Slaughterhouse-Five

A much underrated film from journeyman director George Roy Hill. Hill hit the big time with his next film, The Sting, and a decade after that had a hit with The World According To Garp.

But, this is easily his best film.

Why? Because it comes from the best source material: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade. As many directors of note have claimed, all great cinema starts with a good script. Period.

Cinema is a visual extension of literature, rather than a narrative extension of the visual arts. This good (not common) sense reality has too often missed by fundamentalists of 'pure cinema,' but it is true, nonetheless.

The tale folows a man who becomes 'unstuck' in time- a great device that makes the man's insanity palatable enough for the viewer/reader to be able to identify with; despite the obvious things that are not true in the narrative.

The book and film differ, but only in slight ways. Michael sacks, in his only lead film role, is outstanding as lead character Billy Pilgrim, who ages over forty plus years in the film. He has just the right mix of naive-te andhumility to masque the absolute insanity of the character.

Here is a trailer of this film that just misses out on greatness:

The World According To Garp- Essay

An interesting, if not good, video essay, in a series based upon people wanting to watch the Top 1000 films from the website They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? Years ago I wrote for that website, but about the only thing it's known for now is its compilation list of Best Of film lists.

The website, in terms of its visual appeal, has always been cluttered and has not been updated in years.

As for the essay, the commentary is pretty nondescript, and it focuses on a minor character, the transsexual played by John Lithgow. The commentarian claims to be a transsexual himself/herself, but nothing of any depth is said- not of transsexuality nor in terms of the filmic art.

The question then hangs in the air, what is the point of this essay? Especially since the commentarian says he/she has major problems with the films, other than the transsexual aspect, yet never gets to them

But, having not seen the film for a decade or so, it was interesting to see some of the scenes. The film was no great shakes, and this essay does nothing to elucidates its pros nor cons.