11 Aug Catch-22
Catch-22, WWII Movie starring Alan Arkin
(1970) WWII B-25 bombardier Yossarian tries to get someone, anyone in his squadron to understand that he is insane so he won’t have to fly any more missions. The movie is based on the novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
Heller flew 60 missions as a B-25 bombardier. After the war was over he began to write this satire about the madness of war. It was published in 1970 and not immediately, but eventually sold 10 million copies. Today it is still wildly popular, and the title of his book has become an everyday way to describe an impossible, no-win situation.
Now I haven’t read the book so all I have is the movie to go on. Both are satires, dark comedies, absurd interpretations. Initially, I was appalled at the irreverent attitude toward the bomber crews.
Then I read that Heller later explained that the book really isn’t about World War II even though that’s where the action takes place. He’s taken military rules, personnel, common occurrences to the ridiculous. It would be easy to substitute the words “corporate” or “government” for “military.”
As one person said who reviewed the book, “When I first read the book in college, I didn’t get it. Now that I’ve been in the Air Force for fifteen months, I get it totally.”
What I don’t appreciate are all the references to “deserting to Sweden” that are in the book. In the movie, that is what the poor hero in the story is trying to do. Get to Sweden, the neutral country where so many crippled airplanes were forced to land after bombing deep into Germany. The Air Force investigated and found no proof that any of the crews had deserted their duties when, knowing they could never make it back to England, they flew north to neutral Sweden.
Many of them were back in combat within a few months.
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