Catch-22

Rating: 5/10 (26 April 2020)

I had heard the title of this war movie a few times, and I had recorded the TV miniseries starring George Clooney, I was always going to watch the film before the TV version. It was a movie with an all-star cast, so that was reason enough for me to watch it, based on the book by Joseph Heller, directed by Mike Nichols (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Working Girl, Charlie Wilson's War). Basically, during World War II, Captain John Yossarian (Alan Arkin) is a U.S. Army Air Force B-25 bombardier, he is stationed on the Mediterranean base on Pianosa. He and his fellow squadron members are committed to flying dangerous missions, but he seeks to escape after seeing many of his friends killed. Yossarian's commanding officer, Colonel Cathcart (Martin Balsam), continually increases the number of missions required to be completed before troops can go home, before anyone can reach it. Yossarian's appeals to Cathcart are futile, and he learns that even a mental breakdown is no release. Doc Daneeka (Jack Gilford) explains about "Catch-22", a dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions. The Doc says that an airman would have to be crazy to fly more missions, and if he were crazy he would be unfit to fly. Yet, if an airman would refuse to fly more missions, this would indicate that he is sane, which would mean that he would be fit to fly the missions. The missions largely involve bombing targets on the Italian mainland. While most crews are rotated out after twenty-five, the minimum number of missions for this base is eventually raised to an unobtainable eighty missions. Meanwhile, Brigadier General Dreedle (Orson Welles) promotes the Laundry Officer, named Captain Major Major Major (Bob Newhart), to Major. Major Major is now in charge of the squadron, very much against his will. So, not wanting to be bothered, he tells First Sergeant Towser (Norman Fell) that if anyone wants to talk to him, they are to be told he is not there, when he is, they will have to wait in the waiting room, and they are called in, he will not be there. Trapped by this convoluted logic, Yossarian watches members in the squadron resort to unusual means to cope; Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight) schemes for supplies from the black-market, while the insane Captain "Aarfy" Aardvark (Charles Grodin) murders someone to silence a girl he raped. Lieutenant Nately (introducing singer Art Garfunkel) falls in love with a prostitute, Major Danby (Richard Benjamin) delivers weird pep talks before every bomb run and Captain Orr (Bob Balaban) keeps crashing at sea. Meanwhile, Nurse Duckett (Paula Prentiss) occasionally beds Yossarian. Nately dies during a bombing, as a result of Milo making a deal with the Germans for cotton. On pass, Yossarian shares this information with Nately's lover (Gina Rovere), who then tries to kill him. Because of Yossarian's constant complaints, Colonel Cathcart and Lieutenant Colonel Korn (Buck Henry) eventually agree to send him home, promising him a promotion to Major and an award for the fictitious saving of Cathcart's life; on the condition that he gives his superiors praise when he returns home. Immediately after agreeing to Cathcart and Korn's plan, Nately's stabs lover Yossarian. He survives the attack and learns from Chaplain Tappman (Anthony Perkins) that Captain Orr's supposed death was a hoax and his constant "crash landings" were part of his plan to escape the madness of war. Yossarian is informed that Orr survived his crash and used a rescue raft to paddle all the way to Sweden. Yossarian decides to ditch the deal with Cathcart, jumps out of the hospital window, takes a raft from a damaged plane and, while a marching band practises for the award ceremony to award, Yossarian climbs into the raft and starts paddling out to sea. Also starring Martin Sheen as First Lieutenant Dobbs and Austin Pendleton as Moodus. The cast all do their parts well, there are some good sequences of warfare, with bombs and stuff, and there are amusing moments, I will agree it could be funnier, but it is a reasonable war satire. It was nominated the BAFTAs for Best Cinematography. Worth watching!