Actor Michael Sacks as Billy Pilgrim
Kurt Vonnegut is probably my favorite author of all time, and my favorite film adapted from one of his awesome books is Slaughterhouse Five. It is really just the best movie ever, meaning it’s right up there with A Clockwork Orange and Harold and Maude. I watched Slaughterhouse Five last night on the Sundance Channel and it was just as mind-blowing as I remembered from the ten or twelve times I’d seen it before. But something I noticed in the film’s credits for the first time is that the late great modern classical pianist Glen Gould plays all the Bach music on the soundtrack. Glen Gould is amazing.
When the movie was over, I was compelled to run to the Google and try to find out whatever happened to Michael Sacks, the actor who played the lead role of Billy Pilgrim, because, honestly, I don’t remember ever seeing him in any other films. What I found out is that Sacks retired from the film industry in 1984 and went to work on Wall Street. Crazy.
I would have never thought that it was the same guy in The Sugarland Express. I really dug that movie, it was cheap and made an impact at the same time. The whole production was probably fueled on Texas barbecue and cheap whisky.
I remember seeing Slaughterhouse Five when it was released. Somehow, after reading the book, the movie seemed like a totally different story (probably because I had painted a lot of pictures in my head while reading it)… and I haven’t seen it since that one time, but I do remember that is was great.