You might say that "Catch-22" shows the insanity of war from an insane viewpoint. Yossarian (Alan Arkin) is an American soldier on an air base in WWII Italy who is constantly trying to get out of flying the missions. Unfortunately, he can only get out of flying the missions if he is declared crazy, and he will only get declared crazy if he turns himself in. But if he is trying to get out of flying missions, then he is obviously not crazy, so there is no way to get out.

Among the other characters are the Machiavellian Milo Minderbender (Jon Voight),the crude-mannered Col. Cathcart (Martin Balsam),the nervous Maj. Major (Bob Newhart),the robotic Sgt. Towser (Norman Fell),the dorky Danby (Richard Benjamin),the socially awkward chaplain (Anthony Perkins) and the menacing Gen. Dreedle (Orson Welles). The movie leaves nothing to the imagination, particularly in the scene where a pilot's innards get blown out (not a scene for the fainthearted). But overall, "Catch-22" shows that in war, there eventually are no good guys, especially when your orders are to bomb a town with "no strategic value whatsoever".

A few scenes are sort of just for laughs. One could say that the medal-awarding scene "strips" all facades off of war. But it's certainly a movie that anyone even considering fighting in a war should watch.

I read through the reviews for "Catch-22" and really felt confused. So many reviewers loved it and its comedy...but I just felt that much of it was so absurd that it felt dopey....and a waste of a lot of talent.

I have never read Joseph Heller's novel, so I cannot compare this film to the book on which it was based. I have no idea how closely the film follows his story and if it was as absurd as the film.

So what didn't I like? Well, the idea of making fun of war and finding the absurdity in it didn't bother me...I like pointing out the insanity of war. But here, the actions of pretty much everyone in the film make no sense at all and just aren't funny. I mentioned absurd...and the film seems like an absurdist piece, like the French film "Buffet Froid"...a film which also made no sense and many reviewers seemed to love.

To me, a film SHOULD be enjoyed and make sense. If there is nonsense, there should be an underlying sense of why...but here it just seemed like nonsense for the sake of nonsense. I think having SOME of the craziness of the film would have worked in a story....but with this one, it was pretty much constant after a while and the story just seemed unimportant...an excuse for the weirdness.

It's been a long time since I read 'Catch-22' the novel, but after seeing the movie last night (for the first time),I'm inclined to go back and read the book again. I thought both were superbly done, illustrating beyond a doubt the absurd by being absurd. No need to go into the circular reasoning of Catch-22 because it's been mentioned numerous times in the other reviews here. Unfortunately, the film got buried by "M*A*S*H" the year it came out, so it doesn't have the notoriety or appreciation of it's competitor, but just like it's counterpart that takes place during the Korean War, this one delights in highlighting the insanity of war and the ones conducting it. The cast is uniformly excellent throughout, with particular accolades for Alan Arkin as Captain John Yossarian, who's endless quest to get grounded from flying any more combat missions meets resistance time and again by virtue of the Catch-22 formula. Perhaps the most unusual casting decision in the film belongs to Orson Welles as Brigadier General Dreedle; I don't believe I've ever seen him without a beard before. Virtually every celebrity name in the cast looks impossibly young for members of my generation who grew up watching a lot of these fine actors. In fact, if you didn't know it going in, you would swear that the role of First Lieutenant Dobbs was being portrayed by Emilio Estevez instead of his father, Martin Sheen. For fans of bitter irony and convoluted dialog that sounds logical but leads nowhere, you can't do much better than this picture. To miss it, you'd be crazy, so if you keep on missing it...