Read it first

Rating: Null/10 (23 April 2002)

Being a massive fan of the novel by Joseph Heller, I've avoided this film for years  I'd heard it didn't get good reviews and I just thought it was an unfilmable text and would ruin the whole experience for me. But I have to hand it to the filmmakers, they've made a good attempt at focusing on just a few characters from the over-populated novel but that's ultimately I guess where it fails. The novel works because there's many, many well developed characters, and to put this on film would be very difficult. The results of which the film seems disjointed, it has no feeling  the audience can't connect to any one. Crucial relationships aren't shown developing (I'm thinking of Yossarian and Orr) and other aspects of Yossarians decent into rebellion/clarity that are featured in the book are ignored. On the plus side  the photography, especially the opening shots of the bombers taking off - is really quite beautiful, all the principle actors do a good job, and finally, I think the viewer should read the book first. Then they will see how the film tries it's best to complement it.