doesn't touch Heller

Rating: 5/10 (29 August 1999)

I read the book, saw the film - the film doesn't touch Heller. It has the main events happening and the recurring theme of Snowden's death haunting Yossarian but... it doesn't come close to the intricacies of the novel.
Buck Henry has tried his best to make the film as funny as the book but instead of the satire of Heller, humour it transformed into something more outright, I guess so that people who wouldn't 'get' it in the book can laugh at the film. However, I began to think of things as tragic when in the novel they were funny (like McWatt flying into a mountain). Where's the dead man i Yossarian's tent? I even laughed in advance remembering the incidents in the book. So, I must say that this is a very poor adaptation of Catch 22, it loses the essence, the satire that was Heller's purpose for writing it.