Catch 22, based on the novel by Joseph Heller - 9.4 out of 10

Catch 22, based on the novel by Joseph Heller
9.4 out of 10


Catch 22, the novel on which this film is based, is one of the best books ever written.

It is included on The Modern Library's Best 100 Books of the Twentieth Century, among the top ten, on sixth place if I remember well...you can easily check on the internet.
The review of the undersigned is available at realini.blogspot.com

Captain John Yossarian is the protagonist of the feature, a hero that would almost make it to the antihero side for fundamentalists, people like Trump for instance.
This joke of a president and leader of the free world has been attacking John McCain after all, even after the war hero had died, for the orange idiot likes soldiers that do not get caught.

Hence, his supporters would not like the fact that Yossarian tries hard to avoid flying any more missions, during World War II, when many of the pilots died...later on, someone like the mentioned Trump would invoke phony ailments to avoid going to Vietnam.
The main character, played by the virtuoso Alan Arkin, has fought in the war, has accomplished more than his share, but people in command are crazy, many of them, and want glory out of the conflict, extracted from the death of their own men.

In one of the absurd, dark humorous scenes, Americans order an attack on...their own troops, in which lieutenant Dobbs aka Martin Sheen dies, because Milo has some profit to make out of this.
Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder is played by Jon Voigt and he is an entrepreneurial genius, able to cross war lines, with goods that are so varied as to dazzle...cotton from Egypt, eggs from other lands...anything imaginable is traded by this wizard.

Alas, like now with the White House, lunatics ad in control of major parts of the war games, one of them is Colonel Cathcart, the one who keeps increasing the number of sorties that each pilot has to fly in order to be supposedly allowed to get back home or at least stop fighting.
He said at first that forty missions - was it? - only to always bring it higher, up to the point where Dobbs is intent on killing this mad officer, before he eliminates all his pilots, but it would be Dobbs who dies and not that fool.

Catch 22 has entered the English vocabulary, for it represents a quandary from which one cannot escape.
A crazy pilot or another serviceman would be allowed to stop the combat, he would not to fly any more missions, but a mad man would not know his state.
Thus, it was useless for Yossarian and any other to claim he is crazy and therefore he should be allowed to stop piloting the planes.

If he is crazy, he does not know it, if he says he is, then he is not.
Apart from Cathcart, there are plenty of others that act in a deranged manner, just like the Trump team has incredible creatures..."the very best people", many fired, only to reveal what this 'Commander in Cheat' is like, on the golf course, when making those 'amazing deals' - he is the one who made record losses, no other American has managed to lose over one billion dollars.

Major Major Major - there is no mistake here, for that is the name and rank of the man - is another peculiar personage, for he would only see subordinates when he is in his office, but when he knows from his adjutant that he has visitors, he just...jumps through the window.
For he does not want to see anyone!
The God of cinema, Orson Welles, plays General Dreedle, who is always accompanied by his son-in-law and what seems to be a mistress, such an attractive woman that she drives the men in uniform crazy when she is around, in the midst of males who have seen nothing like that for years maybe.

General Dreedle is quick to order the shooting of people under his command, because he is just another deranged character.
Anthony Perkins has the role of Chaplain Tappman, who is called to order by the excessive Colonel Cathcart, who has seen an article in Stars and Stripes or some other publication addressed to the Army.

Chaplain Tappman explains that the title of priest is not called for, since he is anabaptist.
Cathcart wants a prayer before every mission, because he is jealous of the army outfit that has received publicity in printing, for prayers said before deploying.

Catch 22 is a brilliant motion picture, but if you want to have  a tenfold increase in your enjoyment, amusement, reward, you should read the book of the genius Joseph Heller.