SF Masterpieces "1984" and "Slaughterhouse-Five": Can You Understand the Movies Without Reading the Original Novels?

I discovered film adaptations of two works hailed as masterpieces of modern science fiction, 'Slaughterhouse-Five' (1964) and '1984' (1949), on Amazon Prime, so I decided to watch them.

This is an episode where I test whether someone who hasn't read the original novels—often described as difficult—can understand the content just by watching the movies, and whether it makes them want to read the originals.

While holding a sense of awe for those who turned these difficult sci-fi novels into films, let's try to experience the protagonist's life in just two hours. Both films seem to be highly regarded by fans of the original works, so they are surely faithful. They seem likely to be helpful for understanding the source material.

Readable Sci-Fi, Unreadable Sci-Fi

I quite like sci-fi, but that doesn't mean I can read every novel.

Is it the length? The writing style? Just my mood? There are books I simply cannot bring myself to read.
Since becoming an adult, I often find I can't read books I borrowed from the library on a whim. It seems I have to buy them myself to actually read them.

Foreign novels are even harder to read. One of them is this,the classic sci-fi novel 'Slaughterhouse-Five'.
I don't remember the circumstances, but a colleague at work who loved space and sci-fi gave me a used paperback copy. I left it unread until the end, and then recently discovered the movie version on Amazon Prime.

And then, I also found the film version of'1984', known as a masterpiece of modern dystopian fiction.
It's said to be the No. 1 dystopian novel, so it must be maximum dystopia. I haven't read Haruki Murakami's '1Q84', but it seems this novel had a huge influence on it.

So, I decided to take this opportunity to watch the film adaptations of these two world-famous sci-fi novels.

For something like 'Dune', I felt an intense urge to read it after watching Part 1 of the movie, and I ended up reading all three volumes of the paperback. There's a chance the movie could be the catalyst for me to start reading!

The Conclusion First

If you start watching with zero knowledge, you'll be surprised and feel like, 'What on earth is this?'
For those thinking of just watching the movies, I recommend keeping the following in mind.

'Slaughterhouse-Five' -> A story about a protagonist who time-travels against his will. Look for the trigger, and try to think about how to accept a desperate reality based on the cosmic view that 'all time exists simultaneously and cannot be changed'!

'1984' -> A dystopian story about losing one's humanity in a controlled society where freedom has been stripped away.
Let's unravel the structure of despair while comparing information manipulation, the influence of language on thought, and modern society!

Time Travel, War, and Black Comedy,
'Slaughterhouse-Five'

The original novel is 'Slaughterhouse-Five', published in 1969 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
The author depicts the tragic reality of war, such as the Dresden bombing he experienced himself, by fusing time-travel sci-fi with black humor, and it is considered one of the pinnacles of modern American literature.

The film was produced in 1972 by director George Roy Hill. (Released in Japan in April 1975). The runtime is 103 minutes, which is not long.

It's because I listened to Bach's melodies

The music that plays at the beginning really resonates with the heart.
Bach's orderly, beautiful melodies perfectly match the beautiful cityscape of Dresden and the atmosphere of the protagonist who lives calmly across time and space.

This is apparently a performance by Glenn Gould, a pianist famous for his innovative Bach interpretations and eccentric episodes. This kind of direction is wonderful!

What does 'Slaughterhouse' mean?

The protagonist is Billy Pilgrim, a weak American soldier who time-travels against his will. 'Slaughterhouse-Five' refers to the underground detention facility of a meatpacking plant where Billy, who was captured in Dresden, Germany, at the end of World War II, hid during the massive Allied air raid.

A protagonist who isn't like a protagonist

The actor playing Pilgrim has a youthfulness that even hair and makeup couldn't fully hide in the older scenes, and his gap-toothed smile is somehow charming.

Unlike the chatty, impatient, happy-go-lucky guys (a major prejudice) often seen in Hollywood movies, Pilgrim is strangely dazed and goes at his own pace from a young age, and his nonchalant attitude—perhaps gained from achieving enlightenment through time and space—is interesting.

Time Travel and Space Zoo

The timeline is a mess, so it's hard to follow, but it seems Pilgrim started time-tripping due to brain damage from a plane crash and being abducted by aliens. It's also interpreted as a hallucination he developed to protect himself from the trauma of war.

The name 'Tralfamadorian' appears early in the novel as well, but they don't appear in physical form in the movie.
I was surprised when a dome-shaped space zoo (a sideshow) appeared, housing Pilgrim and Montana (a missing actress) who had been abducted by the Tralfamadorians.
There, the 'voice' of the Tralfamadorians converses with them. I laughed at the alien's constant line, 'Are you going to mate?'

It's a strange, absurd, cynical, and surreal story, so it probably won't appeal to everyone, but the use of music and visuals is not bad at all.
If you want to see a war movie that is detached and not dark, or a unique sci-fi film, or if you are a fan of the original work, why not give it a watch?

Other trivia that will make you want to watch 'Slaughterhouse-Five'

• Director George Roy Hill is a famous Hollywood director known for 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting,' and 'The World According to Garp.'
• The original author, Kurt Vonnegut, praised the film highly.
• Michael Sacks, who was unknown at the time, gave a great performance as the protagonist, a 'lethargic soldier and middle-aged man who you can't tell what he's thinking.' It seems the director intentionally cast an actor who gave a plain and nondescript impression.
• It won the Jury Prize at the 25th Cannes Film Festival and the Hugo Award, which is given to outstanding visual works in the sci-fi world.
• It is based on the real-life experience of author Kurt Vonnegut himself, who survived the 'Dresden firebombing' during World War II as a prisoner of war in the basement of a food storage facility (a slaughterhouse). The depiction of the firebombing used a combination of special effects techniques from the time and actual archival footage, realistically expressing the gruesome scene of the city engulfed in flames.
• An alien race called the Tralfamadorians appears, depicting a 'deterministic' worldview where all time exists simultaneously.
• In early Hayakawa Bunko editions, the Japanese title was 'Slaughterhouse No. 5'.
• The plot, in which the protagonist moves irregularly through past, present, and future time, is visualized by pushing the film's montage theory (editing technique) to its limits, and it is said to be passed down as a hidden masterpiece in the history of sci-fi cinema.

Did everyone get interested in watching it?

The overly dystopian '1984'

The novel '1984,' published by George Orwell in 1949, is a dystopian masterpiece that depicts a terrifying surveillance society where a dictatorship controls everything.

The atmosphere of the movie, released in 1984, the same year as the title, is said to be quite faithful to the original. The director is Michael Radford of 'Il Postino'.

John Hurt plays the protagonist, and when it comes to stories about a controlled society under a dictatorship, it strongly reminds me of 'V for Vendetta' (the movie famous for Natalie Portman shaving her head). 'V for Vendetta' is a comic-book-based movie featuring a mysterious hero wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, and I found it quite interesting.

Because of the interesting connection that John Hurt played the dictator side in 'V...', I watched this with high expectations, but... '1984' is just hopeless and has no light.
It ends as a dystopian story that thoroughly beats you down.

A movie that makes you age when you watch it

By the way, John Hurt is the lead actor in 'The Elephant Man,' the first person to have his body burst open by the glorious alien in 'Alien,' and a British actor who played grandfather roles in various movies. (Died in 2017)

In the original, the protagonist Winston is 39, and John Hurt was 44 at the time. He looked older in the movie, but anyone would look old in such a hopeless environment.
After watching the movie, I felt like I had aged a year myself.

Synopsis

Winston, the protagonist, works at the Ministry of Truth, where he falsifies past newspaper articles and documents for the convenience of the Party, and he harbors doubts about the regime.
He starts writing a diary in a hidden room, and after a female colleague confesses to him, they continue to meet in secret, but the antique shop owner and O'Brien, whom he thought were comrades, are actuallythe Thought Policeand it is a story where he falls into a trap, gets caught, and has his spirit completely broken through harsh torture and brainwashing.

Perfect for experiencing a sense of despair

Profound visuals, profound acting, cold-blooded torture scenes that strip away humanity, the eerie suffocation of being constantly watched by telescreens, a decadent and desperate atmosphere...
I recommend it to those who want to experience such things. Ugh.

Anyway, it's dark, too dark!
Even though it's not that long at 113 minutes, the lack of salvation makes it feel even longer.
And I was tired because I didn't really understand what they were doing or saying, so I was desperately trying to keep up.

Unless you are a huge fan of dystopias, I would say stick to 'Blade Runner,' 'Total Recall,' or 'Brazil,' which are still dystopian but have more modulation.

'Big Brother is watching you'

Big Brother is considered not a real person, but a 'fictional icon (symbol)' created by the Party to unite the people and rule through fear.
TelescreenHis face is projected onto a device called a, and he is the central figure of a system that monitors citizens' lives and expressions 24 hours a day. It is said that the story depicts the terror of justifying control by giving the dictator a friendly-sounding name.

The mental capacity to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously and blindly believe both to be trueDoublethinkandNewspeak, a language that controls thought by pruning words—perhaps the secret to this work's popularity is the abundance of such clever, tempting terms.

Although the vocabulary is reduced within the story, George Orwell's creativity with language in constructing this intricate fictional world is remarkable, and that must surely be the appeal of the original novel.

The terror of Room 101, a world where 2+2=5

I mean, they spend so much time torturing and brainwashing people to dye them in the Party's ideal state before executing them, so everyone in the Ingsoc Party must have a lot of free time.
They also set elaborate traps with many people involved. It seems the ritual of confirming the maintenance of the regime is the most important thing.
*Ingsoc Party = Abbreviation for 'English Socialism'

It's an outrageous world where the regime fakes wars and falsifies history to maintain control, and even the leader of the anti-government organization, 'Goldstein,' is a fictional character fabricated by the Party as a scapegoat for the masses and a trap for dissidents. It would be interesting to examine the similarities and differences with 'The Matrix,' which has the exact opposite approach.

Trivia that might make you want to watch the '1984' movie

・The scene where Winston writes 'April 4, 1984' in his diary was reportedly filmed on April 4, 1984.
・The author, George Orwell, swapped the digits of the year he wrote the novel, 1948, to create the title. In other words, it is the future 36 years later.
・The great actor Richard Burton, who played the interrogator O'Brien, passed away suddenly a few weeks after filming ended, making this his final work.
・The music was apparently handled by the popular UK duo of the time, Eurythmics.
・This was a historic work that was the first general-release film in Japan to be permitted without censorship of pubic hair (only for women). Viewer discretion is advised.

There was so much to think about, like how children are indoctrinated to the point of reporting their own parents, and Julia's completely contradictory behavior.

Result

Hmm, I'm curious about how the aliens and the wife are depicted in 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' so I feel like I might be able to read it. I'm also quite curious about '1984,' but it seems like it would make me overthink and age me, so maybe that's a treat for my old age.

Apparently, the novel version has an appendix, and there's some kind of mechanism that offers a glimmer of hope. I wonder what those who read the original thought?

For now, I think I can read 'Project Hail Mary'.