Catch-22 (1970)

One of the newest Must See war films I still needed to see, and in the closing week of Western/War month I thought I'd knock it out. I wish I would have known from the start that this was supposed to be a comedy, but I figured it out fast enough.

Alan Arkin stars as Capt. Yossarian, and is immediately stabbed in the back. I think I was supposed to realize that we then flash back for the rest of the story, but didn't realize until the end of the film. Martin Sheen and a number of other well known actors make up the cast of men in the unit. They are pilots who have flown a ridiculous number of missions and are looking for ways to get out. We find out that the only way out is to be considered mentally ill, but if you think you are mentally ill then you by definition can't be mentally ill. The "catch-22" becomes the theme of the film as we see through Capt. Yossarian's eyes as he snaps.

The film starts out kind of like MASH [from the same year], jokes like a man with the first name Major, which is too confusing for him to be a captain so they just make him a major. It is funny for a little while... but then Yossarian snaps. Thinks start to get stupid, the comedy becomes more of a bad dream and the jokes are complex and not funny. I could see this being better when it came out, but I just didn't like it at all.

Vote: 3/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065528/

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