Catch 22 – Mike Nichols DVD

Mike Nichols’ film version of Joseph Heller’s celebrated black comedy about US airmen stationed in the Mediterranean during World War II. Paranoid bomber pilot Yossarian (Alan Arkin) is convinced that people are out to kill him – a fair assumption given that he is in the middle of a war. However, when he tries to get himself grounded on psychiatric grounds he comes up against the infamous Catch 22: insanity is a valid reason to be removed from active duty, but as any rational man would attempt to avoid the insanity of war by pretending to be mad, those who report themselves mad therefore prove themselves sane enough to continue. Also starring John Voight as Milo Minderbinder, a profiteer who will sell anything he can get his hands on, including the silk from the men’s parachutes, and Bob Newhart as Major Major, an officer who will only allow people into his office to see him when he is not there.