Review of Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) by Justin L — 06 Jun 2009

It lends some insight into the 60s generation in the United States, the Boomers, having absorbed the anxieties and carnage of their parents traumatized by the Depression and World War, yet shaped by the affluence and moon landings and regional wars and Cadillacs and celluloid titillation which make for a darkly absurd and nearly comic worldview - a middle class existentialism unstuck in time, pursued by furies yet understanding the future.

Amid this dated satire are some tragic moments, such as the firebombing of Dresden, which though anchoring the film, tends to weaken the speculatively satiric science fiction owing to the immensity of the devastation at Dresden and its pointless cruelty.