Critique of Slaughterhouse-Five

When I first started watching Slaughterhouse-Five, I realized that the transitions occurred quicker than in the novel, diluting the sense of suspense and tension when leading into different scenes. Billy Pilgrim’s life becomes almost a game that is controlled by a higher power in the visual aspect, but in Kurt Vonnegut’s book, Pilgrim’s life seems like a reality show that is constantly affecting his life and state of mind. Anytime something went wrong in life, Billy quickly responded with “So it goes” to seemingly block out the pain that he doesn’t wish to release to the public.
The movie made all of these moments seem as if they truly didn’t matter, but the novel made the reader think that there is sorrow and sadness behind his words. The novel depicted Billy Pilgrim as a traumatized survivor that has problems forming relationships and sustaining them, making the scene when he and his wife, Valencia, were discussing how happy she was. Ms. Merble decided to change for him and it was shown in a much more sympathetic way in the book, including the lead up and suspense that the reader is captured in. I feel as if the movie does not do the book justice by quickly transitioning and not giving enough time to build up any sort of emotion for the reader because the scenes change so quickly. Maybe the swift transitions add to the illusion that Billy Pilgrim is going back and forth in time instantaneously, but I would have to say that this quality about the movie irks me. This man that seems to be a dark hole of emotion in the film comes off someone that actually has zero emotion. The pace that the reader reads might also tie into the suspense more because one cannot pause the movie in between every single sentence to process and understand the concepts that have just been discussed. Valencia says “I never thought anybody would marry me” to Billy during their scene in bed, and he quickly responds with “I did”, in one of the most clueless voices that I’ve ever heard. During this scene in the novel, I depicted a deep, almost sensual voice speaking the words slowly and not a mile-a-minute. A little earlier in the movie, Valencia’s train of thought jumps around from one to another very quickly, flustering Billy, but I like that in the novel, I perceived the scene to be carefree and thoughtful and smoothing when discussing the context and content of their conversation.