(This contains a "spoiler" only in the limited sense that it mentions the movie involves Dresden during WWII, and what happened to that city).
I hadn't seen this movie since... well, probably since it first was released, and I wasn't prepared for how great it is. There is nothing "allegorical" it. The parts set in WWII are realistic, and are directly based on Kurt Vonnegut's wartime experiences as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany's Dresden, safe deep below ground while the city was firebombed at the end of the war; resulting in more damage and casualties than Hiroshima, and arguably with a lot less purpose.
Being "unstuck in time" is a great description for the way our brains really work most of the time -- at any one moment reflecting on a particular childhood afternoon during 6th grade, or reliving an argument or love scene from the night before, or fantasizing an imagined future. Then the street light changes, and for that instant at least you're back on Second Avenue, looking both ways for traffic...
This movie's great achievement is to mix up stories from WWII, the present, and an imagined (or if you prefer, extraterrestrial and mildly pornographic) future in an amusing and bittersweet way; and in way that makes psychological and dramatic sense. The most awful things cannot be confronted directly (think about Sauron in the "Lord of the Rings" who is all the more horrible because we never hear him directly -- his voice is issues only from proxies). For Vonnegut, the horrors of Dresden were impossible to write about in a completely direct way, which makes the movie's structure not only fun, but also deeply "right." As to the acting, Michael Sacks is great as Billy Pilgrim, and Eugene Roche great as Edgar Derby; but Valerie Perrine despite having less screen time as Montana Wildhack practically steals the show. Gorgeous, charming, luscious, perfect! What Tramfalmadorian for "hubba! hubba!"?
I hadn't seen this movie since... well, probably since it first was released, and I wasn't prepared for how great it is. There is nothing "allegorical" it. The parts set in WWII are realistic, and are directly based on Kurt Vonnegut's wartime experiences as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany's Dresden, safe deep below ground while the city was firebombed at the end of the war; resulting in more damage and casualties than Hiroshima, and arguably with a lot less purpose.
Being "unstuck in time" is a great description for the way our brains really work most of the time -- at any one moment reflecting on a particular childhood afternoon during 6th grade, or reliving an argument or love scene from the night before, or fantasizing an imagined future. Then the street light changes, and for that instant at least you're back on Second Avenue, looking both ways for traffic...
This movie's great achievement is to mix up stories from WWII, the present, and an imagined (or if you prefer, extraterrestrial and mildly pornographic) future in an amusing and bittersweet way; and in way that makes psychological and dramatic sense. The most awful things cannot be confronted directly (think about Sauron in the "Lord of the Rings" who is all the more horrible because we never hear him directly -- his voice is issues only from proxies). For Vonnegut, the horrors of Dresden were impossible to write about in a completely direct way, which makes the movie's structure not only fun, but also deeply "right." As to the acting, Michael Sacks is great as Billy Pilgrim, and Eugene Roche great as Edgar Derby; but Valerie Perrine despite having less screen time as Montana Wildhack practically steals the show. Gorgeous, charming, luscious, perfect! What Tramfalmadorian for "hubba! hubba!"?
- Charles