Catch-22
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Movie Reviews of Catch-22
Movie Review: Military madness
Summary: 5 Stars
Heller's black comedy about the absurdities and the variegated kaleidoscopic insanities that you may find out, after four years of combat. A bombardier group stationed in Italy during the WW1.But there's just a golden rule Catch 22, you may not certify you re mad juts to stop flying missions. On the contrary, you must be mad to fly in more than the usually assigned number of missions.
In this state of things, every man creates his own world of desperation and isolation, one of them Milo (Jon Voight) finds the golden opportunity to establish fruitful trades exchanging invaluable war supplies by silk or statues. But in this sense every man creates his own paradise of evasion and illusion as striving's device.
After "Dr. Strangelove", we had not watched such gallery of lunatic characters absolutely alienated by the War. The only minor default is the film works out as a surrealistic collection of brilliant and acidic vignettes, but the entire film lacks cohesion. However, the presence of Yossarian (Alan Arkin) as the only soldier who tries to see clearly the events, makes this movie a worth seeing.
One of my everlasting cult movies ever made.
Movie Review: Catch 22
Summary: 5 Stars
Read Heller's book and watched the movie ages ago. I thought both were great then. Catch-22 has stood the test of time. The all-star lineup would have cost a large fortune in a remake today. All those B-25 bombers - real flying aircraft and not computer generated - there are but a handful of restored versions today. The US Air Force sold a number of surplus to the Brazilian and Mexican air forces after the war. I understand that's where the producers found them for the movie. As an anti-war statement (during the Vietnam era) Catch-22 is one running joke after another. "The Never Ending Mission" should have been its subtitle. Unlike Dr. Strangelove, (another of my favorites) it ends with Yossarian (Alan Arkin) riding a rubber boat unlike Slim Pickens riding a nuclear bomb. One interesting footnote, during a pre-mission briefing, one of the targets over Italy was Perugia. Today, it is the unlikely setting of a murder trial that's ongoing for more than a year now in which an American coed, Amanda Knox from Seattle along with her Italian boy friend allegedly murdered a British coed in a house all three were sharing.Movie Review: Finally released from VHS prison
Summary: 5 Stars
Having seen this movie about 6 or 7 times on VHS, I expected watching the DVD release to be a similar experience. Instead, I found the experience of watching the film in its original widescreen format, and with improved sound and a clearer print, to be much more involving and entertaining. The widescreen format reveals Nichols' fine sense of detail in composition- an important element sadly lost in the VHS rendering.The audiences and critics of 1970 were not too kind to this film. Perhaps its proximity to the Vietnam war was just too close. 30 years later, this film holds up well and seems more relevant than ever- presenting its ideas with stunning originality and force. And the humor is just as scathing as always. I still get a good laugh out of Bob Newhart's "Major Major" schtick and Orson Welles' bombastic General Dreedle.
One technical problem with this film is the obscuration of dialog in noisy environments such as the scenes when propeller planes are going by. I watched the DVD with the English subtitles turned on and finally "got" many of the jokes I had been missing over the years!
Movie Review: Those who won't study history are destined to repeat it.
Summary: 5 Stars
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch that catch 22," he observed.
"It's the best there is." Doc Daneeka agreed.
Movie Review: This has been my all-time favorite movie since it came out
Summary: 5 Stars
...and this DVD is the best version of it that I've ever seen (including at theaters). This movie had been cut up something awful over the years, and for a long time the only version you could find on VHS was one of the later (and worst) TV edits. This DVD was made from a beatiful original (print? negative? not sure) by, of all people, Steven Soderberg (who stays for the commentary track), and the sound and color are wonderful.
Mike Nichols has claimed that he isn't happy with how this movie turned out, but then I haven't liked a whole lot of what he's made since, so that sorta' figures.