Alan Arkin is splendid as Captain Yossarian, the innocent abroad at a US Air Force base in the Mediterranean, in this war satire based on Joseph Heller's bestseller. It's more violent burlesque than tragi-farce, but it certainly draws attention to its hero's "no win situation" as he struggles to cope with sham, hypocrisy and the deaths of too many comrades. Mike Nichols's direction of Buck Henry's script is an organisational tour de force, though the episodic structure requires concentration and the black comedy seems, at times, a bit laboured.

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.