Catch 22 (1970)
Another interesting choice from Alex to start the year, and while I’m familiar with the movie and its famous “Catch”, I had never actually seen it.
And what a weird one! Psychedelic, at times creepy, at other times hysterical, it features a host of now familiar names in early career roles. Primarily among them Alan Arkin in the lead, but also Martin Sheen and Jon Voight. It had to have been made as much for the year of release (the same year as the original M*A*S*H movie no less), as a commentary on the Vietnam war even more than anything about WWII.
But it’s clear and it says a lot about the obvious futility and horror of war. I think Alex gets it at least that far — that war is bad, even when everyone is telling you it’s good.
On to next week!
(Yes, I think I will write up a brief thing about this weekly now, at least sometime in the week after seeing the movie. It’s as good a writing prompt as any!)