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

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.