User reviews

I should probably watch this again, since so many consider it a masterpiece. Maybe I was over-prepared (Hey, it took me a second viewing of 'Citizen Kane' to get my past pre-set expectations!). But while I could see why M*A*S*H was groundbreaking and important for a Hollywood film of it's day (lack of the usual clear narrative line, anti-war stance, overlapping, improvised dialogue, sexuality, bloody operating room scenes serving as ironic counterpart, etc), it felt pretty dated and unfocused. There are some very funny moments, but a lot of the ironies seem easy, and there's a lack of a true darker underpinnings and ideas, unlike, say, 'Dr. Strangelove'.

A lot of the humor is juvenile, cruel and silly. And while I get that's the point – nothing can be more deeply juvenile, cruel and silly than war, it got repetitive and heavy handed after a while. The performances are good, but beyond Robert Duvall, none of the characters have much in the way of dimensions. People stay exactly what we think they are from the moment we meet them.

Walter Chow makes a good argument on the web site 'Film Freak Central', that the sexism, homophobia, etc are the whole point. Altman is saying we're ALL beasts at heart, even if we act like we're bucking the system. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure I buy it's what Altman was intending.

"MASH" has always been one of my favorite comedies of all time. It isn't as funny as it is great (although it IS very funny), and the main reasons that I find it to be so great aren't even because I find it to be funny. Probably the main thing I love about "MASH" is the film's style. It broke the rules of mainstream cinema, and gave us something different, something new! It gave us Robert Altman, one of the greatest, most influential, and most unique filmmakers of all time. The way Altman made "MASH" is very important. He let his actors improvise and he used tons and tons of (hilarious and chaotic) overlapping dialogue. The film also has excellent cinematography, a fast pace, and an anti war message.

The gory surgery sequences seem like they belong in a horror film rather than a comedy, but they may be the most important part about the film. Without them, the characters aren't fully developed, and the powerful anti war message is completely removed. Those surgery scenes allow us to see the more serious side of the wacky, prankster characters. We get to see them get that big grin off their face, and replace all of that childish behavior with serious medical work.

"MASH" is one of the most entertaining and funny films ever made, but, more importantly, it's influential, intelligent, and an important part of film history, and one of Robert Altman's best and earliest films.

This is truly the best military comedy ever made. It is funny, yet it realistically depicts the savagery of war and the non-chalance it gradually inspires in its victims. For example, some of the funniest, yet also most disturbing, moments in the film come when the doctors are operating on wounded soldiers, complete with gruesome sound effects, yet are discussing extremely trivial matters.

The film also benefits from some great performances. Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould were excellent as Hawkeye and Trapper John. They both had a streak of good movies during the 70s. Robert Duvall is amusing as a pious major whose fanaticism drives our heroes to extreme measures. Sally Kellerman and Tom Skerrit also put in good performances in their roles; it is a pity that these two actors are not better utilized nowadays.

No, not the very wonderful TV series. The Robert Altman film with Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye, Elliott Gould as Trapper John, and Radar as Radar. This is a dark comedy, but it's a delight from beginning to end. And even more effectively than the TV show, the movie illustrates the complete insanity of war. (But even the movie doesn't depict Jesus on the cross hanging from a helicopter. For that you'll need to read the book.) Like most Altman films, this one is episodic. It's also gritty, grim, bloody, offensive, and charming. And Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) is not a character watered down and humanized for television. This is an example of a film so rich in detail (like Altman's "Popeye," come to think of it) that it demands multiple viewings.

Some people may think I'm insane for saying this. But this is one of the greatest movies ever made. It was so shockingly different back in 1970 and it influenced war films in the 70s (the "war is insane"-type atmosphere of the film was used by "Apocalypse Now".) The black comedy elements are as original as Dr Strangelove. I have watched this film over ten times and I get astounded each time by it's amazing originality. It's too bad Robert Altman doesn't get as much as recognition as Kubrick or Fellini though I feel he is in the same league. Today the admirable but inferior TV series is more well-known than the movie but I feel the movie is one of the great achievements in film history.

Altman is my favorite director of all time. Unfortunately given my age I did not get to experience a lot of his films in the theaters. Of all of his films I most regret not being able to see in their first run this wonderfully angry, biting and above all funny satire is at the top of the list. It looks utterly different from most films. The use of fog filters on the cameras as well as Altman's use of zooms, and the way he clutters up the shots give the film a raw unpolished look. The movie is not pleasing to the eye on first pass but it has a lived-in, stressed look that just utterly fits. It fits in with how the film is turning the war genre instead out. It makes everything funnier. And it makes the film the least celebratory war film in the American canon.

The story is quite unconventional; Altman would take this farther in later films but it doesn't really have a 3 act structure and the various plot threads are frayed and left hanging. At best you can say the film follows Haweye's deployment from beginning to end-but the each episode is such just another day that much of the film can be re-ordered and the underlying plot doesn't change that much. It is basically like being plopped down into middle of a collection of lives and you see various petty dramas play out. Some of them resolve, some of them only start, some you don't know the beginning of. Yet for all that the film has a complete feel to it given that underneath all the seeming freewheeling it has prerequisites of a story. The use of the football game as the climax is a brilliant stroke. It works to bring into focus was the film is about and it ruthlessly mocks the war genre. The sarcasm of players going down like fallen soldiers cannot be missed and it says something about both football-Americana gladiatorial sport-and war.

The film is quite angry at the Vietnam war. As a protest the use of humor mixed in with the (for the time) realistic and gory surgical scenes is a correctly didactic way of being anti-war. There is no scared cows in this film and pretty much everything gets hit. Rather cleverly several classic war films are named over the PA system to mock them as propaganda. Onward Christian Soldiers gets re-purposed for irony (Through with so many characters a lot of things are treated along a spectrum. The film is far fonder of Diego than Frank Burns for example). Today, there is a mean spirited streak of misogyny to the film that some might find off putting as a result of this approach. Poor Hot Lips seems to get punched much more than Frank does.

I re-watched this for the nth time today and enough cannot be said about the overall editing style of the film. The irrelevant and bawdy scenes are almost always sandwiched between surgical scenes (if not more serious scene such as Ho-Jon getting drafted). It drives the point home-again and again-that the characters are using gallows humor in order to survive. There is no film more perfectly its central character as this one. Hawkeye is a guy who is just trying to stay sane in the best way he can and like the film he bounces back and forth between irrelevancy and anger. I am not entirely sure how Sutherland was ignored on the awards circuit given the film.

This film launched Altman's career. It is also among his best and most accessible.

"MASH" broke barriers and defied conventions when it was first released in 1970. It still does today.

The pendulum has swung back a lot since 1970, and for that you still get a sense of the pioneering spirit with which the film was made. The overlapping dialogue. The non-linear, character-driven plot. The caustic humor. The attacks on religion (real religion, as the New York Times noted when the film came out, not false sanctimony but actual belief in God.)

Yes, in those ways the film is as powerful now as it was when it was first released. But you see something else, something audiences didn't see in 1970, so blown away were they by the newness of it. That is the picture runs out of gas halfway through.

You have a powerful beginning, that eerie montage with the strange song "Suicide Is Painless" playing mournfully while doctors, nurses, and orderlies silently rush to relieve choppers of their human cargo. It's quietly effective, immediately giving you a sense of the 4077th MASH unit (looking much bigger and grimmer than it ever did in the TV series) and coming as close as the movie ever does to delivering an effective anti-war statement. The movie builds from there as we meet the various characters, beneficiaries of their actors' strong improvisational work. It feels like real-time eavesdropping on a community of actual human beings. Scenes like Major Burns and Hot Lips' transmitted tryst and Painless Pole's suicide attempt are not as funny as we are meant to think, but they are well shot, especially the Painless Pole bit, the best thing in the movie for pure entertainment. The way all the guys in the Swamp crack up when Painless tells them he's decided to kill himself may be the film's funniest moment.

What happens next feels like a wrong turn. Hot Lips becomes the subject of a camp bet that exposes her to massive humiliation. Call it "indecent" or "politically incorrect," it is just plain wrong, exposing the film's (and its director's) nasty streak toward women and alienating any concern you might have built up for the characters. When she and Burns were targeted before, you had a sense they had it coming because of her overbearing military approach and his blaming orderly Boone for killing a patient. This time, she's a spent force, no threat to anyone, and "a damn good nurse," as Trapper says, just doing her job as best she can despite her earlier bad experience. I'm struck dumb at the idea I'm supposed to be laughing when she rushes into Col. Blake's tent in shock and tears.

The film never recovers. Instead, it veers wildly off course, away from the camp and into two radically pointless subplots, one involving a trip by Hawkeye and Trapper to Japan where they operate on a congressman's son and a sick infant (some sort of parallel there, though lost on me), the other a football game that apparently was director Robert Altman's comment on the folly of war, but to me just shows what happens when you allow your characters to veer off-script for so long you can't make it back to the ending as written. The game takes up too much time, throws in goofy circus music complete with slide whistles, and features the once iron-willed Hot Lips in the role of outlandishly enthusiastic cheerleader for all the people who tormented her so viciously for the duration of the film. Sally Kellerman's performance in the second half of the film is nothing like it was in the first half; it's embarrassingly, cartoonishly bad. Altman should have reined her in, but you get the feeling he was just rushing by then to get it all in the can before the studio figured out what he was up to and took his film away.

Altman was just so much better making "Nashville." Obviously he learned a lot. It's amazing how pasty everyone in this film looks, particularly Donald Sutherland, who seems leprous. No wonder he tried to get Altman fired. So much of the supporting players faded away, and though they do good work, it's not a surprise. They all seem so squalid and ugly as Altman shoots them.

It's interesting comparing the characters here to their counterparts in the TV series. For me, the TV characters are usually preferable. Robert Duvall mines zero comedy from Frank Burns, playing him very seriously in comparison to Larry Linville's more likeably miserable TV Burns. Roger Bowen had a great voice, but is nearly robotic as Blake, having none of McLean Stevenson's panache. What's worse than a pompous moralizing Hawkeye with Groucho affectations? How about that annoying whistle! Even Gary Burghoff, the one real holdover from film to series, plays a nastier Radar in the movie, meaner, tougher, less innocent.

The whole film is mean, tough, less innocent. It gets points from me for that. Altman and his cast develop a magnificent mood right away. But they fail to do very much with it. "MASH" is a great 45-minute-long movie that just goes on too long.

The Late/Great Robert Altman was a visionary & his vision is amplified in 'MASH', which is based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. This satirical black-comedy war film, has an ingenious plot & the master director nails it to the hilt.

'MASH' Synopsis: The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.

'MASH' is about the human spirit, above everything. Though horrible things happen (well, whats worse than war), the characters find some humour to keep their sanity. 'MASH' raises many intentionally laughs, but this is quite a dramatic subject, which is brave enough to offer some amount of optimism in a bleak situation.

The Late/Great Ring Lardner, Jr.'s Oscar-Winning Adapted Screenplay is nearly perfect. 'MASH' is undeniably funny & also daring, as it tackles something that's hard to execute or narrate. Altman's Direction is excellent. He's handled the film with precision. He's truly missed! Cinematography, Editing, Art & Costume Design merit a special mention. Johnny Mandel's Score is super.

Performance-Wise: Donald Sutherland is a scene-stealer. The now Hollywood Legend is a delight here, delivering a funny, eased out performance, that ranks among his best works to date. Elliott Gould is first-rate. Tom Skerritt is perfectly in sync with his character, while Robert Duvall bristles in a cameo. Sally Kellerman, in an Oscar-Nominated Performance, is absolutely fantastic. Others lend very good support.

On the whole, 'MASH' is A Must See. Let The Altman Magic Continue!

As comedies go, it doesn't get much better than M*A*S*H! Script, direction, casting, music and acting are all at their very best in this satirical take on the Korean War - ironically, there is no army action played out during the movie, just the escapades of Elliot Gould, Donald Sutherland, et al where they are stationed to take in casualties of war.

From the opening shots we feel the slow mood of the film, yet if we look a little closer, we see comedy and havoc all around. This is in my opinion, Altman's finest piece - the film is superbly shot, showing fantastic long shots, typical of the era. Elliot Gould has never been so cool, and Donald Sutherland's dryness is sublime. The cast as a whole are the driving force behind this movie - the actor's clearly have taken time to learn their character's, and it really shows, right down to Radar's communication with the field Marshall (or whatever he is). It is very much a character driven movie.

The football game just shows what these people are really like - fun, scheming, lovable cheats - but it pays off because the opposition is so loathsome.

Beautifully written, shot, acted and the rest. Without a shadow of a doubt this is a 10 out of 10 and one of the best comedies around.

M*A*S*H made the reputation of its director Robert Altman, but although Altman's talents are considerable, I think he pulled off a fast one here. The plot careens from place to place, the story doesn't really go anywhere, the script is disjointed, and we don't get nearly the sense of the brutality of war that we see in other films of this period, even the ones that weren't nearly as entertaining. Heck, the TV series did a better job of looking into the utter futility of war. The surgical scenes are somewhat gruesome, but hardly shocking.

I think the sucess of the film and its obvious entertainment value (you will like watching this film) is due to a five star cast from top to bottom. The actors who deservedly made their reputation in this film and give fine performances throughout are Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Gary Burghoff and Bud Cort, and that's just the A-team. Heck, I could make a good movie today with just those people. From the stoic Trapper John to the bible thumping adulterer Frank Burns, the characters ring true and are fully fleshed out.

MASH stands for (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) they are helpful when one of their own soldiers is wounded from battle. Do these surgeons worry? If you have one name Captain Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and "Trapper" John McIntyre(Elliott Gould). These Army surgeons know how to make negative situation like the Korean War, look like another day in paradise. Wars can depress any person involved. But Hawkeye and Trapper uses their shenanigans to bolster up their egos. It works. However, those antics annoy a certain "deadpan" named Frank Burns(Robert Duvall). This Major is a "pain", but Hawkeye always has his number. Another soldier named Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan(Sally Kellerman) is appalled by Pierce's quips. The worst things that have happened to Burns and Houlihan is when their intimacy is heard throughout the camp. Then when Hot Lips was taking a shower, the shower tent collapsed, and the whole crew get a great look at her! This movie is such a hoot! Dark comedy is unusual to say the least. There's plenty of laughs. Certain themes are questionable, but I don't think that it will bother me. If it haven't been for the movie, there wouldn't be a successful TV show. Only Gary Burgoff remain the true character of the movie, "Radar". A war classic that doesn't mean it's a tearjerker. The only tears you have is for "laughing too hard". It's worth my while. 5 stars!

While never a fan of the dry humor of the TV series & certainly too young to be an expert on the Korean War, MASH - the movie - comes off as an unconventionally funny & intriguing look at war thru the eyes of irreverent doctors in the kooky MASH unit.

Director Robert Altman never allows us to get seriously involved in the "war" aspect of this film - there are few, if any, poignant moments in regards to the actual battle in Korea. Instead, we follow the kooky exploits of the brilliant loose-cannon surgeons, led by Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould & Tom Skerritt. The entire cast is fantastic, especially Gould & Sutherland as motor-mouthed playboys undermining "authority" at every turn. Roger Bowen, Robert Duvall & Sally Kellerman are equally effective in supporting roles.

There are moments of outright hilarity throughout & the humor, though sometimes slapstick, is incredibly unconventional (dream sequences, breaking down the fourth wall & an effective scene involving the infamously haunting theme song performed by Johnny Mandel). MASH's only - and major - flaw is treating its subject matter with kid gloves. We behold dead or dying bodies in most scenes, blood spurts & pours on every gurney, yet every scene is a platform for comedy. And while I couldn't help but laugh, I couldn't help thinking that this was certainly not the norm of war, even in Korea. Then again, it's only a movie. And a pretty funny one at that. 6 out of 10.

I realize that this movie has achieved almost cult status and is widely regarded as a classic, but it just didn't work for me. The best thing I can say about it is that it gave birth to the long running television series of the same name, which may still be the best television series ever made. But how anyone could watch this movie and get the idea to make it into a television series is beyond me.

I readily confess, of course, that (as with almost everyone born in the 1960's or later) my introduction to and conception of MASH is the TV series. It's truly difficult for me to relate to Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce, for example. Not that he, or any of the actors, did a bad job. It's just that the TV series is so ingrained in my mind that it's hard to see different actors putting their unique spins on familiar characters. Hawkeye, Trapper John (Elliott Gould), Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), Hot Lips Houlihan (Sally Kellerman) and Col. Blake (Roger Bowen) are portrayed very differently than their TV counter-parts. That's fine (and the actors did well) but it's still disconcerting.

The problems I felt with this movie went far beyond the difficulties involved with relating to an unfamiliar cast playing familiar characters, though. The story focuses on the experiences of Captains Pierce and Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt) at the 4077 MASH in the Korean War. It opens with their arrival and closes with their discharge. But to me the movie lacks any clear focus or consistency. It doesn't seem to be building to anything and in the end it just fizzles out quietly without any real climax. The zany antics of the doctors come across here as mean-spirited more than fun, and there's way too much emphasis on the football game between the 4077 and the 325th Evac. I mean - who really cares? To me, this movie didn't even seem to have a strong anti-war message. Anti-military perhaps, but not anti-war (and the two are not the same thing, in my opinion.)

I realize that I'm not in tune here with most people's thinking, but as far as I'm concerned the best thing about this movie is actually hearing the words to the familiar MASH theme: "Suicide Is Painless." I also appreciated the fact that, this being a motion picture rather than a TV series, the horrors of war (ie, the wounds of the soldiers) could be more graphically (and therefore more soberingly) portrayed. Aside from that, nothing much here appealed to me.

2/10

M*A*S*H is a groundbreaking film. Along with Catch 22, M*A*S*H had the audacity to ridicule two of the pillars of American society: war and religion. Whether you find this appalling, subversive, treasonous, outrageous or funny depends on your political and religious orientation. Surely the religious right will find the film blasphemous and the political right will find it treasonous. No matter what your point of view, M*A*S*H is certainly an in-your-face film.

The irony of the film is that for the time it was considered gruesomely bloody. Yet there are no battlefield scenes; all the blood is in the surgical unit. The CSI TV series shows more carnage than M*A*S*H, but M*A*S*H was filmed over 30 years ago.

M*A*S*H is loaded with bizarro characters. Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Robert Duvall, Tom Skerrit, Loretta Swit, Radar are all insane in their own way. In "M*A*S*H," everyone is cruel, playing mean practical jokes and the anti-heroes Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould are just plain heartless. They absolutely torment Major "Hot Lips" Hoolihan and Robert Duvall. None of the characters in the film tries to be funny. There are no jokes. The humor just grows from the situation which is the grim reality of a mobile surgical unit whose doctors and nurses try their best to repair the horribly mutilated bodies from an insane war. Having worked in a hospital setting, outrageous and black humor is commonplace, especially in the ER, but in M*A*S*H it's taken to a new level.

MASH was in the 70's a great accomplishment. One of the greatest comedies of its time. Based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH which details the going on's of a mobile army surgery hospital during the Korean War. Hooker's novel was brilliant and funny. a black comedy gem that also spoke to the Vietnam war. Question Authority create chaos out of horror and repeat and leave. The Movie to its credit is actually faithful to the book which I proudly own and read quite a few times. The Story follows Three Doctors as they do a tour of duty at the 4077th MASH. Hawkeye Pierce ,Duke Forrest and Trapper John . Each are at war with the army and each does their best to cope with the horrors of the war. From tormenting Major Frank Burns to rigging a football game to helping a don Juan who is convinced he is now gay because he couldn't get it up one night. Hawkeye and the gang bring quite a few laughs. But this movie was made in a Era before political correctness took over and ruined the world. Black Comedy isn't supposed to be PC. Anyways you can see where the seeds were sown for the long running M.A.S.H. series Donald Sutherland makes the best Hawkeye as far as I'm concerned. Alan Alda's Hawkeye Pierce was just too tame and almost a reversal of everything the original Hawkeye stood for but I guess 11 years can do that to a guy. Anyways if you are not too PC and not too easily offended. And want to see a true piece of history. MASH just might be your type of movie. To me it was funnier then Dr. Strangelove and any of the other anti war movies that came out.

This film is nearly perfect. It's obvious from some of the low ratings and poor reviews that some people just don't get it. And never will.

The state of human nature, and how we are all essentially just men, is woven throughout this masterpiece.

In war, although there are ranks, with officers and enlisted men, this movie demonstrates that rank doesn't matter. We're all human.

Fights, bullying, love for your fellow man, hot lips finally just giving in, Henry Blake's lack of leadership ability, etc.

Reviewers who dwell on the format or pace of the film, the character flaws, and some of the misogynistic nature of Hawkeye and Trapper John are just shallow thinkers. Probably don't get jokes either.

Sorry if I offended those other weak backbones reviewers. Suck it up.

I'm not sure if I would like this movie living in the 70's, but it is really hard to watch nowadays, and it's not because it is deep or complex. For me it is a disaster which doesn't deserve more than 6 stars out of 10. The film is a series of gags and other stupid moments about some drunkard war medics and it isn't neither deep nor funny. Frequently I watch comedies without laughing but appreciating the jokes anyway, which doesn't work in this movie. I like black humor and I'm not a fan of stupid comedies such as American Pie, but I really see nothing really funny or deep about this film. Its plot is a non-existing thing, so it gets even more boring to watch. I can't compare it with the TV series everyone's talking about, but I clearly see that MASH is an overrated movie. Reviews about "We are all human regardless of ranks" and "Anti-war film" are quite shallow. The real anti-war films which really make you think are Platoon and Apocalypse Now, not this movie. And speaking of "humanity", yes, among the soldiers and other war staff there is a lot of different people, including the ones such as this film's characters, but MASH is definitely not a best picture to show it. I hate these stupid jokes about sex and women even when there is a little of them in some serious war films, and this movie makes them the key element of the plot. Don't watch this film, spare your time for some good war film instead.

To me, Altman's second-best film, behind "Nashville," which is so uniquely brilliant, it defies classification!

Regardless of it being set during the Korean War, this is obviously a commentary on the insanity of the current-at-that-time Vietnam War, and of war in general. The surgeons are endlessly patching up the badly wounded, and they keep coming. The endless cycle leads to the surgeons and other personnel just trying to keep sane.

There is quite of mix of gore and laughs as the characters make their way through the conflict. And, surreal moments that transcend it all. Altman was a master at breaking the rules, and has a dream cast that makes the film perfect.

I saw this at the 75th Anniversary for 20th Century Fox at Lincoln Center in 2010. I got to meet and have a real conversation with Elliott Gould, easily the best interaction with a celebrity I have ever had. There was a showing of a new 35mm print of the film, and a post discussion with Elliott, Tom Skerritt, and the wife of Mr. Altman. I even have a signed poster!

Excellent film, easily watchable again and again. And, the P.A. announcements are so very funny!

********** (10 Out of 10 Stars)

While the film occasionally lost me (especially at its first 30 minutes), and the crass humour was a bit too much for me, I found my first Altman quite smart and risk-taking black comedy. It's often criticized as dated, but you can find out it's in fact timely and timeless satire, only if you look closer. I slightly enjoyed it, but I can't deny that I appreciate its subtle social commentary, subtle humour, and witty dialogue. I think Altman's other films will work for me more than this.

(7/10)

This movie, probably more than any other captures men at war. These are the men I knew. They were trained to do a job and they did it. Even the draftees knew they didn't have any choice. Maybe a lot of anger but not the whining and crying of that silly tv series. Excellent movie. One of the best.

The Milieu is repellent and that's the point. Altman served it well but it's not to everyone's taste or liking, including mine. Once was enough. Though his 3 Women I can view repeatedly.

Boys like pranks. The main characters in this movie pull one after the other. All the pranks were funny. Of course, these are men, not boys. But they are allowed to act like boys because they are surgeons who are absolutely necessary for the operation of the hospital. They do their jobs, and that gives them license to tell everyone else where to get off. They ignore rules. They deal with people who get in their way, even when those people are superior officers.

I did not think this was a particularly anti-war movie. Yes, Altman WAS against the Vietnam war when he made it, and he did remove almost all references to Korea (except for the street signs in the town, which were in Korean). But the scenes of wounded soldiers had the effect, for me, of making it clear how important the work was that the surgeons were doing, compared to the trivialities of military life, thus justifying their antics and making them seem like good guys after all.

I have to credit Robert Altman's breakthrough film MASH for at least one thing- it's one of the few films from the 70's to look at those in war not as overly anxious and gung-ho military types, but average shlubs working a particular kind of job. In this world of the military medical sidelines, where soldiers get the help they need after battle, the camaraderie is never too false, and the cast assembled is the first prime example of Altman's policy of casting being 80% of the job. The film is put together in a piece-meal kind of way, with about as loose a plot as dialog construction, where the sense of humor from the main male characters (i.e. Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland) is the kind of juvenile, sarcastic humor associated with its time. This is likely the kind of film that John Landis must have seen at least a few times before making Animal House.

But the problem for me, aside from the film's strength in breaking conventions and having such a varied cast (Sally Kellerman and Robert Duvall in the same movie, not to mention Tom Skerritt and Bud Cort), is in it working as a comedy. As a comedy in and of itself its just, well, alright. The humor and jokes in the film are a big step above the television show's lot that followed in the 70's (then again, I'm not a fan of the show anyway), but the attitudes of the characters, and the little understated bits that happen, miss marks of satire I would've liked to have seen. There's some of the human comedy that Altman's obviously been influenced by Renoir to showcase, yet I wasn't laughing at it as much as paying attention to what the conversations were going on. It's a kind of high-brow/low-brow concoction that has its moments, and then does not at the same time.

Perhaps I was expecting a little more than I ended up getting from the Golden Palm winneing, smash-hit film that jump-started the prolific director's career. And it is a good movie, no argument about that, it's got fun and shenanigans and a winning cast, and it has been created and performed enough skill and enjoyment that marks as important for all the actors involved. I just don't think it's a masterpiece.