M*A*S*H (1970)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Comedy / War

Director: Robert Altman

Cast: Donald Sutherland / Elliott Gould / Tom Skerritt

Plot

Assigned to an army field hospital, a group of cut-ups goof their way through the Korean War.

What I Liked

Hilarious hijinks about sums it up.  There are enough pranks and smart ass comments to go around the entire 4077 to keep the film entertaining the whole way through its two hours of length.  The actors were clearly given plenty of freedom to ad lib with Ring Lardner, Jr.’s script and it works to the film’s benefit.  Some of the best moments are the clearly improvised banter between Sutherland, Gould, and Skerritt, which gives the viewer the impression that great fun was being had by all in the making of this film.  There is less the impression that one is watching a film, than one is simply hanging out with friends.  Which is just as well, since hanging out with friends is almost all that happens in this movie’s bare-minimum plot.  The filmmakers, taking advantage of the freedom brought to mainstream American filmmaking in the preceding five years and clearly looking to cash in on the openness of the surging youth culture, made the wise move of not letting conventional storytelling get in the way of a good movie.  What resulted was a freewheeling, clever, and all-unexpectedly subversive movie that made for a perfect fit with the "Don't Trust Anyone Over 30" market of the early 1970s.

What I Didn’t Like

However, fitting in with 1970s was part of my problem with this movie – and was always a problem I had with the hit TV show that followed.  Everyone dresses and acts like young people in the 1970s.  The Korean War took place from 1950 to 1953.  I wasn’t there, obviously, but I’ve seen plenty of film and pictures of people who were and I’ve spoken to some people that were as well.  It’s a safe bet to say that few if any American men enlisted during the Korean War looked anything like what Donald Sutherland and his compatriots look like in this movie.  The same goes for the women.  There wasn’t a 1950s hairdo among the ladies.  They all had the long, straight cuts of 1970s women.  Yes, I understand authenticity wasn’t the first consideration of the filmmakers here (except maybe in the surgery-related gore), but it is just something that always prevented me from completely suspending my disbelief in what was happening on screen.

Most Memorable Scene

For overall fun from start to finish, one can’t help but go with the football game that substitutes for what would normally be the climax in a more typical film.  Especially since I just watched this movie the day after this past Super Bowl and the similarities were hilarious (for the movie) and pathetic (for the NFL).

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5