'' is a
1970 film, adapted from the
Book Of The Same Name by
Joseph Heller .
Mike Nichols was the director; the screenplay was written by
Buck Henry , who also acted in the film.
- A---S---H '', another war-themed Black Comedy from the same year. In subsequent years, opinions of the film have been revised and it is now seen as one of the great satirical anti-war films.
The story follows the adventures and misadventures of Capt.
Yossarian , a fictional
World War II US Army Air Corps B-25 Bombardier , and the other members of his squadron stationed on the Mediterranean island of
Pianosa during
World War II . The pacing of ''Catch-22'' is frenetic, its tenor intellectual, and its tone largely
Absurdist , interspersed with brief moments of gritty, almost horrific, realism. Like the much later
Pulp Fiction , the film does not follow a normal chronological progression. Rather, it is told as a series of flashbacks and dream sequences from the point of view of the central character.
Captain Yossarian is desperate. As a bombadier with the 256th Bomber Squadron, he and his unit should have been rotated out of combat duty months ago. Unfortunately, his commanding officer Colonel Cathcart has dreams of making the papers with stories of how his command has flown more missions than any other, and keeps raising the minimum number of missions that each airman must fly. In an attempt to get out, Yossarian asks the squadron doctor, Daneeka, to ground him. The Doc explains that he would be happy to, but
Catch-22 (logic) prevents him from doing so. According to the Catch-22 logic, a request to be grounded is a recognition of danger and therefor a sane act. By requesting to be grounded, Yossarian has demonstrated that he is sane enough to recognise the dangers of combat, which makes him fit for duty. As his resentment of his superiors grows, Yossarian realizes that it is not he, but all his comrades who are certifiably insane. The remainder of the film deals with Yossarian's attempts to break Catch-22 and escape.
The adaptation to film changed the book's plot substantially. Several
Story Arc s are left out, and many characters in the movie speak the dialogue and experience the events of other characters in the book. This significantly alters the implications of some events.
It has often been said that the book was ultimately unfilmable and critics have accused the film of being a confusing mish-mash. The film's editing, however, does preserve the book's fragmented structure making associative leaps rather than conventional transitions from episode to episode.
Despite the changes in the screenplay, Heller approved of the film, according to a commentary by Nichols and
Steven Soderbergh included on a
DVD release. According to Nichols, Heller was particularly impressed with a few scenes and bits of dialogue Henry created for the film, and said he wished he could have included them in the novel.
