Nichols had great comic timing when he was a sketch comedian, but there is no trace of it left here. What should have been a quickly-paced absurdist delight is ponderous, filled with pregnant pauses, not to mention camera set-ups that preach at us all by themselves. I think the Buck Henry screenplay is okay, and if it could have been directed by Forman or--time machine dream--Preston Sturges, it might have been a masterpiece.

The movie loses much of the dark humor while also increasing the flaws of the novel. Do not watch if you enjoyed the book, this movie will cause you to hate both Catch-22 mediums equally.

Good enough, but you'd be much better off reading the book instead.

I saw this recently and loved it! Really brings out the insanity of war. Kind of similar to MASH.

Wonderfully insane

Mike Nichols' underrated film of Joseph Heller's classic novel has a virtuoso first third, with strange jumps between fantasy and reality, and a stream of absurdist episodes. A bit of the steam dissipates as the film progresses, becoming darker and bleaker, but it's still a mostly excellent film, with a great all-star cast headed by Alan Arkin's fine Yossarian. Buck Henry's script is often graceful, and David Watkins' cinematography is often genuinely striking. It deserves to be better known.

What about Jon Voight here? How come his great acting potential end up giving him indifferent parts in so-so action movies or the weak father in a lame drama. Here he stars in a superb film that varies sublimely between humor and the showing of the shocking dysfunctionality of human nature... it took me various places and left me wanting more. Great cast, obviously, Welles, Sheen, Garfunkel, all are delivering.

One of the greatest books of all time turned into a passable movie. Movie doesn't do the book near enough credit, but that doesn't stop the film from being fucking amazing. An all star cast, this makes for one of the greatest dark comedies of all time.

Funny but a bit dated.

Too stiff to really be an accurate rendition of the novel (which was itself a bit confused).

Translating Keller's book to the screen is a difficult task, for sure. This isn't a good effort, though. A hilarious book turned into a pretty boring film.