Review of Catch-22 (1970) by Steven B — 03 Sep 2009

It should not be essential to red the novel on which a film is based to fully appreciate a movie adaptation. I have not read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, but from what I understand it is a much different experience than watching the 1970 film. For me, the film was surely profound in the anti-war message, but it still suffers from slow pacing and an unevenness of tone. For a movie set in the middle of a war there are very few combat scenes and you never see the enemy, since the soldiers are bomber pilots and bombadiers.

In the first half there are many moments of situational comedy even among the death and hopelessness that the airmen experience. Towards the end however it becomes so darkly dramatic as more and more of the main character's friends die needlessly. The story contains officers who exploit the war situation for their own ambitions, either for money or prestige, at the expense of the overworked airmen at their command. Youssarian, the main character played by Alan Arkin, can't take the endless bombing raids and wants to be sent home. He an't claim craziness as an excuse since someone who says they don't want to fly must not be crazy. Director Mike Nichols incorporates dreamy flashback sequences to one or two key moments, creating a hazy, almost circular sequence to the film which invokes a notion that perhaps Youssarian actually is going a bit crazy. Either that or he's going sane in a crazy world. Nichols collaborates once again with screenwriter/actor Buck Henry, and the film has a definite similarity in feel to their previous collaboration on The Graduate just three years prior. To me, however, The Graduate is a much more enjoyable film.

There are a lot of known actors playing the airmen and officers in Catch-22, many of whom went on to have long careers (and a couple near the end of long careers). It was somewhat worth seeing the film to see the way that these comedic actors acted together in this comic tragedy.