Catch-22 (1970)
Oscar winner Alan Arkin once again excels as World War II pilot and bombardier Captain John Yossarian who is stationed in the Mediterranean and trying desperately to be certified insane so he can stop flying missions.
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and "The Graduate" director Mike Nichols' cinematic adaptation of author Joseph Heller's epic bestseller of a small group of flyers is a scathing and biting surrealistic black comedy that captures the insanity of WWII with sharp and searing realism from a superbly adapted screenplay by "Get Smart" Co-Creator and "The Graduate" screenwriter Buck Henry.
It's difficult to gauge who's crazy and who's not among a spectacular cast all in top form that also includes Martin Balsam, Anthony Perkins, Jon Voight, Orson Welles, Art Garfunkel, Buck Henry, Martin Sheen, Bob Newhart, Charles Grodin, Bob Balaban, Austin Pendleton, Paula Prentiss, Richard Benjamin and Norman Fell.
Released in late 1970 during growing public political resentment and disenchantment over the Vietnam war and subsequent protests, and in the wake of the anti-war comedy hit "M.A.S.H." and the multi-Oscar winning WWII blockbuster "Patton," audiences were then steering away from the once popular war genre.
Translated from one of the most defining novels of the 20th Century, the film was given the big "thumbs up" by author Joseph Heller, but sadly it was passed over by critics and audiences on its original release, however, in the years and decades that have followed "Catch-22" has since received the well deserved acclaim and attention, like so many others, it has so richly has deserved for so long.
Cinematography, period detail and production design are all bang-on the mark! Overflowing with many extraordinary pure cinematic moments, most notably the gob-smacking and jaw-dropping flying sequences, "Catch-22" is an hysterically funny, tragic, dark, exciting and ultimately shattering and unique anti war satire of epic proportions that remains unequalled and unsurpassed!
Footnote: "Catch-22" is the film that was primarily responsible for the break up between Simon & Garfunkel in 1970.
Stars ****
