Catch-22 - The bad trick

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Movie
German title Catch-22 - The bad trick
Original title Catch-22
Catch22-1970 opening.jpg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1970
length 122 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Mike Nichols
script Buck Henry
production John Calley
Martin Ransohoff
camera David Watkin
cut Sam O'Steen
occupation

Catch-22 is an American film directed by Mike Nichols in 1970 . It belongs to the anti-war film / black comedy genre and is based on the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller .

Summary

The film depicts the events of the bombardier John Yossarián during his service at a USAAF base during World War II. The circumstances on the occupied Mediterranean island of Pianosa are described as grotesque and misanthropic. In order to be exempted from combat missions, Yossarian wants to be declared crazy, but due to the absurd chain of arguments “Catch-22” he cannot succeed. In the end he can still flee when he apparently actually goes mad.

From book to film

The book was actually considered impossible to film. Among other things, because it is divided into chapters that only present short anecdotes or descriptions about a specific person and thus at the same time illustrate the main plot as a social study. When creating the script, Henry picked out individual anecdotes and incidents in order to sketch the various people. The rest of the character work was left to the actors. It is precisely this disorientation that contributes a lot to the mood of the film.

The plot

The story is inserted into the framework of an assassination.

You can see a bomber squadron preparing for take-off: engines are started, planes ( B-25 ) roll over an airfield. Startled by the noise of the engines, a flock of sparrows flutter away and you get a feel for the size of these machines in the very deep long shot of the bombers curving around. A machine is waiting in front of a bombed two-story house. There are three men upstairs: an athletic young man, an older man with a flying boat and black gloves, and an old, fat man with a heavy leather jacket. They talk, but you can't understand a word because of the planes taking off. Suddenly they shake hands in parting and the young man leaves. But instead of going to the plane, he pulls his pilot's needle off his shirt and throws it in the dirt. Thereupon he is stabbed by the gardener. He passes out and the bomber takes off. You can see the shadow of the wing sweeping over him. He still hears the call "Help him!" And the scene fades. The young man is lying on a stretcher in an ambulance ; another fade puts him in the nose of a bomber. “Help him!” He hears, “Help the bombardier!”. “But that's me! I'm the bomber gunner "-" Then help him! "-" I'm fine. "He seems to understand and crawls under the cockpit into the belly of the aircraft. They didn't understand each other correctly. The gunner was meant. Cut back into the ambulance, the paramedics determine the name of the injured person: it's Captain Yossarian. In delirium he calls out "Snowden" (the name of the gunner). The paramedics look at each other and discover: Snowden is dead.

After this prologue , the plot follows the principle of the book: Individual passages that have no formal subdivision deal with the protagonists . For example, a chapter is devoted to the chaplain, giving the viewer information about the breakaway pilot Orr and the site commander Cathcart. The chaplain would like to speak with the newly appointed Major Major (one has learned in a previous episode) and this can be from his business room -Feldwebel deny and disappears à la Monty Python through the window, with a false beard on the upper lip ( John Cleese very similar; this passage contains, by the way, similarities with many Flying Circus -ags around absurd military logic). In a similar way, the viewer is passed on again and again across the film or stripped off somewhere. The number of “hard cuts” is very low overall.

Over the course of the next 90 minutes, you learn why the squadron has problems: In seven attacks, you failed to destroy the Ferrara bridge , which the Wehrmacht uses as a supply route and would therefore be significant for a tactical bomb attack. Instead, orders were given to subject Ferrara to a strategic bombardment. But apparently the place always manages to outsmart the season. The incident with Snowden must have happened during this time: In recurring flashbacks you learn why Yossarian finally refuses to fly. To avoid a stand trial, he decides to go crazy. He doesn't want to wear his uniform and one day he gives the command to drop the bomb too early when he becomes the lead bomber: they land in the sea 500 meters from Ferrara. Due to multiple failures, the squadron has already flown 55 combat missions, usually bomber crews are relieved after 25 missions. The whole thing culminates in a completely absurd award ceremony by General Dreedle, in which Yossarian takes part naked. Major Major's peasant business room sergeant beats him up by explaining that Captain Yossarian's entire uniform is in the wash, as it was smeared with blood after the incident with Gunner Snowden. So he escapes the scandal and General Dreedle sees no reason to take disciplinary action.

General Dreedle: "I've never seen anything so stupid."

Yossarian: "Stupid is still flattered."

Colonel Cathcart: “I agree with you, sir. You can be sure that this man will be severely punished. "

General Dreedle: “Oh, you know, I don't really care. If he wants to receive his medals naked ... "

Colonel Cathcart: "Oh, you speak out of my mind, sir."

And so it happens that the affront becomes a farce and nothing happens.

During these episodes you learn a lot about the reason for the prolongation of the missions: The war is drawing to a close and some protagonists can live very well from the war.

  • The doctor pushes a calm ball and earns his money carefree. His little practice, which he ran shortly before the war, did not go well (the book tells us that he couldn't even feed his goldfish), and he also collects flight allowances because the Major Major's office sergeant always observes him writes on the crew lists - this doesn't even cause him problems when the plane he's supposed to be on crashes. (In the book, however, he is considered dead; even when he is standing next to whoever fills out the death certificate. That's why Yossarian says at the end of the film: "Doc is a zombie.")
  • The site commander continues to increase the number of operations, as he hopes to be commended for the performance of his team or at least to get into the newspaper.
  • The supply officer Milo - who would also have to be relieved as part of the flight crew - founded "The Syndicate", for which he distributes shares. He has set up an ultra-capitalist trade concept for goods and values, with which he does not shrink from anything. If the teams need eggs, he buys them in Sicily, pays with wool from Egypt, and these in turn with silk. He obtained the silk by confiscating parachutes from the crews. That only seems to bother Yossarian, however. He pays for everything with “shares”, which are then, for example, in the empty parachute bag. If the machine were shot down, the shares would also disappear and “The Syndicate” would become even richer. One day, however, Milo buys tons of cotton, which the Germans had also tried to get. Now he's looking for a way to get rid of the cotton. He's even trying to turn it into a dessert as it looks almost like cotton candy. Finally, he sells the cotton to the Germans. However, since they cannot collect the cotton, it is “sold hot” to them. The Germans were given the opportunity to bomb the warehouses at night. It is therefore clear that the Germans are part of the "Syndicate". When the post-war order is already taking shape, Milo collects all prostitutes and takes them to a hospital that has been converted into an assembly line brothel. During the “cleanup”, he sits enthroned on a jeep driven by the military police - like a dictator at a parade.

The security measures fail, the problem can no longer be brought under control:

  • the doctor is corrupt,
  • the chaplain does not have the format and is not accepted by the pilots,
  • the site commandant's adjutant is obviously completely insane,
  • the "Captain Major", who was promoted to major without further ado (after the death of Major Duluth, who was the leading machine before Yossarian), is completely unable to manage the laundry room alone.

But everyone around Yossarian fails, either, they are either so crazy that they do not recognize the absurdity of the situation, or dead:

  • the pilot McWatt rammed a mountain,
  • the alternative pilot Orr was shot down over the sea,
  • the navigator Capt. Aarfy Aardvaark is an intellectual, but obviously sees the whole war as a pure adventure without any real value and ultimately turns out to be a rapist and murderer of women.

Yossarian is the only one remaining in his season at the end - and is going crazy to be flight exempt.

Shortly before the end, however, the viewer learns what really happened when Snowden died: Yossarian looked for his parachute and found a share of Milo. He was then called to help Snowden, whom he found dying on the floor of the torso (the hand flapping in the wind serves as a guide for the viewer during all cuts). He covers him with his pilot's jacket and is in the process of tending to the shrapnel wound on his leg when he notices that Snowden is getting a bleeding shock. He wants to give him morphine when another stock appears in the first aid kit and he realizes that the syndicate owns the morphine injectors. He finds a parachute at the emergency exit and covers Snowden with it, while he wants to remove the life jacket. He pulls Snowden's abdominal wall open so that the innards bulge. That was too much for him then. He is serious about his plan to be suspended for madness. But before he can drive home, he (entrance scene) is stabbed by a stranger and taken to the hospital . Cathcart still managed to arrest him. The squadron is still on duty (albeit sick in bed) and Milo's Syndicate continues to operate unhindered.

In a scene completely covered in white, the chaplain visits him again and informs him that Orr has applied for asylum in Sweden. He had paddled there in the rubber dinghy . Then you realize that Yossarian did it after all, he went crazy. He jumps out of the window and runs to a cannibalized machine, fetches the dinghy and sets off to sea.

Catch-22

Catch-22 repeatedly legitimizes all measures that extend the service of the crews on Pianosa. According to this paragraph, a pilot can only be considered insane if he requests it himself. Regardless of the pilot's condition, the desire to stop flying is proof that he is still normal. Catch-22 means colloquially " dilemma ": The 2-2 symbolizes the "standing stones", while the movable one is called (catch) . He jumps back and forth and can operate two mills at the same time - a situation from which there is no escape. Another logic is Yossarian's self-centered logic: “Everyone shoots at me. But they shoot everyone, then I would be the only crazy one. Not to assume that everyone will shoot me. "

people

A B-25 from the movie

One learns very little about the origins of the individual persons in the film, but the book even draws very detailed biographies in detail. Many people in the book (e.g. the formal service fetishist General Scheißkopp) do not even appear in the film. Each main character has (in the tradition of the book) a special type of prostitute and a special sexual preference.

John Yossarian

Significantly, he would be abbreviated as JoYo (which happens in the book but not in the film) - a good metaphor for his pointless attempts to escape war. Since the O in the name is spoken in the American "Y a ssariaan", there is a relationship with Assyrian or Armenian origin - it would be interesting to examine the conversations with the patrone (of the brothel) against this background. He is a bombardier and flies most of the time with Nately, earlier also with Hungry-Joe (Hungry-Joe, however, was later assigned to the transport plane). The flight navigator Capt. Aarfy Aardvaark contributes massively to his belief: “They shoot me” by always directing their route over anti-aircraft belts. In a panic, he fails to hit the Ferrara bridge in seven attempts. When the bomber command plans a carpet bombing of Ferrara (which in and of itself is absolute overkill), he unleashes the bombs too early in a panic and becomes "the greatest fish killer in history". This paranoia distinguishes him, combined with a way of reasoning that is not unlike the Catch-22. But he is also honest and charming. Shortly before the end of the film, he tries to shoot Cathcart, which is thwarted by Nately. When Yossarian finally fires his Colt Government at Cathcart, there is no more cartridge in the magazine.

Nately

Nately is Yossarian's pilot after the squadron leader (four planes and reserve crews) Major Duluth crashed. Nately carries out Yossarian's defensive movements meticulously, even if he insults him meanwhile. Despite Aardvark's disastrous route planning (via Flak-Gürtel), they are a good team. Nately ends up preventing Yossarian from shooting Colonel Cathcart after Orr's disappearance. He was knocked out by Yossarian and burned to death in the bombing of the airfield.

Aarfy

The Navigator Capt. Aarfy Aardvaark (English "Erdferkel", embodied by Charles Grodin ) is an intellectual from New England. In the book, the second question he asks other officers is always which high school they were in which connection. He smokes a pipe (a “billiards”), wears his dress uniform (with a turtleneck sweater) even in combat and clearly sees the whole war as a “fascinating adventure”. He gives no thought to his possible death. Even when Y. asks him if he should perhaps take his handkerchief in the absence of a parachute, he replies: “Yes, that is a real fighting spirit. Humor in the face of danger. That made America great ”. Unfortunately, he's Yossarian's navigator… His casual way of looking at things adds a lot to Yossarian's panic. He doesn't seem to take anything seriously, but in the final chapter of the film, Yossarian reveals that Aarfy is a psychopathic rapist. He's the only one of Yoss's "friends" who doesn't become a missing person in the course of the plot .

McWatt

He is more of a calm person and has little imagination, but a realistic view of the events.

Orr

Embodied (through Bob Balaban ) the eternal break pilot, but is endowed with an unmistakable sense of survival. He flies the final machine - it bears the greatest risk of being hit by interceptors - but he doesn't care. He is shot down five times and rescued five times. Not only does he seem completely crazy, he also has a routine in the struggle for survival. His sexual preferences are a mystery to the other pilots: Although he has a regular prostitute, he pays her a special bonus so that she beats him rhythmically on the head with a high-heeled shoe during sex. He also giggles. After all, he remains missing after the sixth emergency landing, the chaplain later informs Y. that Orr had applied for asylum in Sweden and had always tried the perfect ditching. This is absolute nonsense even by the standards of the film and can be taken as an indication that Y. went insane in the end. The high level of wear and tear on aircraft is another reason for Cathcart to increase the number of missions. His name is a pun: Orr could mean "or". While Yoss' is faced with the choice: "Escape or die", the locked orr stands for the third possibility, "the or". If Orr is pronounced as “oar” in American, it means “paddle”.

Cathcart

He's the squadron commander. He dreams of an article about himself in the Republic . He is only concerned with correct bomb patterns in the aerial photographs, he is not worried about morality or discipline, his "right hand" Colonel Korn always wears black rubber gloves, which makes his hands look like prostheses. Cathcart is submissive and doggy to General Dreedle.

Dreedle

The general of the troops "Western Mediterranean" only cares about fulfilled orders, the quality criterion are photogenic bomb carpets. He has no problem with commending soldiers with medals for the 55th enemy flight when they should actually be court-martialed because of the bombs that fell into the sea (because of the bad publicity).

Appleby

Appleby is one of the pilots. The book tells us that he is from Iowa. He represents the morally formed, American-minded Bible Belt residents. He came up to “win the war” and annoys Yossarian and Orr. Orr claims that he has flies in his eyes and thus unsettles him immensely ("to fly" in English is also ambiguous). Appleby tries to denigrate Yossarian to the new squadron commander Major Major by saying that he is not taking his malaria medicine, but always fails in the anteroom.

Major major

Due to a data processing error and his name, the private major is promoted to captain and thus transferred directly to an air force base without flight training. With the support of his farmer-smart business room sergeant, he manages more badly in managing the laundry room at the site. When Major Duluth is shot down, Cathcart reluctantly promotes him to major and squadron staff officer. But he can neither fly nor does he have any idea of ​​behavior and leadership. Therefore, he cannot take sides for the season when the stakes are finally increased to 80. In the book, by the way, his two first names are called Major, so in full: Major Major Major Major.

Sergeant Towser

The secretary of the laundry room, finally, after the promotion from major to major, the organizer of the entire squadron. Capable, smart, but uneducated. He crunches Yossarian out when he stands naked in front of General Dreedle, knowing that Yossarian's laundry and underwear are still being cleaned.

TV remake

The six-part mini-series Catch-22 with Christopher Abbott as Yossarian was created in 2019 and will be shown in Germany on Amazon Prime . George Clooney directed two episodes.

Reviews

“Inconvenient anti-war film that reflects the prevailing chaos in its narrative structure. Despite its grotesque gags and the tendency to nonsense, the bestseller film makes a debatable contribution to the topic. "

“The reactions after the premiere were mixed, and to this day [1995] the critics still disagree on whether Catch 22 is a great anti-war film or a bungling adaptation of a brilliant original. The New York Times, at least, wrote: 'The most moving, intelligent, human - it's the best American film of the year.' And Time added: ' Catch 22 is hard as a diamond, feels cold and is brilliant for the eye!' "

- Arne Laser : The great film lexicon: all top films from A – Z, Volume I, p. 468

literature

  • Dirk Manthey, Jörg Altendorf, Willy Loderhose (eds.): The large film lexicon. All top films from A-Z . Second edition, revised and expanded new edition. tape I . Publishing group Milchstraße, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-89324-126-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catch-22 - The Bad Trick. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 22, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used