Catch-22

I tried to read the book a long time ago, but never could actually finish it. Recently, I saw this movie was on instant play on Netflix, so I decided to watch it. Catch-22 is defined in this movie as the armies tricky way of keeping its pilots in the war. A pilot can leave the military if he is crazy. If the pilot claims he is crazy, then he has the grant to leave the war. The catch is that the soldier would be considered sane if he did not want to fly, yet insane if he does consider to fly. Therefore, he cannot leave the military because the moment he decides not to fly the plane any more he is sane.
There are famous actors in this movie. Alan Arkin plays the protagonist who sees the backwardness in the military and cannot get out of the catch. Arkin is the only character who sees the insanity in the war, but he has to bare insanity due to the troubles of war. Young Martin Sheen plays a fellow pilot. Jon Voight plays some sort of high officer who tries to capitalize on the resources found in America's base in Italy. Orson Welles plays a high ranking general who visits the base and has no real compassion for anything or anyone. There is even a small role for the beautiful voiced Art Garfunkel in the movie. I would consider Alan Arkin, Martin Sheen, and Jon Voight professional actors. Since this is a dark humour movie, the acting can be a bit goofy and unrealistic at times. The attitudes given about war in this movie is horrifying; a plane crashes in one scene and the two actors (Jon Voight and Martin Balsmin) do not even look at the incident. Generals raise the ante for air bombings, keeping the soldiers in Italy for an uncertain amount of time due to his ability to raise the number at any time. Even though the humor is dark, it still rubs at me in a strange way. The humor is just different because the movie is 40 years old, but I enjoyed it anyway.
The editing in this movie is psychologically stimulating. Scenes could be dreams, or scenes could be reality. The movie plays with reality in its style of editing. After Arkin gets a sheet metal in his leg, the movie switches to his subconscious. He is trying to help someone else who has hurt his leg, but then it cuts to his sexual drive. He is trying to swim to the nurse that is helping him with his leg. He is stuck out at war with no one to be intimate with. The only real intimacy is the intense conversations that the soldiers have with each other. There is a scene where it is cut from Alan Arkin trying to caress a girl to him in the middle of a strategic meeting.
The movie is purposely edited to leave the viewer out in the dark, questioning what is real. There is no guiding story line, just scenes of what is happening. Catch-22 is one of those movies that you have to watch twice or even three times to pick up on the subtleties. I have watch it twice now and feel like i have a some-what good understanding of it.