MovieChat Forums > Catch-22 (1970) Discussion > questions 1 spoiler

questions 1 spoiler

posted 20 years ago by pyromanpro
10 replies | jump to latest

does anyone have the screenshot where Yossiarian is standing rightin front of that light and looking back twards the screen? i think that it's the most beatiful shot in the movie and would like it as a desktop but i cant find on the net.

also --- spoiler

when Yossarian is laying in the hospital after Natley goes boom, a man in black tells him that they've got his buddy, who must be Dobbs because he dissapears for the rest of the movie. actually i think Yossarian has a line about Dobbs' dissapearance. anywhoo, who is that guy and what happened to Dobbs?

i should read the book but i'm lazy.

Master Shake: Look, that beam came from space. You don't own space, so stop acting like you do.

[–] killer_man_gyro 20 years ago

the guy is the brother of the soldier who yossarian pretended to be

Lots of people don't reappear in the last act - doc daneeka, major major...

[–] grammaire 20 years ago

Perhaps in the book that's who's he's supposed to be, but the man who appears to Yossarian and the brother of the dying boy were not played by the same actor, so I'm assuming they aren't playing the same character.

[–] beatnick68-1 20 years ago

It's not so clear in the movie...but in the book the character who tells Yossarian that they have his buddy is one of several government security agents conducting an investigation at the base. They are after Chaplain Tappman and interrogate him shortly before Yossarian winds up in the hospital again.

I think in the book the "buddy" referred to is a character named Lt Dunbar. He's Yossarian's closest friend in the novel and is equally subversive. He disappears one day and no one knows what has happened to him. Someone later says that a mysterious "they" had "disappeared" Dunbar.

Since Martin Sheen's character Dobbs is a cross of two characters from the novel, Lt. Dobbs and Lt. Dunbar, I think it can be safe to say that it was he that was being referred to. Although...a case could be made for other characters who disappear or die throughout the book...Clevinger, Orr, etc.

[–] grammaire 20 years ago

Ahh I see, thank you for clearing that up.

I've just started reading the book, and it's already explaining a lot of things that I was confused about in the movie.

[–] rbx6jm 20 years ago

I was under the impression (from reading the book) that the man was referring to Orr - as in they had found him washed ashore in Sweden.

[–] luke_c_richardson 20 years ago

The man isnt really there!! Notice how he disapears between shots? He's a figment of Yossarian's imagination.

[–] team_venture 20 years ago

In the book, a character who wasn't put in the movie, Dunbar, was dissapeared. I think Henry and Nichols were trying to get the same idea across, but they didn't want to introduce another character to develop. I might be wrong, but I don't think Dobbs dissapears in the book, just Dunbar.

[–] elijahbailey 20 years ago

Orr paddles to Sweden. And in the book it is Kid Sampson who gets killed by the propeller while standing on the swimming float - Sampson's character is never introduced in the movie and it is "Hungry Joe", the photographer, instead, who gets mown down by the Stinson L-5 Sentinel's prop.

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] jonchopwood 16 years ago

In the book, Dunbar is "disappeared." Dobbs in the book is an incompetent Yossarian loathes, and a minor character. He is the person who grabbed the controls during the flight over Avignon, brining the B-25 down into the flak and causing the death of Snowden.

Dunbar is probably the person Yossarian is closest too in the book, other than Nurse Duckett, as Nately is just a kid.

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"Why do people always laugh in the wrong places?"
--Kid Sampson