When Books Are Better Than the Movies!

Following the path of countless films based on literature, Catch-22 misses the mark. On its own it is a funny and generally enjoyable movie that doesn’t quite make its social commentary clear. Does it attack the senseless bureaucracy now synonymous with the book’s title? Yes, in the way a kitten attacks string. You can see what it’s getting at but it’s not making much progress. Does it criticize war profiteering and the over zealous pursuit of the almighty dollar with a total disregard for life and liberty? More or less. But there are so many things going on the point is not brought to the forefront.
In a fit of irony the loss of large amounts of character development led the movie to become too chaotic to truly portray the chaoticness of the novel. The characters stumble along as Yosarian tries harder and harder to stay on the ground and out of harm’s way. The true insanity of his situation is lost.

You often hear the complaint that the book is better than the movie. It shouldn't be surprising that this is often the case, especially if you have read the book first. Why?
My blog posting ponders some reasons why books always seem better, but I do come up with at least one example of a movie that I thought was better than the book, a book that is rather highly regarded in its own right.