I'm okay with the idea of a remake/revisioning of the book (not a remake of the movie, though). Everyone's had good ideas for casting, but if anyone out there has the power and the desire to make a new "Catch-22," please please please please please do not "update" it for "this generation."
I have a couple of reasons for this.
First, as has been noted, World War II and Iraq are very different wars, fought in very different ways in very different settings. For people who complained about the parts of the book that were eliminated/changed for Nichols's movie, I guarantee that a "modern" "Catch-22" would be virtually unrecognizable. It would be a remake in name only.
Second, the book is as good as it gets when it comes to black comedy. Unfortunately, a lot of the subtext is certain to be lost in the transfer to film, but it is what it is. Again, a "modern" retelling would separate it from the original work so much that aside from characters and a few themes, you might as well do one of those "inspired by" movies.
Third, you're already facing an uphill battle in adapting a work like "Catch-22," and that's if you strive to make it as close to the text as possible. The narrator's voice just wouldn't translate if you tried to strike out and make a "modern" version. And I believe that the text of "Catch-22" is as unique as anything Bukowski or Welsh ever wrote. I wrote my senior thesis for my English degree on a comparison of "Catch-22" and Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" (I learned during my research that Heller and Vonnegut had fought in WWII practically together), and I was in particular struck by Heller's writing style in "Catch-22." The sentences are often hundreds of words long, with convoluted asides and intrusive clauses--the overall effect being that by the time you finish the sentence you forgot how it started. It's almost a deliberate obfuscation of the simplest ideas, or a mirror image of the military bureaucracy that is the butt of Heller's novel-length joke. In fact, it's a feat Heller never quite managed successfully again, as books like "Good as Gold," "Something Happened" and "Picture This" never captured that special something that made his debut so striking. I did enjoy "Closing Time," though, if for no other reason than it gave me an opportunity to find out whatever happened to the survivors of "Catch-22."
Fourth--this is the last one, I promise--translating "Catch-22" to modern-day Iraq would be too trendy. We've already got movies like "Jarhead" and "Three Kings," and making "Catch-22" too topical would make it look like the filmmakers were simply fishing for Oscars by making "Catch-22" a political football, not the work of art it should be.
To wrap this up (I didn't intend it to be this long), I've got a four-and-a-halfth reason that refers to earlier discussions about the nature of black comedy. Carol Burnett once said that the definition of comedy is tragedy plus time, and that's why "Catch-22" works. Making it modern would remove much of the humor because it would be too close to reality.
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