From the Page to the Screen – Slaughterhouse-Five
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From the Page to the Screen – Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five is a classic 1969 science fiction anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It is considered to be one of the best novels of the 20th century for many great reasons. It has stood the test of time gloriously and it led to a movie adaptation that is also pretty damn great on its own.
THE FILM ADAPTATION
The film was released in 1972 and it received good reviews, but it is rather underrated in the bigger scope of things. The movie needs more attention as it’s a superb example of how to properly adapt an important novel.
PLOT
This adaptation is immensely faithful, which I always appreciate, but even the things that they changed are done in the tone and style of the book itself. It’s a very engaging, wonderfully adapted movie, but the book gets this one as it came out first.
WINNER – BOOK
CHARACTERIZATION
This is one of the rare instances where the film adaptation trumps the original novel that was at its weakest in this area, but the movie develops the protagonist so well, but also Paul Lazzaro and surprisingly Valencia who is much better, funnier and more memorable than she was before.
WINNER – FILM
EMOTION
The movie is impactful emotionally speaking, but nowhere near the same level of the book. While reading it, you get the horrible déjà vu effect of the “So it goes” line repeated throughout. That bit was lacking in the movie, and thus it wasn’t as heartbreaking.
WINNER – BOOK
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THEMES
The movie has that great conversation about the complicated postwar feelings about the Dresden bombing, but the book explores in-length not only the concept of time and death, but also the devastating effects of war on humans’ psyche and the human handling of death.
WINNER – BOOK
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
Kurt Vonnegut’s style of writing is incredible. He uses short, but undeniably striking sentences that stick with you. His time-jumping structure was also revolutionary for its time. The movie surprisingly is also amazing in this area. Not only is the direction superb, but the editing is masterfully done, thus perfectly complementing the novel’s bold structure.
WINNER – TIE
BOOK 4: FILM 2
Yes, at the end of the day the novel remains the king, but this 1972 movie does everything right while particularly being efficient at editing and characterization as well as the humor. The book is thematically richer and more emotional. Both complement each other wonderfully.
