In 1970 Mike Nichols and Buck Henry followed The Graduate with an adaptation of the classic Joseph Heller novel, Catch-22.  At the time, it wasn’t all that well received.  In fact, the reviews were mostly mediocre or negative.  I think the expectations were so great and the book has such an enormous following that the film was almost destined to fail.  I tend to think time has been kind to it and Nichols deserves credit for biting off maybe more than he could chew but stuffing his face with it anyway and breaking it down just enough to swallow.  I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it’s the only I can really think to describe it.  

I actually never read the book.  Maybe this is a better movie for those who haven’t, I don’t know.  Catch-22 takes place mostly on a base during World War 2.  It starts off as more of a satire or dark comedy about the ridiculousness and insanity of war but eventually shifts in to the dark realities of it.   Alan Arkin plays Captain John Yossarian who desperately wants out of the war because as he says, “Those bastards are trying to kill me.”  Those bastards that he is referring to of course are the Germans.  Arkin is great in the daunting task of recreating a legendary literary character in to a great movie one.  The all star supporting cast does well here too.  I’m not going to bother listing them all, but if you click on the title you can see a list.  

Everything about this movie is big; the budget, the cast and the cinematography.  It is a great movie to look at.  Catch-22 came out at right about the same time as MASH.  Both movies are basically trying to say the same thing.  While I think MASH is a better movie and probably a little more coherent, 22 is damn good and probably deserves another look from people who didn’t give it a fair shake the first time or a first look from people who skipped it.