SummaryThough highly skilled and deeply dedicated, three Korean War Army surgeons adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. [Twentieth Century Fox]
SummaryThough highly skilled and deeply dedicated, three Korean War Army surgeons adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. [Twentieth Century Fox]
It is fresh and spontaneous, plausible at its most logically improbable, thanks to Altman's superior direction, Lardner's script, the fine selection of actors and to an omnipresent camera under director of photography Harold E. Stine and operator Bill Mendenhall.
really good movei shows alot about the life and death that happens at mash 4077th i enjoyed the tv show too they guy who wanted to die and the song sucide is panless was really sad moment
MASH is probably is one of my favourite movies of all time. It is a film that you can tell all the actors enjoyed making. It really speaks of the time and the era in which it is set.
Clever camera setups, Altman's patented overlapping dialogue, wonderful sight gags and situations, and universally fine ensemble performances combine to make this one the most enjoyable war-themed films ever.
In the end M.A.S.H. succeeds, in spite of its glaring faults, because Gould, Sutherland, Skerritt, Jo Ann Pflug as the delicious Lt. Dish, and Roger Bowen, as the goof-off commanding officer who is bright enough to recognize his junior officers' medical competence and stay out of their way, are all believable and bitingly funny in their casual disdain for the Army.
Although it is impudent, bold, and often very funny, it lacks the sense of order (even in the midst of disorder) that seems the special province of successful comedy.
MASH delivers in the same ways all the truly great New Hollywood films do. It challenges both traditional Hollywood filmmaking (through unconventional titles and end credits, over-lapping dialogue and ad-libbing) and American government policy of the late 1960s (though the film is set in the Korean War, the subtext is clearly about the far more contemporary and relevant Vietnam conflict) Genre-smashing maverick Robert Altman directs, and he and writer Ring Lardner Jr put an interesting spin on the war film by including a liberal dose of black humour and satire. The MASH camp is presented like a highschool, with all the archetypal characters associated with that location - you've got the by-the book senior students (Robert Duvall's Major Frank Burns and Sally Kellerman's Major "Hot Lips" Houlihan), the jocks (Donald Sutherland's Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce, Elliott Gould's Captain "Trapper John" McIntyre and Tom Skerritt's Captain "Duke" Forrest), the nerds (Rene Auberjonois' Father "Dago Red" Mulcahy, John Schuck's dentist Captain "Painless" Waldowski, Gary Burghoff's Corporal "Radar" O'Reilly) and even an incompetent principal (Roger Bowen's Lt. Colonel Blake). The screenplay quite rightly won an Academy Award, and all the dialogue has a very naturalistic, believable feel. It's probably worth re-watching the film a few times to pick up on all the jokes - there are so many brilliant throw-away one-liners that are lost in amongst the overlapping dialogue. That's MASH's crowning achievement really - yes, it's intellectual, political and extremely well made and performed, but above all else it's side-splittingly funny. The film works on multiple levels, but works the best as an extremely black comedy that is as hard hitting now as it was in 1970.
Considering the tangentially related international events occurring around the time of this film's release, I completely understand the almost universally agreed upon sentiment that Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" is significant. Not only did it provide a refreshingly flippant and breezy attitude in the face of such harrowing concepts as war and death, it spawned what many believe to be the greatest television series of all time. This in mind, though, there's still a lot here that prevented — nay — dissuaded me from liking it more than I did. While it's mostly funny and enjoyable overall, there are a few attempts at humor that really do cross a line for me. Now, I get it. It was a different time. But, time is a concept that's always moved forward. I happen to live in the now. Past the time of this movie's release. Past the time when humiliating people through sexual means was considered hilarious. This especially **** for me, because I think a good portion of the rest of this movie is fine and palatable in a post-New Hollywood sense of the term. Maybe 80-85%? Time and time again I'll see movies from certain bygone eras that make one or two small mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes ultimately thrust the entire product off the path of "aging well" and I wonder what might have been. This is one of those times. "M*A*S*H" is in no way a "bad" movie. It's just trapped in a very discernible, intermittently disagreeable time.
Directed by famous Robert Altman, a guy who inspired his actors to improve, this movie is about surgeons who use to treat wounded U.S. soldiers fighting in Korean War. Though the premise sounds like it is a serious movie, it is actually satirical black comedy set in background of Army Hospital.
The movie follows three surgeons named Hawkeye, Trapper Joe and Duke, who spend their free time in womanizing and drinking. These three protagonists or "anti-hero" may be one of most unlikable characters to put on screen with not much of redeeming quality except the fact they are good surgeon who saves lives of soldiers. They like to break rules for their benefit and bully anyone they don't like or does not cooperate with them. Though the audience should be rooting for them as they are rebelling against authority which is strict, it is pretty difficult to root for them as the authority they are rebelling against is not so bad. I mean they get to play, womanize and drink in their free time. What makes rooting for them even harder is the fact that antagonists (Hot Lips and Colonel Blake) are actually likable character who are humiliated and bullied just for the sake of fun. The audience is supposed to laugh at these people but it is difficult to laugh when the pranks played to nice people are cruel and unnecessary. Here, not only lead characters are misogynist, but the whole movie's storyline in misogynist. Worst of all is the leading characters never feel ashamed for their cruel joke.
Though the movie is often referred to "anti war satire", the movie does not feel anti war at all, because the protagonist does not suffer from war much but instead they are having time of their life. There is no excuse or good reason for their bad behavior.
Saying all this, I am not saying movie is bad. The director was quite revolutionary for the technique used in movie, which sets the atmosphere of a dirty hospital and even brings to your world. If you want to see the movie for its direction, do watch this. But if you are expecting good humor, entertainment and a smile on your face, you will have hard time. You will enjoy this movie, only if you are ready to drop your moral and sanity.
Just didn't really enjoy this very much, the guys are all terrible with no consequences. All time silly, stupid, and out of place football game, which I enjoyed.
If it weren't for the last half hour of the movie, I would have given this a ZERO out of ten. This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I enjoy a wide range of comedies, from all kinds of different film eras, but MASH is absolute garbage. About half way through the movie, I hadn't laughed once, not even a forced laugh. The last half an hour of the film is the only funny part, so I'd suggest just skipping the absolute mess that is the first hour or so and watching the end. I really don't understand why this is recommended by almost everyone that has watched it. It just isn't funny.