¶ … Catch-22 by Joseph Heller with the Mike Nichols film of the same name. Specifically it will compare the strengths and weaknesses of the film with the novel in a historical analysis. Heller's satirical novel captures the hopelessness of war, specifically with a bombardier in World War II who faces the bureaucracy and senseless tactics of the military during the war. The term "Catch-22" has made it into the American language meaning a situation that has no sensible end or solution, and the film makes that term come true.
The premise of both the film and the book is that war is insane, the military is insane, and there is no way out of insane situations such as war. Heller writes,
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. 'Orr' was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions (Heller 52).
The premise is hilarious dark humor, but the realities of war, shown sometimes graphically in the film; where not hilarious at all, just as the situations facing our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan clearly show today. In fact, the book was inspired, at least in part, by Heller's own experiences in the war. A critic notes, "Catch-22 was inspired by Heller's own World War II experience as a youthful bombardier in the European theater. As he has often pointed out, though, the novel was filled with cold war and Korean War anachronisms" (Hoberman). It is also filled with absurd situations that somehow...
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