Just watching the first episode of Catch 22, the George Clooney project. I read the book many years ago, from what I remember it was very good, a bitter, surreal satire, very wordy, brutal, amoral, lots of characters, and unconventional timelines. Said to be ‘unfilmable’.
This seems like a valiant effort, they’ve straightened out the timelines to make it linear, which is a shame. It’s beautifully filmed and very well acted but I’m not feeling any sympathy for these young American aircrews desperately trying to finish their tour of 25 (raised to 30 when a new CO arrives) missions bombing Italy and get out alive. It was still incredibly dangerous with a huge death rate, but I can’t help thinking they were lucky bombing Italy at a time in the war when there was not an enemy plane in sight.
Leaving me oddly cold. Perhaps it is unfilmable.