Catch-22 (1970) has a stellar cast. Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin, Jack Gilford, Charles Grodin, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, Orson Welles, Art Garfunkel (acting debut) and Buck Henry (wrote the screenplay as well) all lend their gifts to the oddball variety of neurotically self-centered characters that populate Joseph Heller's fictional World War II military base in Italy.
Painful and frustrating, the experience of watching this dark comedy has rubbed many the wrong way. There is so much that does not make sense in this lunatic asylum that some viewers find it off-putting. If you are, however, one that loves to watch crazy people destroy themselves and others, like myself, then you may enjoy Catch-22.
Directed by Mike Nichols, this was a hugely challenging film to pull off. The original novel does not have a linear narrative flow, making the transition to film difficult. Nichols and Henry allegedly worked on the screenplay for two years.
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