifference that he addresses are just as timely today as they were some 50+ years ago, when he wrote his seminal books. If anything, his sardonic, scathing assessment of human tribalism driven by fear & insecurity, the ease with which human beings slip into violence & mindless hatred—all of that is even more frighteningly timely & urgent today.
For all the talk of his pessimism & misanthropy, he's made it quite clear that he's a deeply wounded humanist, and his message is a plea for kindness, decency, and simply enjoying the wonders of life while we're here for this fleeting moment of time.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'"
This says it well:
http://www.katewickens.me/blog/2016/11/16/kurt-vonergurt-god-damn-it-youve-got-to-be-kind
For me, the film works superbly.