In this strongly cast adaptation of Joseph Heller's best-seller, director Mike Nichols explores the madness of conflict during World War Two.

At an American Air Force base in the Mediterranean, Captain Yossarian (a showstopping Alan Arkin) seeks to avoid the prevailing lunacy by requesting that he is declared mentally unfit to fly.

Then he learns about Catch-22: no sane man would want to fight and so his request indicates sanity.

The film is patchy but boasts some inspired moments and brilliant action sequences and includes showy acting work from Martin Sheen, Orson Welles and Richard Benjamin. The first American film to show an actor on the loo!