Catch-22 – Anti-war classic satire

Books and films on war are usually serious and those dealing with WW2 are more so, as it is felt that this was a “just” war against “pure” evil. Any attempt to trivialize or satirize it was a  sure-shot recipe  for trouble. Yet, Joseph Heller’s 1961 book rose above all the preconceived notions about “the Great Generation” and became a bestseller. In satirizing the experiences of a fictional Bombing Squadron, based in Italy, whose commanding officer keeps on raising the mission quota for discharge from military service, Heller satirized all forms of war. Coming as it did in the early 1960s, the book was a massive hit in the mid and late 1960s, seen for its ‘anti-establishment’ stance while the book was all about the insanity of war.

The story is simple. The protagonist, bombardier John Yossarian’s nerves are shot, after going on repeated air raids into enemy territory. He finds one excuse or the other to report to the medical tent. The doctor  Doc Daneeka tells him about rule Catch-22 where, anyone who is normally insane can report to medical but the moment he reports sick, he cannot be certified insane as the act of reporting to the tent is that of a supposedly sane mind. The gobbledygook rules , the insane acts of their quartermaster and mess officer Milo Minderbinder who even deals with the enemy for his M&M Enterprises, the absolutely insane Colonel Cathcart who keeps raising the number of missions to 30 and then 40 and then 50 (in real life one tour of duty of 25 missions was enough to be rotated back to USA) , the overall madness of rules and regulations and his constant need to fly away to a neutral country like Switzerland – all these and more make up the crux of the novel.

The book was enormously popular in the 1960s, 1970s and well into the 1990s. Its sequel Closing Time somehow didn’t hit the bullseye but Heller need not have worried as Catch 22 sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. The anti-war stance is not blatant but gradually emerges in one insane event after another and we wonder whether we/ Yossarian can cope so much. Naturally, Yossarian is only symbolic of the millions of Yossarians on all sides. It resonated then with the worldwide public, caught in the travesties of the Vietnam War . Statements such as “we had to bomb the village to save it from Communism” (attributed to an unnamed US Major during the Battle of Ben Tre in Vietnam in 1968),  clearly smacked of the fictional Catch-22 becoming real in a war torn, war crazy world.

The book was made into a film and a TV mini-series. Let’s see how they stack up.

Catch-22 (1970) – True madness

Genre – Anti War Satire

Time: 1 hour 56 minutes

Platform: Amazon Rent

Director: Mike Nichols

Cast:  Alan Arkin. Martin Balsam. Art Garfunkel Jon Voight

The absurd fiction was thought to be “unfilmable”. Yet in 1970, Mike Nichols did the impossible with a movie that kept the biting satire intact, helped by a stellar cast and an excellent screenplay that kept the book’s essence intact.

Alan Arkin played Yossarian in a total deadpan way. Martin Balsam was Colonel Cathcart, the maniacal officer who keeps raising the mission count. Art Garfunkel as Nately, who wants to marry the Roman prostitute and turn her life around. Jon Voight is Milo Minderbinder, the man includes everyone in his syndicate, including the enemy Germans, who bomb his airfield so that both sides can get new equipment from his syndicate. Orson Welles is General Dreedle, who commands the entire European theater of operations. Charles Grodin as Arfy, the man who rapes and murders an Italian girl, which is passed off as an accident.

All these and more are faithfully recreated onscreen. Buck Henry’s tight screenplay leaves no room for error and the overall feeling is of a bizarre war where the only way to stay sane is to be mad! Yossarian finally “gets” how to do so and he runs away into the horizon, egged on by his mates, including the wimpy chaplain Father Albert Taylor (Anthony Perkins).

The film adaptation is superb and true to the book. The ‘war scenes’ show sufficient gore to give you pause for thought and identifying with Yossarian’s plight. Air enthusiasts (like yours truly) can marvel at the sight of 20 actual working B25 Mitchell bombers, that were used for the film, lending an amazing level of authenticity to the film. No VFX – these were the real things flying. If the film doesn’t make ‘sense’ , don’t worry. You may have actually ‘understood’ the film “without understanding the why’.

Historical Background – 1 out of 5

Script – 5 out of 5

Story – 5 out of 5

Direction – 5 out of 5

Photography – 5 out of 5

 Total – 4.4 out of 5

Catch-22 (2019) – Too serious

Genre – Anti War Satire

Time:  6 episodes x average 42 minutes each

Platform: Jio Hotstar

Director: Multiple directors

Cast:  Christopher Abbott (Yossarian). Kyle Chandler (Colonel Cathcart). Daniel David Stewart (Milo Minderbinder). Austin Stowell (Nately).

The 1970 film was a tall act to follow. And it shows in the overall serious tone of the mini series. The madness and zaniness are totally absent.  The story is faithful to the movie and the book except that the ending is different. Since his uniform was soaked in the blood of the dead man, Yossarian refuses to wear a uniform. He receives his decoration stark naked , to everyone’s embarrassment except that of the General handing out the decoration. He finally goes to war, to fly more missions – stark naked.  George Clooney is one of the executive producers and even directs two episodes besides starring as the tyrannical General Scheiskopf who is more concerned with precision marching, rules than the men’s mental health,  under his command.

Here too, air enthusiasts can check out the real B25s which have  flawlessly multiplied due to some great VFX. An authentic German Ju52 and an authentic Dakota making their appearance in the flying sequences.

Historical Background – 2 out of 5

Script – 4 out of 5

Story – 5 out of 5

Direction – 3 out of 5

Photography – 5 out of 5

Total – 3.8 out of 5