Catch-22

The ever talented Alan Arkin strikes again. "Catch-22" ranks among his all time best films. It's a hilarious dark satire about an American World War II soldier (Arkin) who hopes to escape from the pressures and insanities of the combat front lines. He devises a scheme to have himself grounded as crazy so he can leave the war. However, his plan may backfire due to the so called "catch-22" law. Arkin gives a hilarious performance as the harried soldier and he is supported by a huge all star supporting cast who all turn in equally good performances.

A humorous, sometimes farcical film about war and the US military world. The director shows us an army governed by opportunists, lazy and incompetent, unfortunately he does so through crude humor and surreal and childish comedy, a hymn to nihilism and the bizarre.

Bomber Yossarian (Alan Arkin) no longer wants to fly with his squadron, but Colonel Cathcart (Martin Balsam), commander of the Pianosa air base, continues to increase the number of missions needed to get himself sent home, even pretending to be crazy and showing up naked at a medal ceremony in the presence of General Dreedle (Orson Welles).

Excellent direction by Mike Nichols, unforgettable scene of simultaneous take-off of a multitude of B52 bombers; the screenplay fails to capture the irreverence and crude satire of the original story, falling into vulgarity; the cast is really well-stocked with some top stars, unfortunately the results are quite mixed. It all boils down to a lot of comic and surreal strips about militarism and society, just like in the 50s comics Beetle Bailey.

This film suffers from the fact that so many have already read the book and look to pick apart every scene that doesn't synch up. I read the book and I think it helps to watch the movie if you are at least familiar with the themes of the book, but I still think the film stands alone in its genre, somewhere behind Stranglelove, MASH and Full Metal Jacket (all movies influenced by the book). A lot of the acting comes out cartoonish, but I think they were cartoons in the book as well. That was a theme of the book and the film; the artificiality of people playing roles in war. I thought Voight was excellent as Milo and Perkins played a perfectly reserved Chaplin. This was Arkin's film, and I though he carried it off. I also found the Snowden flash backs as an interesting choice for the movies pivot.

I've seen the film with people who did not read the book, and some unaware of the book, and I think most had very positive impressions of it. Yes the book is a more fulfilling experience, but that is almost always the case. I understand that the film disappointed when it opened and all the stars ended up despising each other. I think that reaction tainted the film for several years. I think that the film has appreciated with age and really stands today as a great underrated piece of work. I think at some point if will be rediscovered and be placed among the best black comedy/farce/war movies of its time.

CATCH-22 was filmed using a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (an image almost two-and-a-half times wider than it is high). Every inch of the picture area was used by the cinematographer for important information. If you watch the horrible, cropped pan-and-scan version, which is all you can get on either VHS or Laser Disc, you are missing close to 40% of the intended picture area and a great deal of important stuff! I've seen this desecrated version and, be warned, you will not even understand the final flashback revelation because it is not even in the frame!! People who can't stand those "black bars" on the top and bottom of the screen are going to miss the entire point of this movie!! Rent or buy the DVD, which is widescreen and restores all this critical image area. Do not judge this film if you can't see it all. I have to wonder how many of the previous reviews here are based upon the unbelievably butchered VHS version.

The book Catch-22 is my favourite novel, and is extremely deep and intricate. It has great moments of comedy which slip quickly into tremendous moments of horror. That novel as it is could never feasibly be addapted into a live action anything.

However, upon viewing the film, I was quite impressed and happy with it. I'm not an unrealistic person, so I understand that they had to cut out scenes and characters and subplots to condense it for the film. Overall, of course, it lost some of its greatest moments which are in the ironic humor of the narrative style of the book. But it was not a bad film at all. In fact, I thought it was one of the best adaptations I have seen. I think almost everything you see on screen happens in the book.

Apart from that, it was extremely well casted. The characters were just as I have envisioned them in my head while reading the novel (except that Major Major shrank about a foot... but that's not matter, because Bob Newhart was great anyway). The cinematography was beautiful, the acting was awesome (Alan Arkin was perfect), and the flashbacks to Snowden were done stylishly and surrealistically.

Basically, it's a good movie. But it's an even better movie if you've read the book, and you know exactly what is going on in some of the characters' heads and what is going on outside of the scenes we see in the film. Overall, I think this is the best anyone could have done with this adaptation, and I applaud the filmmakers for that.