Some things I liked some I did not.

A Brilliant Conflict

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

This is a Review of the Film. Not the Novel, whose Numbers are by Book Standards Stratospheric (still sells thousands of copies every year).The Source Material may be Sacrosanct to those who have Read the Vietnam Era, Counterculture Icon and Love to Belittle its Cinematic Representation for Not Including......Fill in the Blank and Consider the Movie Not Worth Considering are in the Wrong Space. This is IMDb...Key Letter "M" (Movie).But Any Movie that takes on as its Source a Novel that so many People Find Endearing and a Significant Part of Their Maturation Process or at Least a Significant Part of Their Literary Litany, is Asking for it.It Doesn't Matter who is Directing, Writing, or Starring in the Film. It Doesn't Matter how Much Money is Spent on the Production. You Don't Mess with a Person's "Favorite" Book. It's Insane that Anyone would even Try (second time director Mike Nichols).The Insanity of War is what this Satire is Offering. The Film is Beautifully Shot, well Scripted (Buck Henry), and is Overall Funny, Depressing, and Well Made. The Movie is Long and makes it Message Meaningful if Elongated.Sputtering a bit by the End, the Heavy Handed Need for the Hammering Home of what Amounts to the "Horror" of War and the Military Industrial Complex it could be Said that it Cannot be Overstated.So it's a Deep and Disgusting thing to Contemplate, considering the Suffering. It's one of those Dilemmas. Laugh or Cry. Can You do Both at the Same Time? If that's Possible, this Movie does what it does just Fine and You Should See it.See the Movie.....Read the Book...Entertainment to be had from Both.

Disappointing movie based on the hilarious anti war novel. It has some very funny moments, most of which occur in the first half.Considering the talents involved, it should have been a lot more entertaining. But mostly it crawls at a funeral pace and is rather dull. Still Arkin is perfect as Yossarian. For his performance alone, it's worth seeing at least once.

If we pause to consider it was, logistics to one side, relatively easy to adapt Gone With The Wind for the screen, as it was To Kill A Mockingbird, once you had Rhett Butler and Atticus Finch squared away it was just manual labor. But would YOU like to be the one that shot a movie version of The Catcher In The Rye? No, I didn't think so. Same thing with Catch-22; sometimes a best-selling, even 'cult' novel just SEEMS elusive but isn't really but sometimes it IS, and Catch-22 is one of those times. Buck Henry and Mike Nichols certainly gave it the old college try and probably made as good a fist of it as anyone could but in the end it was like nailing jelly to the wall. The thing about the novel is that you can open it virtually anywhere and you'll eventually get back to the beginning, it's a kind of Finnegan's Wake-lite without the contrived words i.e. in conventional English. The movie has made a half-decent stab at the same thing but a crucial mistake was eliminating some characters and cutting and pasting with events. Nevertheless worth a look.

I am in love with this book, so when I saw that there was a movie I flipped out and ordered it right away... and it was fantastic. I love the actors and I love how Nichols directed it. However, I was disappointed of the changes they made, where's Dunbar? He was like my 2nd favorite character. He was Yo-yo's best friend.... Also, they said it was Hungry Joe who was cut in half by McWatt, but it was really Kid Sampson, I could see how they didn't want to have too many characters to keep up with (in the book I felt like that was true) but still, Hungry Joe was...amazing, he was hilarious. Also, I'm not sure if I liked how Nately died, opposed to the books version. I suppose it made more since to kill him off when Milo's deal (the bombing thing), but it was when he died in combat mission that really broke Yossarian. I think Jon Voight did an fantastic job of Milo, he was really how I pictured Milo, I was really excited about that. The poignant walk through Rome that Yossarian takes, was so, perfect as well. But all in all, this was an excellent portrayal of the book, I totally imagined this movie (the settings, what Yossarian looked like, everything pretty much) as I was reading the book.