Slaughterhouse-Five (film)

Slaughterhouse-Five
Original film poster
Directed byGeorge Roy Hill
Written byStephen Geller
Based onSlaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut
Produced byPaul Monash
Starring
CinematographyMiroslav Ondříček
Edited byDede Allen
Music byGlenn Gould
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • March 15, 1972 (1972-03-15)
Running time
104 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Slaughterhouse-Five is a 1972 American comedy-drama military science fiction film directed by George Roy Hill and produced by Paul Monash, from a screenplay by Stephen Geller, based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Kurt Vonnegut.[1] The film stars Michael Sacks as Billy Pilgrim, who is "unstuck in time" and has no control over where he is going next. It also stars Ron Leibman as Paul Lazzaro and Valerie Perrine as Montana Wildhack.

Slaughterhouse-Five premiered at the 25th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film also won a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the inaugural Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. Sacks was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male for his portrayal of Pilgrim.

Vonnegut wrote about the film soon after its release, in his preface to Between Time and Timbuktu: "I love George Roy Hill and Universal Pictures, who made a flawless translation of my novel Slaughterhouse-Five to the silver screen. I drool and cackle every time I watch that film, because it is so harmonious with what I felt when I wrote the book."[2]

  1. ^ Canby, Vincent (March 23, 1972). "Film: Time-Tripping With 'Slaughterhouse-Five'". The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
  2. ^ Parshall, Peter F. (1987). "Meditations on the Philosophy of Tralfamadore: Kurt Vonnegut and George Roy Hill". Literature/Film Quarterly. 15 (1): 49–59. JSTOR 43796292. Retrieved November 7, 2020.