CATCH- (22) Movie Review

1970 Mike Nichols

Of all the big popular novels that came out of World War II, Joseph Heller's is the most difficult to adapt to another medium. Its fragmented structure, intricate language, and grim humor work beautifully on the printed page. Translated into moving images, Heller's surreal absurdism becomes somehow more arbitrary and rigid than it is in the reader's imagination.

That, of course, is a complaint often made against movies made from best-sellers, and writer Buck Henry and director Mike Nichols probably do as well as anyone could with the book. Curiously, their version of the tale is more an anti-corporate America film, than a true antiwar film. Germans do not appear on screen and are mentioned only in passing. Their war-making activities are seen briefly as a few puffs of flak in one aerial scene. The real villains are American officers who sacrifice their men to advance their own careers within what was then referred to as “the military-industrial complex.”

When the filmmakers focus on the hardware of war, they're more authentic and dynamic than the propaganda made in the early 1940s. Mexican locations become a realistic and remote Italian island where a group of B-24 bombers is based. The scenes of the huge lumbering planes rolling out onto the runway and taking off are impressive. Nichols makes the airborne interiors just as persuasive, most notably in the recurring scenes that slowly reveal Snowden's Secret. The big nighttime bombing scene is a gloriously staged bit of pyrotechnics, too. But, like any war film, Catch-22 finally succeeds or fails on the characters.

Yossarian (Alan Arkin) is the bombardier who is being driven mad by fear as the selfserving Col. Cathcart (Martin Balsam) and Col. Korn (Buck Henry) continually raise the number of missions the men must fly before they can go home. Dobbs (Martin Sheen) is so gung-ho that he doesn't care. Orr (Bob Balaban) crashes one plane after another, so nobody wants to fly with him. The naive Natley (Art Garfunkel) is in love with a whore and doesn't want to go back. Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight) is using the war as an excuse to form a syndicate to buy and sell military surplus, turning a profit for the soldier-shareholders. Yossarian wants Doc Daneeka (Jack Gilford) to ground him because he's crazy, but the Doc answers that concern for one's own safety is proof that he's sane. It's there in the rulebook: Catch-22. Maj. Danby (Richard Benjamin) is a clueless yes-man, and though the Chaplain (Anthony Perkins) would like to help, he can't do anything.

Those are the main characters and they're abetted by almost a dozen more who contribute cameos: The Soldier in White, McWatt's (Peter Bonerz) buzzing the beach, Nurse Duckett's (Paula Prentiss) sexy teasing, Maj. Major (Bob Newhart), the blustering Gen. Dreedle (Orson Welles). All of them make for a busy, busy movie. The film is never boring and many of the images created by Nichols and cinematographer David Watkin are staggering. But the furious action and bold visuals are at odds with Heller's verbal humor of contradiction and circular illogic. The endless discussions about what is sane and what is insane don't have the sparkle of the original lines. The filmmakers finally make their case when Milo and Yossarian discuss one character's death.

Milo: “But he died a rich man. He had over 60 shares in the syndicate.”

Yossarian: “What good is that? He's dead.”

Milo: “Then his family will get it.”

Yossarian: “He didn't have time to have a family.”

Milo: “Then his parents will get it.”

Yossarian: “They don't need it. They're rich.”

Milo: “Then they'll understand.”

In the end, the film defeats itself. It's not funny because it is so bleak. But the characters are so exaggerated for comic effect that the story doesn't really work as drama or tragedy, either. The conclusion, so perfect and unexpected in the novel, seems disconnected from the body of the film, following, as it does, Yossarian's long hallucinatory nightmare journey through the streets of Rome.

Still, if Catch-22 is a failure, it is an ambitious failure that seems less dated than many films of its era.

Cast: Alan Arkin (Capt. Yossarian), Martin Balsam (Col. Cathcart), Art Garfunkel (Nately), Jon Voight (Milo Minderbinder), Richard Benjamin (Maj. Danby), Buck Henry (Col. Korn), Bob Newhart (Maj. Major), Paula Prentiss (Nurse Duckett), Martin Sheen (Dobbs), Charles Grodin (Aardvark), Anthony Perkins (Chaplain Tappman), Orson Welles (Gen. Dreedle), Jack Gilford (Doc Daneeka), Bob Balaban (Capt. Orr), Susanne Benton (Dreedle's WAC), Norman Fell (Sgt. Towswer), Austin Pendleton (Moodus), Peter Bonerz (Capt. McWatt), Jon Korkes (Snowden), Collin Wilcox Paxton (Nurse Cramer), John Brent (Cathcart's Receptionist); Written by: Buck Henry; Cinematography by: David Watkin; Technical Advisor: Maj. Alexander Gerry. Producer: Paramount Pictures, John Calley, Martin Ransohoff. MPAA Rating: R. Running Time: 121 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta, LV.