1970 War Satires T/S: M*A*S*H* vs. CATCH-22 vs. Kelly's Heroes

thx to George Clooney's scooter accident in Sardinia, I have discovered he is producing a miniseries adap of Catch-22, with "Girls" alum Christopher Abbott as Yossarian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(miniseries)

I don't see a Doc Daneeka in the cast list.

I can't imagine this being any good at all. Was Clooney's "Fail-Safe" watchable?

I watched it, so I guess so... if only for the novelty of Richard Dreyfuss as POTUS, and that it was broadcast live (whole different beast).

Comes down to the script and directors (GC one of three) for Catch-22 in large part, I imagine.

Kelly's Heroes was one of my favorite movies as a kid. Oddball was so fun to watch as a bohemian war hero, blasting loud gypsy music and loading his tank rounds with colorful paint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyNnvzn9bOw

<3 Sutherland's "Negative waves" monologue here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUtBhC-jygc

xp "Catch-22" is just one of my all-time favorite novels, and I have a certain affection for the Nichols movie, so I don't want anyone to shit this up and have it become the popular conception of the material in people's minds.

catch 22 is my fav book, but i haven't seen the nichols version yet. cautiously optimistic about the clooney one.

is the 1970 version worth digging up?

Arkin is a great Yossarian, and there are some brilliant scenes. Nichols ladles on more shtick than is ideal (prostitute sashaying to Thus Spake Zarathustra).

Still the broadly comic stuff is what mostly works best.

reminds me of Ulysses from the same era: more like a moving slide show tour of the book than a fully functional movie, not sure either of them are filmable books.

a faithfully filmed tv series of catch-22 might wind up looking a bit like...arrested development season 4 lol with all the overlapping plotlines and mixed-up chronology.

could it be good?

https://www.slantmagazine.com/tv/review-hulu-catch-22-adaptation-lyrically-depicts-wars-inanity-and-horrors/

I kinda don't want to see it because i love the book and it might make me mad. The 70s movie was short/vague enough for me to accept ... I feel like with a longer series, I would be less forgiving.

Also, chiming in that Kelly's Heroes was really great ...

(prostitute sashaying to Thus Spake Zarathustra)

otm, this is a mortifying disaster that seems to go on forever

that review just describes plot points / themes from the book like "deep!" and the closest it comes to filmcrit is where it says kyle chandler furrows his brow

2001 cue aside i like the nichols movie quite a bit. agree that it cuts so much out it passes naturally into being its own thing while maintaining (a scale model of) the book's structure; the dreamlike staging of the central trauma is good; many of the performances are v canny about when and when not to step into cartoonishness. voight and grodin in partic do perfectly characterized monsters.

voight has a line-- "then they'll understand"-- buck henry immodestly claims induced heller in the screening room to mutter "i wish i'd thought of that"

also i do "...if you live" (pops lips) anytime someone tells me how old they're going to turn soon, including small children

It clearly wants to be a coen bros-style adaptation and it makes me want the coen bros to have directed this

oh man, idk, i think Coens would have made it way too schticky ... 10 years ago I would have said Lars Von Trier should've done it, but I hate him now, so ...

catch-22 is better but kelly's heroes is the one i'd watch if all three were mysteriously on tv some weekend afternoon

they're all good bit id have to give nichols extra credit for managing it at all

Dr. Johnson to thread.

As he hurls insults at them, a series of close-ups introduces some of the young men, one by one, as their names are displayed on screen.

Jfc are ppl really still doing that move in 2019?

Always liked the Nichols movie but found it hard to really love, the performances and a lot of the photography are great but it feels like a series of sketches. Definitely best appreciated as a separate work thats adjacent to/inspired by the book. Havent seen Kellys Heroes in a long time but absolutely loved it as a kid, espec Rickles, and Sutherland's negative waves speech. Definitely gonna find time to revisit that one v soon.