REVIEWED
“What are you laughing at? Get back in the car, you smirking slut! ... Your a very weird person Yossarian.”
- General Dreedle (Orson Welles)
Heller messy movie version of counter culture classic novel Catch-22. Captain Yossarian's seen too many members of his troop die. Having just fallen in love, he decides to pretend to be crazy in-order to get sent home. Only proving himself nuts to his superiors, isn't as easy a task as it sounds... even when he really goes nuts.
While Mike Nichols film isn't what it could or really 'should' have been, given its outstanding source material, cast & hansom budget. Its still an intelligently entertaining, chaotic look at the morality behind the troops and the military bureaucracy of the modern war machine. Alan Arkin is truly sensational, and cool as a cucumber as Capt. Yossarian. Also notable are Martin Balsam as doublespeaking Colonel Cathcart the religious crackpot, Jon Voight as wayward Milo and Orsen Welles as the overblown Grenral Dreedle. I re-watched it on a whim, because I caught the similar 'Castle Keep' a couple of days back. They'd make a perfect double bill because both are flawed anti-war classics.
[Personal Reasons For Remembering]
The 2nd best use of Straus's Also sprach Zarathustra.
Originally taken from Letterboxd
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