Movie Review: M*A*S*H
Movie Review · 6 comments · 350 words
After watching the First few series of the TV show "M*A*S*H", I thought I'd give the original movie a go.
It isn't very good.
Even if you ignore the rampant racism - and there is a lot of racism - you still have to content with the brutal misogyny - and it is toe-curlingly grim. Then you get the homophobia which, may have been of its time, but the sexual assault isn't. And if you can get past all of that, you still have to suffer though a movie that gets so bored of its central thesis (war isn't fun) that it gives up ⅔rds of the way through to... do a sports movie?
Similar to How I Won The War, M*A*S*H is a set of barely interconnected "comedy" sketches. Sure, the humour and the slang are dated - but that can be overlooked. Some of the absurdism works well - but is done better in the TV series. The juxtaposition of the comedy and the bloody surgery is influential - but hardly revelatory.
In the end, M*A*S*H is a mess. Sure, war is hell - but you'll have an enjoyable time sexually assaulting women and getting boozed up. Yeah, some kids'll die - but think of all the fun you'll have drinking, playing golf, and abusing the people around you.
I think Frankie Boyle said it best:
American foreign policy is horrendous 'cause not only will America come to your country and kill all your people, but what's worse, I think, is that they'll come back 20 years later and make a movie about how killing your people made their soldiers feel sad.
Before you leave a comment telling me how wrong I am - take off your rose-tinted glasses and watch it again.
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@Edent I couldn't get through more than a couple of episodes of the TV show when I tried a couple of years ago, for pretty much exactly those reasons.
As a kid I loved the TV series MASH, and didn't even know there *was a movie until much, much later. It was a thorough disappointment - but probably truer to the books it was taken from. Setting aside all the ways the movie is problematic, Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould aren't likable the way that Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers were together (and, later, Mike Farrell).
Thank goodness they kept Gary Burghoff as Radar for the TV show, though.
@Edent I had similar reactions to a couple of old-favorite movies lately; The Blues Brothers ('80), and Beverly Hills Cop ('84) - they are still funny in places where I think I just remember that they're "supposed to be" funny. But also painful to watch in places where they devolve into outdated stereotype (to which almost everyone was still blind - even in the early '80s).
Merton Hale says:
I served in Vientam, not Korea. 12 months with 9th Infantry Division, I was there for Tet, the hottest time of the war. Fortunately I had I job just like Radar's, I was not getting shot at for a living. I remember enjoying the movie and the TV series, but I have not taken the time to re-watch the movie as you rightly suggest. What I CAN say is that, in the TV series, the role/actions of Radar are pretty accurate, with a little bit of poetic license (or Hollywood or whatever) of course. But not too far from reality. Really. In Vietnam we did not have women around so misogyny was not an issue. Absurd things and black/dark humor were common. War does that. I'll try to see if I can find the movie to watch again.
@Edent Agreed. It was groundbreaking for the topic, but terrible in retrospect. The TV show, while still a product of its time with all the garbage that goes along with that, was a vastly better comedy, social commentary, and protest.
I also watched some of the TV show and then watched the original movie. I totally agree with your review.
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