Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A WWII military pilot makes a valiant effort to be certified insane in order to be excused from flying missions. But there's a catch.
Mike Nichols' adaptation of Heller's novel is a visually audacious, non-linear anti-war satire with striking widescreen compositions by cinematographer David Watkin. The absurdist plot structure is genuinely distinctive — fragmented, darkly comic, accumulating dread in a way few war films attempt. The ensemble cast (Alan Arkin, Orson Welles, Martin Balsam) is solid if uneven. Where the film struggles is its ending: the tonal shift to pure horror feels abrupt and narratively unearned in cinematic terms, leaving many viewers cold rather than devastated as intended.