He made some great movies, but the unfairly dismissed, and at times, maligned, Catch-22 was my favorite. In fact the first time I saw it, I reached the credits and immediately rewound the tape to re-watch it. That movie starred half of the young males in Hollywood at the time so you got to spend two hours with the likes of Alan Arkin, Charles Grodin, Anthony Perkins, John Voight, Martin Sheen, Richard Benjamin, Bob Balaban, etc in their prime...OH and Orson Welles heading up the old guard. I still defend its a better war-as-farce commentary than its contemporary MASH, and Nichols and screenwriter Buck Henry had to deal with Hellers brilliant but non-linear prose on the screen, which I think they pulled off in spades- that timeline jumps all over the place with an intensity that would leave Tarantino dizzy. I have had a few FAVORITE movies in my #1 spot over the years- that position is usually ruled by passion and those entries, fleeting. But Catch-22 has always been my #2, its my rock and instilled upon me a perspective on life when I was 18-years-old that I still hold true today for better or for worse. If you havent seen it, now is as good a time as any.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:06:58 +0000
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