Slaughterhouse-Five
A pacifist veteran's life fractures across wartime Dresden, suburban America, and an alien captivity in a darkly comic meditation on trauma and fatalism.
Overview
A man grapples with the chaos of time travel and the horrors of war, seeking meaning in his fragmented existence.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- sardonic
- surreal
- melancholic
- literary adaptation night
- anti-war cinema viewing
What critics said
Critics generally view the adaptation as an imaginative and largely successful translation of Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war science fiction into a formally unconventional film.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Billy Pilgrim moves uncontrollably among his wartime imprisonment, postwar life, and Tralfamadore captivity.
The Tralfamadorian worldview and Billy's temporal displacement recast death and the Dresden bombing as fixed moments.
Billy's pacifism, the POW experience, Dresden, and the film's comic detachment create a pointed anti-war perspective.
The film intercuts ordinary American life, wartime captivity, and alien exhibition through an understated speculative lens.
Films like Slaughterhouse-Five, and why
The Deer Hunter
shared anti-war drama, speculative structure, and psychologically dislocated protagonist
Catch-22
shared new hollywood experimentation, wartime trauma, and bleakly ironic tone
The Man Who Fell to Earth
shared science fiction satire, nonlinear reality, and philosophical response to catastrophe
Cloud Atlas
shared literary science fiction, time dislocation, and surreal meditation on mortality
Movie Details
- Director
- George Roy Hill
- Release Date
- 1972-03-15
- Runtime
- 100 min
- Rating
- 6.5 / 10 (267)
Cast
- Michael Sacks
- Ron Leibman
- Eugene Roche
- Sharon Gans
- Valerie Perrine
- Holly Near
- Perry King
- Kevin Conway
- Friedrich von Ledebur
- Ekkehardt Belle
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Slaughterhouse-Five about?
- A pacifist veteran's life fractures across wartime Dresden, suburban America, and an alien captivity in a darkly comic meditation on trauma and fatalism.
- What is Slaughterhouse-Five like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Slaughterhouse-Five as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Slaughterhouse-Five violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in Slaughterhouse-Five as moderate.
- What did critics think of Slaughterhouse-Five?
- Critics generally view the adaptation as an imaginative and largely successful translation of Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war science fiction into a formally unconventional film.
- Which films are like Slaughterhouse-Five?
- Films with a similar feel include The Deer Hunter, Catch-22, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Cloud Atlas.
- How long is Slaughterhouse-Five?
- Slaughterhouse-Five runs 100 minutes.
- Where can I watch Slaughterhouse-Five?
- In United States, Slaughterhouse-Five streams on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads.
