Synopsis
A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation.
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Cast
- Alan ArkinCapt. John Yossarian
- Martin BalsamCol. Cathcart
- Richard BenjaminMaj. Danby
- Art GarfunkelCapt. Nately
- Jack GilfordDr. "Doc" Daneeka
- Buck HenryLt. Col. Korn
- Bob NewhartMaj. Major Major
- Anthony PerkinsChaplain Capt. A.T. Tappman
- Paula PrentissNurse Duckett
- Martin Sheen1st Lt. Dobbs
Recommendations
- 100
The New York Times
The most moving, the most intelligent, the most humane--oh, to hell with it!--it's the best American film I've seen this year. - 83
Entertainment Weekly
The director of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Graduate is more at home with minute personal tensions than with the epic hysteria this project required, so file the film under botched masterpieces. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Nichols has done the same thing in Catch-22 that he did in The Graduate. He's given us a funny beginning, then switched tones and gone serious. And then tacked on a Great Escape ending which answers none of the questions he's so painfully raised. - 75
The A.V. Club
It's a flawed film, hampered by weird tonal shifts and an overpopulated cast. But, 31 years later, Catch-22's chilliness seems forgivable, its vision of a military (and a nation) ruled by gung-ho capitalists, shameless opportunists, and evil yes-men as prescient and incisive as ever. - 60
Time Out
Though the vertiginously absurdist logic of the book is hopelessly fractured, some of it does filter through (the mostly superb performances are a great help). Nichols unfortunately grafts on a Meaningful Statement by way of a ponderous Fellini-ish sequence in which Yossarian, on leave in Rome, finds himself wandering the seventh circle of hell. - 60
Variety
Low, cheap comedy mingles nervously with slick, high-fashion technical polish in a slow-boiling stew of specious philosophy and superficial characterization. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
Memorable images. Immemorable film. - 50
New York Magazine (Vulture)
As Catch-22 limps along from vignette to vignette, one sees that what it lacks is cohesion, style and essential mood. [29 June 1970, p.54]
