AllMovie

No film could do complete justice to Joseph Heller's acclaimed novel, which in the early 1960s provided a prescient shorthand for an era of official duplicity. But writer Buck Henry's adaptation is faithful to the book, and director Mike Nichols pulls no punches. This biting black comedy and military satire is comparable in some ways to Robert Altman's MASH, if not quite as funny. The story follows Heller's anarchic structure so closely that at times a viewer can get lost. The fine cast reads like a roster of popular late 1960s male stars, including Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Jon Voight, Richard Benjamin, Martin Sheen, and Henry himself.