Slaughterhouse Five: The Movie

A couple weeks ago (I think) we watched the Slaughterhouse 5 movie trailer in class. Mr. Lynn didn’t really know if it was professionally made or just fan made, but I don’t really think it matters. Amateur or professional, this movie looks like it sucks the big one. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. A book SO GOOD could have a movie SO BAD. I even gave it a second chance afterwards. I said “Well it’s not really fair if I judge the entire movie just by the trailer”, so I tried watching it. I got about15 minutes in and I turned it off. It was that bad. But why is that? Slaughterhouse 5 has all the makings of a good movie! It has action, good characters a solid story... so why the upset? Well, I did a bit of research on the film, and I think I understand why it was so bad. The film was released in 1972, roughly three years after the book debuted. My theory is that the people behind the creation of the movie probably weren't trying to cater to the fans or try and do justice to the book. It was most likely made just for the sake of making money off of something that was very popular at the time. Vonnegut probably didn't even have any creative control over the movie. He probably just signed it off thinking that they'd do a good job on it. And from what I've seen in interviews with him, if he had known how bad it was going to be, he would have definitely spoken up, and the movie probably would have been a hundred times better then it was.


I’m bashing the movie a lot, but I actually think that Slaughterhouse 5 has MASSIVE potential to be a good movie. With the right team of directors, special effects people and writers this would be an awesome movie! I definitely have some ideas on how the movie should be made. First off: transitions. That's basically what Slaughterhouse 5 is. It's just a bunch of transitions, where Billy Pilgrim is jumping from different periods in his life. The possibilities are endless with this, and should be properly utilized. Billy Pilgrim could go to sleep, and wake up in another time period. He could dive into a pool, resurface and find himself in swampy water in World War II. He could be in a fox hole with Roland Weary, a shot goes off, Billy winces, and then he finds himself opening his eyes to him sitting infront of a TV watching a war movie being replayed backwards. Another thing that should be focused on is music. Music would be an important role in the movie because not only is Pilgrim time traveling to different times, he's ending up in different places and situations as well. I think that the music should change accordingly to better fit the mood. In the war situations there should be more heavier music, like heavy metal. For the more peaceful situations like when he's lying down in the hospital with Eliot Rosewater, there could be like violin or something. In the Tralfamadorian space ship and when Pilgrim is on Tralfamadore there could be more of a space-ish sci-fi kind of sound, like the theme from X-Files. Special effects would also have to be an area of focus, because there's a lot in the book that the film would need to cater to as far as CGI goes. Instances where Pilgrim is in the war or when he's being abducted and brought to Tralfamadore would need very good special effects to make the film believable and not hokey. Lastly, the writing. The Slaughterhouse 5 movie would need a team of very skilled writers to do justice to the book. The writers would need to make the characters and plot flow like Vonnegut, and mimicking his greatness would probably be the hardest thing to do.


Think back to a week ago in our English class. Mr. Lynn told us to split into groups and create a storyboard for a trailer of a Slaughterhouse 5 movie. In less then 38 minutes, we cranked out a lot of  great ideas. I know it's only a trailer, and making a film is more difficult then just making a 30 second to 2 minute long trailer, but think about it. If that's what a class of eleventh graders could do in less then 38 minutes, imagine what a team of professional film makers could do? It would be amazing! 


If Slaughterhouse Five: The Movie hit theaters today, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a ticket. It has all the right ingredients for a blockbuster film. The only problem is, it would be extremely hard for the movie to do justice to the book and would probably require a massive budget. But hopefully one day, it does get remade. And hopefully this time, it's not screwed up.