making sense of catch 22

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2000)

Catch 22 is one of those films that you walk into full of expectation, and come out of either laughing like crazy or bowing your head in dissapointment. That all depends on your taste, and unfortunately whether you had read and enjoyed the original. Despite all it's attempts to clarify what's going on, this film requires and deserves some background reading before watching.
Once you get past that obstacle, this can turn out to be a very enjoyable film. It has made full use of it's amazing cast (orson welles, alan arkin, jon voight, anthony perkins, martin sheen to name a few) and excels in it's use of special effects which for 1970 were fairly astonishing. But some parts in which you find yourself in tears when reading just became confusing. Such as nately's whore's numerous attempts to kill yossarian, for simply breaking the news of nately's death to her. This was reduced to a single attempt, which had to be clarified minutes later and thus effectively destroying the joke. As was the case with a few others in the book. What the point was of introducing major major major major in the film at all i couldn't see as he played no real part in the plot of the film.

But the film's greatness becomes apparent on the second or third time round, when you notice the small background visuals and humour that you've most likely missed on the first. The film also brings things new to the story, such as the effect created by the numerous attacks yossarian witnesses as he walks round rome at night, which effectively reduce him to tears. Whether or not you take to this film is of course a matter of taste, but is worth a look for any open-minded film goer.