Milo Minderbinder
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Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder is a fictional character in two of Joseph Heller's novels, Catch-22 and Closing Time. Jon Voight portrayed Milo in the 1970 film adaptation of Catch-22, directed by Mike Nichols.
Milo is the mess officer at the U.S. Army Air Corps base and he becomes obsessed with expanding mess operations and trading goods for the profits of the syndicate (in which he and everyone else "has a share"). Milo is a satire of the modern businessman, and beyond that is the living representation of capitalism, as he has no allegiance to any country, person or principle unless it pays him.
Milo, unlike most characters in Catch-22, who are only the subject of one chapter, is the subject of three chapters ("Milo the Mayor," "Milo," and "Milo the Militant"). He is one of the main characters in the novel. His most interesting attributes are his complete but unknowing immorality, and his circular logicality in running his Syndicate.
Milo's enterprise becomes known as "M & M Enterprises", with the two M's standing for his initials and the "&" added to dispel any idea that the enterprise is a one-man operation. Milo travels across the world, mainly through the Mediterranean, trying to buy and sell goods at a profit, primarily through black market channels. Everyone in the squadron has a "share", a fact which Milo uses to defend his actions, stating that what is good for the company is good for all. For example, he secretly replaces the emergency lifevests with certificates for shares in M & M, on the assumption that the future person who may need that vest will be instantly compensated for its absence.
Milo even begins contracting missions for the Germans, fighting on both sides in the battle at Orvieto, and bombing the squadron at Pianosa. At one point Milo orders his fleet of aircraft to attack the American base where he lives, killing many American officers and enlisted men. He finally gets court-martialed for treason. However, as M&M Enterprises proves to be incredibly profitable, he hires an expensive lawyer who is able to convince the court that it was capitalism which made America great, and absolve Milo by disclosing the enormous profit he made by dealing with the Germans. Ironically, his company's phrase, "What's good for M&M enterprises is good for the country" mirrors a phrase Mussolini often used; "What's good for Fiat is good for Italy", or the similar "What's good for General Motors is good for America". There are some historical parallels to Milo Minderbinder, most notably Ford Motors, which like Milo avoided getting its factories blown up by exploiting business connections.
In typical Catch-22 satirical fashion, Milo's business is incredibly profitable, with the single exception of his decision to buy an entire year's crop of Egyptian cotton, which he cannot afterward unload and tries to dispose of by coating it with chocolate and serving it in the mess hall. Later Yossarian gives Milo the idea of selling the cotton to the government, since "the business of government is 'business'"
Milo is a friend of the novel's protagonist, Yossarian, tending to trust him more than he trusts anyone else. However he continually ignores Yossarian's pleas for help because of his preoccupation with running M & M Enterprises. He ultimately betrays Yossarian by striking a deal with Colonel Cathcart: Yossarian's squadron must fly additional missions, and Milo gets the credit. When Nately's Whore's Kid Sister, a young girl for whom Yossarian comes to care deeply, goes missing, Milo agrees to help him find her, but abandons the attempt in order to smuggle illegal tobacco.
[edit] Sequel
Milo is also featured in Heller's 1994 novel Closing Time, a sequel to Catch-22.
[edit] Trivia
- In his autobiography Kiss Me Like a Stranger, Gene Wilder wrote that he was offered the part of Milo in Nichols' adaptation of Catch-22, but declined because of "creative differences".
- Milo Minderbinder is based on Warren Erhardt, a good friend and coworker of Joseph Heller (at McCalls magazine) who was a medic in World War Two.[citation needed]
