MASH (1970)

Director: Robert Altman

Stars: Elliot Gould, Donald Sutherland

Plot: Doctors Gould and Sutherland join the 4077 MASH during the Korea War. Hi- jinks ensue.

Altman's first and only true popular hit, the movie has long been overshadowed by the highly successful TV show. Episodic, the movie manages to be anti-religious, anti-war, anti-military, and anti-feminist all at the same time. Unlike the TV show's Hawkeye (Alda) and Trapper (Rodgers), Gould and Sutherland aren't particularly nice or even very likable. They're "Joe Cool", and they're entitled because they're great surgeons who are better and smarter then everyone. So they can call the Catholic father "Dago", treat the nurses as sex toys or tell a middle-aged Head nurse that they're "the pros from Dover" and to get them a Steak pronto and a nurse "whose Tits won't get in the way".

And they behave with self-satisfied cruelty toward anyone they think deserves it. Burns is baited and driven out, Hotlips sexually harassed, and an Army General blackmailed. Whether you think these actions are funny depends on your point of view. Ebert made a nice point:

We laugh, not because "M*A*S*H" is Sgt. Bilko for adults, but because it is so true to the unadmitted sadist in all of us. There is perhaps nothing so exquisite as achieving (as the country song has it) sweet mental revenge against someone we hate with particular dedication. And it is the flat-out, poker-faced hatred in "M*A*S*H" that makes it work.

So if you hate "regular army clowns" like Frank Burns or "Hotlips", and can overlook our leads arrogance and general dislike of anyone not "cool", you might find MASH very funny.

I didn't for the most part - although I found it mildly amusing at times. Henry and Radar were still funny and there a number of funny lines. But too much of it grated on me. And the football game goes on for a dull 30 minutes.

Note: Gould and Sutherland tried to have Altman fired during shooting. Both later apologized, but Altman never worked with Sutherland again. And Altman calls the TV show "racist". Sour grapes anyone?

Summary: Not as bad as I remembered. Some funny moments but too long and uneven. Rating **1/2