Well shot, badly written

Rating: 7/10 (24 August 2000)

Shifting, mind-bending flashbacks and unbelievably complex filming sequences move Mike Nichols into the Director's Techniques Hall of Fame. Consider the first sequence, with B-29s taking off on a small island while Yossarian, Cathcart and Korn are all acting out an unheard scene in a burned out building somewhere in the shot. Notice the planes flying in the background with Yossarian in the foreground. The entire shot is amazing.
As for the movie, well, the tone is right and the mood is right - it's very similar to Orson Welles's attempt at Kafka's "The Trial." It's not Nichols's fault that the script is mostly flat and plodding (Buck Henry also conceived of and wrote for TV's Get Smart - not a damnation in itself, but just worthy of note). It's partially his fault that most of the characters come across as cartoonish throwaways - like Nurse Duckett, McWatt, and Bob Newhart's Major Major Major Major.
But it's definitely his fault that the audience is unprepared for the wackiness of things like the Minderbinder Cartel when it first appears, or the Nately's Whore storyline. By about halfway through, the movie turns into a expressionist nightmare, just like in "The Trial" - again, not a bad thing in itself (watch the background events as Yossarian walks through the streets at night) - but we are unprepared for it, having already gone through the majestic aerial scenes and the absurd prostitution scenes.