A good Adaptation of a Great Novel

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2002)

Catch-22 is of my favorite American novels. The satire is biting and the story is brilliant. There is no way a big budget Hollywood studio could capture all the novel's nuances in a feature length film. The novel's "flow", for one is not one that is easily captured in film format. Given the fact that this film was backed by a major Hollywood studio, employing a hot shot director (no disrespect to Mr. Nichols intended) and excellent cast, this film was about as good as it could have been. Perhaps if it was filmed under more independent circumstances (an "indie" film) such as the film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's "Mother Night", the results would have been more pleasing to many fans of the book. For those who have seen the movie but not read the book, I certainly invite your input to this public forum. However, I think you do yourselves a major disservice by not reading this classic - the themes, if not the events are forever timeless.