Catch-22 (1970)

While I’ve never read the book this is adapted from, I did watch the 2019 miniseries within the last year, so I was already familiar with this story revolving around a squadron based in the Mediterranean during World War II. Compared to that longer version, this film is much more nonlinear and chaotic in nature. There isn’t as much time for character development, so the first hour jumps from episodes introducing one over the top character to the next. Alan Arkin’s Yossarian starts neurotic and there’s only brief glimpses as to what led him to the breaking point. The rest of the cast are all played by a slew of well-known actors including the extremely young looking Martin Sheen, Charles Grodin, Bob Newhart, and Bob Balaban . The whole film has the feeling of a crazier and darker version of MASH. Without having seen the miniseries, I would have had a difficult time following the thread of events.