Kurt Vonnegut's death Wednesday night really feels like the end of an era. (Obits appear in the
New York Times and
GreenCine.com.) His metaphysical ramblings and anti-authoritarian sensibility made him the unofficial poet laureate of America's sixties counterculture. And while his novel writing slowed down in the last decade, Vonnegut kept up the good fight, always speaking up for civil rights, intellectual freedom and against the war, especially in his column for the journal
In These Times.
In 1972,
George Roy Hill adapted his lyrical time-travel, anti-war novel
Slaughterhouse-Five into one of the best -- and least appreciated -- of classic Seventies cinema. Structurally innovative, metaphysically playful, and deeply moving -- along with an entrancing Glenn Gould score -- this allegory of one man's struggle to understand fate (and its inevitable mortal conclusion) is well worth watching, especially today in memory of its author.
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posted by Peter Bowen @ 4/12/2007 07:09:00 AM
Comments (1)
I'm glad to see just how great a response there has been to Vonnegut's death. It's particularly pleasing to see so many film blogs paying homage to him, and is proof that his work transcended its literary origins. From a personal point of view, I have a special affection for Keith Gordon's adaptation of Vonnegut's Mother Night, an extremely underrated film with a strong script and an excellent central performance from Nick Nolte.
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posted by Nick Dawson @ 4/12/2007 4:12 PM
