Catch-22
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Movie Reviews of Catch-22
Movie Review: Still Waiting
Summary: 5 Stars
The movie is one of my all time favorites, but I still have not received it.Movie Review: Good
Summary: 5 Stars
Still my favorite book and movie. One of only two movies I have purchased.Movie Review: Good when taken by itself...
Summary: 4 Stars
If you start comparing this film to the book (which obviously you must do to an extent) you will find so many things wrong with it you will never stop. A good comparison would be Stanley Kubrick's version of "The Shining," which also is very good when taken separate from the book while the book is far superior. Catch-22, the novel, is a brilliant piece of writing that could never be captured on screen, but I think Nichols makes a vallant effort of it. One complaint is the character of Milo is blown out of all proportion, becoming in the film a meglomanical dictator rather than a flagrant opportunist who exploits the men for his "Syndicate." Jon Voight, it must be said, does a good job in this interpretation of Milo.
Parts of the book are notably absent; Orr is barely mentioned until the end, the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade, one of my favorite parts, is gone completely and the brutal satire surrounding the Chaplain's life on the base and the doctor believed dead in a plane crash which he wasn't on (so everyone now ignores him and he can't be fed) are not included. The chaplain's interactions with the other men are almost gone altogether, and we never really get a glimpse of his character as it exists in the novel. Also, I think the film would have benefitted from showing Colonel Cathcart's form letter sent to the relatives of men who died...if you don't know what it says that alone makes the book worthwhile (of course, I could say that about scores of incidents in the book, it is worth reading any time, anywhere).
Good things: the cast is fantastic, and Orson Welles' brief appearances as Dreedle are great, he personifies the general perfectly (the "take him outside and shoot him" scene is arguably the funniest in the film); Alan Arkin is great as Yossarian, and the Snowden scenes, where a little more of the incident is revealed each time, are wonderfully crafted, as are the (chronilogically) following scenes where Yossarian refuses to wear clothing.
Finally, the end is faithful to the book in all but one respect, that being the novel's final three sentences, which (as I think I said in my review of the novel) pretty much sum up the feeling of the entire novel, where one is led to believe one thing is happening just before the opposite occurs (the fact that Heller could get you going midway through a three-sentence paragraph and then whip you back the other way is a testament to his brilliance).
So in the final analysis, don't buy this film if you think it will be an adequate adaption of Heller's novel, because it is not, nor could any film hope to be. But if you want a darkly funny, satiric, well-acted anti-war film that contains the skeleton of the source book, by all means buy this, and if it leaves you hungering for more then get the book (actually read the book first, that way you can fill in the gaps in the film as you watch it).
Movie Review: A Man Fed Dog Food Every Day in his Life Can One Day....
Summary: 4 Stars
...be given filet mignon and feel it is a insult to his palet.
Another Batman movie is being made. Watch how many folks complain how wrong the filmakers got it and how it is crap because it doesn't fit their idea of the Batman mystique acquired from their readings, nay, studying of the comic books.
What does this have to do with the movie Catch 22?
There are too many critics here who didn't like this Mike Nichols rendition of Joseph Heller's war novel Catch 22. I say Frog Them and see for yourself what's up with this rendering (another view) of the war story. I however read the book and saw the movie and thought the movie to be just fine. No, better than fine. The movie captures the story and the mood of the novel superbly.
Yossarian (played by Alan Arkin) famously discovers that part of the enemies in war are not only the ones you bomb and shoot, but the ones who are said to be *on your side*... but have either 1) a jackbooted mentality towards military protocol or 2) so corrupted by taking advantage of the loopholes in the protocol that they are criminal....Yossarian tries to get a psychological deferment to not fly the bombers any more and try to get home...he wants the powers that be think he's nuts so he would not be further exposed to the inanity and insanity of war, but of course gets confronted with the 'damn if you do fly and damn if you don't fly' orders from the military protocolists...if Yossarian knows its flying in another mission which makes him nuts, he can't possibly be nuts, so he must fly in another mission...
Striking in the book as well as the movie are the scenes where: Yossarian discovers his gunner has been riddled with artillary fire, a soldier gets destroyed by the propellers of a low flying aircraft and all the soldiers various madnesses with the ladies of the red light district...as well as how the military supplier becomes as fascistic as the enemy.
It is a good movie that I feel didn't get it's due because it went against the grain of most war stories being told. It poked a little fun at the ridiculousness of war and of men in war...it has a 60's draft card burning, hippie protest feel about it. We expect the boys to be proudly willing to do their fighting for our country. But we really don't know how crazy going to war is unless we've gone fighting for our country. You should find this one and look at it...
Movie Review: A Man Fed Dog Food Every Day in his Life Can One Day....
Summary: 4 Stars
...be given filet mignon and feel it is a insult to his palet.
Another Batman movie is being made. Watch how many folks complain how wrong the filmakers got it and how it is crap because it doesn't fit their idea of the Batman mystique acquired from their readings, nay, studying of the comic books.
What does this have to do with the movie Catch 22?
There are too many critics here who didn't like this Mike Nichols rendition of Joseph Heller's war novel Catch 22. I say Frog Them and see for yourself what's up with this rendering (another view) of the war story. I however read the book and saw the movie and thought the movie to be just fine. No, better than fine. The movie captures the story and the mood of the novel superbly.
Yossarian (played by Alan Arkin) famously discovers that part of the enemies in war are not only the ones you bomb and shoot, but the ones who are said to be *on your side*... but have either 1) a jackbooted mentality towards military protocol or 2) so corrupted by taking advantage of the loopholes in the protocol that they are criminal....Yossarian tries to get a psychological deferment to not fly the bombers any more and try to get home...he wants the powers that be think he's nuts so he would not be further exposed to the inanity and insanity of war, but of course gets confronted with the 'damn if you do fly and damn if you don't fly' orders from the military protocolists...if Yossarian knows its flying in another mission which makes him nuts, he can't possibly be nuts, so he must fly in another mission...
Striking in the book as well as the movie are the scenes where: Yossarian discovers his gunner has been riddled with artillary fire, a soldier gets destroyed by the propellers of a low flying aircraft and all the soldiers various madnesses with the ladies of the red light district...as well as how the military supplier becomes as fascistic as the enemy.
It is a good movie that I feel didn't get it's due because it went against the grain of most war stories being told. It poked a little fun at the ridiculousness of war and of men in war...it has a 60's draft card burning, hippie protest feel about it. We expect the boys to be proudly willing to do their fighting for our country. But we really don't know how crazy going to war is unless we've gone fighting for our country. You should find this one and look at it...