MovieChat Forums > Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) Discussion > The Curious Case Of Billy Pilgrim...?

The Curious Case Of Billy Pilgrim...?

posted 10 years ago by dungeonstudio
3 replies | jump to latest

I think with the original Slaughterhouse Five movie, ones never sure if Billy is actually 'time tripping' or has harnessed borderline insanity as a way to cope? Whereas with Benjamin Button, the viewers assured that the character is a bonafide freak of circumstance. Somehow I get the feeling if Slaughterhouse Five were to be remade, it would try to validate Billy's 'time tripping' to the viewer without question. That's what would ruin it for me. Same thing with Stephen Kings 'The Shining'. I think King's book is great, and grew to love Kubricks interpretation. Though the two are so disparate, Kubricks take on the 'Unknown Unknowns' makes it more scarier and lasting. Was the Overlook indeed haunted? Or was Jack merely experiencing cabin fever and/or the D.T's? Then when King set out to make his book the REAL adaptation, it almost took both geniuses out of the equation. And to me, 8 years after Kurt's death - it's a bit like grave robbing. Bad enough if Kurt were still alive, and realized with all the CGI and all that his book maybe better envisioned. But I think it would still come off as 'Benjamin Button' in the end. A freak of circumstance without question. And where's the fun in that?

[–] MsSpiderGrrl 10 years ago

Vonnegut has always been one of my Top 10 reads, and Slaughterhouse Five is in my Top 3 of his.

I always wondered about his presentation of his characters' psyches.... Was it surreal/sci fi, was it artistic license, like a film director using time line manipulation, or-- and this was a recent thought on this novel, and film, after my grandfather's passing -- rooted in science and personal experience....

Alzheimers? A war vet becoming "unstuck in time". Of course this wouldn't be an accurate portrayal of Alzheimers, but when my Grandfather (a Korean war vet) suffered from Alzheimers and was a different version of him from moment to moment... The next time I saw this movie, then read the book, I wondered about this perspective.

[–] Dog112 8 years ago

When you live your life, you do things in steps, and you go through
passages from one step to the next. You prepare yourself for what
is next. You gradually build a foundation, you develop values, you
add the wisdom of your years, and pass information to others
along the way.

Kurt Vonnegut could not do this -- not when he spent the earliest
part of his adulthood watching the unfathomable things being done
during the insanity of WWII. He had to trade in his sequential
perspective for one where the components were not dependent on
those that came before; where they could be arranged side-by-side
in a panoramic view; where he could pick the things he liked or
thought important and use them to create a more sensible picture
of the universe.

Time was no longer the track on which the first three dimensions
travelled. It had become a directional dimension, like length, width,
and height. It could be seen as an integral dimension of Einstein's
time-space.

So Billy Pilgrim became the man who saw the big picture. He could
be aware of various parts of his life as his consciousness allowed.
He could juxtapose components. He could move from one
component to another without going through the passages of his
history as though they were doors on a passenger train. And he
could remember his future as though it were his past.

These were the abilities Billy developed so he could put things
in their proper perspective.

.

[–] MoviemanCin 8 years ago

Good post dungeon, but next time you might want to throw in a paragraph break or two. It will make your posts much easier to read.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.