Mike Nichols captures the essence of Joseph Heller's defining anti-war classic quite admirably, with a faithful adaptation by Buck Henry (who can be seen along with a veritable Who's Who period ensemble cast), with an eye as removed and objective as Kubrick, yet at times very visually subjective ..... an approach used to great advantage in his previous hit film The Graduate. All the verbal and ethical contradictions of the book bring its dark humor to demented life, through a kaleidoscopic cavalcade of archtypical characters who make up the living nightmare of one Captain Yossarian, who has decided he can no longer bear to fly the combat missions his superiors have made it impossible to get out of. To get out of flying, he has to be officially diagnosed as "crazy", and must request to be grounded ..... but if he requests to be grounded, then he's not really crazy, and is therefore eligible to keep flying missions. That's some catch, that Catch-22.

This film, like the book on which it's based, is not so much an indictment of the insanity of war as it is a look at how the corporate mentality can find its way into the noblest of causes, and how beurocratic manipulations devaluate basic human principles, which take a back seat to merely "looking good". A timeless theme indeed. This skewed logic is cheerfully accepted by all the story's characters ..... until our Yossarian's eyes are opened to the product of that logic literally disemboweled at his fingertips (yes, that scene was put back in!), and suddenly he is the outsider whose prime mission is to avoid any more missions. Which is not an easy thing to do when Brass keeps adding more after you've completed your tour of duty.

As far as the transfer itself: It has probably never looked better since the original theatrical release over 30 years ago, especially being the first widescreen release of this title, which is the only way to experience it as intended. The transfer team did the best they could with the mono soundtrack, I'm sure, which does get compressed and distorted at times, something we enthusiasts of early films live with.

Mike Nichols' Catch-22 may only enjoy cult status, but it is DVD releases like this (and that other oddball, star-studded 60's curiosity Candy) that make one truly appreciate what is being done with this revolutionary medium. Hey, not all movies can be for everybody. Long live the Anti-Blockbusters!


Dead on Arrival   March 26, 2003
 43 out of 70 found this review helpful

Based on the incredibly popular novel by Joseph Heller, sporting Mike Nichols as director, and featuring a first rate cast that included a host of brilliant actors, CATCH-22 was one of the most highly anticipated films of its year. And it proved one of the most critically-despised box office disasters of the early 1970s. Almost every one loathed everything about it.

The story concerns a group of WWII bomber crews and support staff stationed on an island off the coast of Italy, on which they make bomb runs--but this is merely the peg on which Heller hung his savage satire on American beaurocracy. The film version, sadly, keeps the peg but manages to miss the rest. Part of the problem here is that the humor of the novel is deeply tied into the way in which Heller tells his story--and it simply doesn't translate well into film. That aside, Buck Henry's adaptation is an absolute disaster: instead of rapid-fire, it is slow-crawl, and instead of sharp-fanged it is gap-toothed. Mike Nichol's direction is an equal miscalculation, for he approaches the material with an odd sense of detachment that effectively kills even the little bit that Henry's script had going for it to begin with.

Given all of this, the surprising thing about the movie is how well-cast it is and how good some of the performances are. You simply couldn't ask for a better Yossarian than Alan Arkin and the novel's Doc Daneeka might have been written with Jack Gilford in mind; Richard Benjamin, Art Garfunkle, Paula Prentiss, Bob Newhart, and even Orson Wells are among the many who give the film what little force it has. But ultimately, even the best performances in the film can't get the show off the ground. It is dead on arrival. As for the DVD package itself, it isn't anything to write home about either; the film is well presented, but the commentary track is merely so-so and the rest of the package is ho-hum. Although not, mercifully, as ho-hum as the extremely misguided film itself.


I love this movie!   November 19, 1999
 41 out of 46 found this review helpful

Catch-22 is probably my all-time favorite novel and favorite movie. I constantly read reviews of the film version claiming that it doesn't quite reach the level of insanity the novel elevates to and that it is clouded and too literal. I know, there are a lot of things that one just cannot believe are not in the movie, like General Peckem or ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen or Hungry Joe screaming in his sleep whenever he is off combat duty again or Chief White Halfoat waiting to die of pnuemonia and threatening to slit Flume's throat ear ot ear or the chaplain's morbid, introverted struggles or Yossarian censoring letters as Washington Irving. But you can't put EVERYTHING in a movie. I love this movie a lot. I think it sort of becomes its own thing, apart from the novel. Plus, it does bring across the main points and feelings of the novel. In fact, I'm surprised how understandingly Mike Nichols directs and the actors act and the dialogue is executed. Just watch the scene near the beginning where Yossarian is arguing with Dobbs, Orr, McWatt, Milo, Aarfy, and Nately about his persecution complex. It comes off like a ballet of words. I don't think this movie is too heavy, as Leonard Maltin reviews in his book, because the novel is heavy. The novel is not JUST a cute farce (which is what makes it so great). I think the movie has the right tone. I also think the actors are brilliant. Alan Arkin, to me, is the only man who could ever play Yossarian. He is Yossarian. The moment of his performance that stands out for me is right at the start when he's stabbed in the side. He gasps, almost comically, in a disbelief, in such a pure shock that he has just, to his knowledge, been killed (and that's the last thing he wants to happen to him ever, literally). He stumbles to the ground wide-eyed after the disbelief and denial fades and stretches on the ground as if the eventual prophecy of his impending doom has been answered and there's finally nothing to do but accept it. Dying isn't an option for him, but they finally got him. He practically looks at the audience and asks "Do yo believe this?" It's like all of Yossarian's contradictions that were written in the novel are mimed in one brilliant moment of acting. And the rest of the cast is great, too. Orson Welles as Dreedle, Bob Newhart as Major Major (his single greatest performance), Charles Grodin as the slimey Aarfy, Art Garfunkel as Nately, Sheen as Dobbs, Bob Balaban as Orr, Buck Henry (who adds some very funny dialogue of his own. "I've never caught a piece of shrapnel...") as Korn, Norman Fell, Richard Benjamin, Jon Voight, Peter Bonerz, and, my favorites, Jack Gilford as Doc Daneeka, Martin Balsam as Cathcart, and Anthony Perkins (forget about Norman Bates) as Chaplain Tappman (name-change). Just listen to Perkins when he tells Cathcart's receptionist who he is, like he detests saying his own name and he doesn't like admitting he's him. "I'm...Chaplain Tappman." Overall, this is a great movie, despite the literary omissions. I think it's a forgotten classic that was never once remembered, and I feel it should get its classic status as a great film adaptation. Let's have a 30th anniversary next year and re-release it in the theaters. Whaddya say, fellas? (I'd give it five stars, but I just don't believe in the five-star system.)


I don't want to fly anymore, I want to go home   February 9, 2008
 27 out of 27 found this review helpful

Catch-22 DVD

Catch-22 is based on Joseph Heller's novel about an American air base in the Mediterranean during World War II. Again, if you are a reader IMHO the book Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (Barron's Book Notes) is better, the movie quicker, Starring Alan Arkin and Martin Balsam.

Recommended for fans of Alan Arkin and Martin Balsam.

Gunner February, 2008



It's not the book - what movie is?   June 1, 2004
 17 out of 19 found this review helpful

I read Catch-22 many years ago. Loved it. I've seen Catch-22 the movie several times. Loved it. But they are different. You are not going to get every nuance of the complex, convoluted book into the movie, but it is a good approximation. The movie works on its own, mostly due to the collection of oddball characters and circumstances. The long list of big named actors did a good job. However, the cinematography may be the star, here. As an "anti-war" comedy, this ranks near the top. It is as satirical as Dr Strangelove.

The movie has no musical score, and only has (as I recall) one instance of music at all ("Thus Spake Zarathustra", a la "2001 A Space Odyssey".)

"Let me see if I've got this straight. In order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy any more and I have to keep flying."

The reasonably-priced DVD has a so-so commentary by director Mike Nichols with Steven Soderbergh.