keeps good company with Bunuel, Kubrick, Orwell.

Rating: 7/10 (14 May 2005)

I've noticed many comparing this film to MASH. For me though, it's a completely different sort of movie. A better comparison, and perhaps a sort of cousin, to the film is Bunuel's 'Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise.' A Neo-Surrealist satire, Catch 22 has it's problems (namely, a clash between the broad-stroke comedy in the characterizations of the first half of the film and the subtleties of the script itself;) but these are negligible considering the heights it scales. The film is a mood piece, a comedy, a satire, a dream and a critical essay but most of all it is a gem of ambitious American New Wave cinema. I'm interested to find out if other viewers also got a feeling of Orwellian paranoia towards the end of the film as the social structure seems to inevitably swallow the individual's sense of sanity, morality and rebellion. Another 'cousin' to Catch 22 is, of course, Dr. Strangelove and there's a similar sense of pervading madness about both films. The Manchurian Candidate belongs in the same family tree as well. It's not hard to see a shadow of Catch 22's influence cast across David O. Russell's 'Three Kings' either.