M*A*S*H (1970)

It's set during the Korean War, in a mobile army surgical hospital. But no one seeing M*A*S*H in 1970 confused the film for anything but a caustic comment on the Vietnam War; this is one of the counterculture movies that exploded into the mainstream at the end of the '60s. Director Robert Altman had labored for years in television and sporadic feature work when this smash-hit comedy made his name (and allowed him to create an astonishing string of offbeat pictures, culminating in the masterpiece Nashville). Altman's style of cruel humor, overlapping dialogue, and densely textured visuals brought the material to life in an all-new kind of war movie (or, more precisely, antiwar movie). Audiences had never seen anything like it: vaudeville routines played against spurting blood, fueled with open ridicule of authority. The cast is led by Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland, as the outrageous surgeons Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre, with Robert Duvall as the uptight Major Burns and Sally Kellerman in an Oscar-nominated role as nurse "Hot Lips" Houlihan. The film's huge success spawned the long-running TV series, a considerably softer take on the material; of the film's cast, only Gary Burghoff repeated his role on the small screen, as the slightly clairvoyant Radar O'Reilly. --Robert Horton Amazon.com essential video

Irreverent Anti-War Comedy that's Almost As Good As Catch-22!

For its time, this was an entertaining comedy with an anti-war message that was loved for its ability to express the feelings of most Americans at the time on the Vietnam War. This is a film about the Korean War only in name but as you will see throughout, the de facto Vietnam theme is prevalent throughout sometimes subtly but even blatantly for instance in the downtown "Korea" scene where the women are all wearing Vietnamese-style conical hats which is not indigenous to Korea.

Overall, this comedy doesn't age well for modern viewers although its anti-war message is very clear and resonates even today. Some parts are simply boring and I especially found the whole football scene totally sleep-worthy and I didn't see how it added to the overall theme unless it's a way to show how Americans try to impose their culture on Asians with a sport that even today is struggling to find acceptance outside the U.S. and certainly within Asia.

One scene that I found very powerful and which made this film at least watchable for me was the suicide scene. The U.S. is this big superpower that everyone respects (Painless) and yet the truth is that it is insecure and needs to express its "manhood" to regain its potency and the way they decided to do this is to commit "suicide" by going to war and it takes his friends (allies) to show him the way and to stop him from going through with his plans. In a way this movie's premise represent the allies and the Vietnam War/U.S. government is "Painless". The Hotlips/Frank Burns humiliation scene is also powerful in that it exposes the hypocrisy of the U.S. government in trying to tell other nations how to live and govern themselves when it itself is inherently corrupt and filled with major problems of its own as is shown in another scene with Duke exhibiting his racist tendencies for example.

Otherwise, the film is rather disjointed and comes across as a collection of anti-war skits that doesn't flow very well. This dvd package is also disappointing as it unnecesarily puts into 2 discs what can be put onto one as the special features are not that long and the only reason I can think of why they would do this is to have the excuse to charge you more for the 2 discs. The picture quality is slightly above VHS quality and there are still frames with white spots and other imperfections despite the heroic attempts at restoration of which they go through great pains to tell you on the second disc and in the accompanying booklet.

The sound quality is okay coming in Dolby Digital THX mastered stereo although they really should have provided 5.1 surround options as well. However, the documentary "Enlisted: The Story of MASH" is a gem as it relates the true life of a MASH unit in Korea and this accounts for one full star of my rating. This movie is also important though as it started the highly successful and in my mind much better long-running television series where you get much better script writing and hence jokes than you get here.

Still, this is an entertaining film that in a number of collected skits successfully shows us the futility and insanity of war. August 25, 2008

original MASH

In addition to the video being a hit, the seller was quick to send the video and the shippment went great! June 16, 2008

M.A.S.H. the TV Series ... Great. M.A.S.H. the Movie ... humph.

"M.A.S.H.", both successful on the big screen and its many years performing in our smaller living rooms, is an ensemble film that uses surgery, comedy, drama, fear, and football to finally tell its off-the-map story. There is no denying that Altman's film was funny - it was a comedy - but where it failed here yet succeeded in the smaller screen was the cohesiveness of the story and the development of our central characters. In small thirty-minute segments, we learn more about our "M.A.S.H." in habitants than throughout the nearly two hours in the film. From Donald Sutherland, to Eliot Gould, to even Robert Duvall, Altman's film never quite left the ground. The story (or at least the little vignettes of it) were simple, the characters could have been multi-dimensional (yet simple), and the environment could have added to that overwhelming need for comedy, but instead Altman did nothing to connect these simple ideas. Perhaps it was pioneering to see surgeons during the Korean War at work, but it added nothing to the overall film - no comedy, no insight, no charm - just a way to prove to the viewers that these men were actually men of medicine. This was a cheap ploy that Altman did not use wisely. "M.A.S.H." had all the inner-workings of a great comedy, the scene was set, and the overhead announce had his funny lines, but, sadly, this film never quite found its stride. From the actors to the continuity to the muddled themes, "M.A.S.H." was genuine for its time, but watching it now, in 2008, it feels dated and overwhelmingly tiresome.

What a treat it was to see the groundlings of such great actors like Donald Sutherland, Eliot Gould, Robert Duvall, and even Tom Skerritt. To see these infamous character actors in their youthful prime is worth one star already, but that may be it. We cannot fault Altman for not giving these characters souls, because they did. Hawkeye had his whistle and martini, Gould had his brutal honesty, and well, Frank had his religion and his "Hot Lips", but alas, our guys never took them further. These characters were strong in their individual moments, such as when Hawkeye is borrowing the Jeep at the beginning of the film, but, like the others, he suddenly falls flat and uncharismatic throughout the rest of the film. Duvall's Frank was another character that could have been a staple through the rest of the film, but again, just jumped without reason and walked off the screen. While we were not hoping for other war films just to be reinvented, we were hoping for some form of structure with our characters that would allow us to see their growth, see their souls, and give us a reason to follow them into the operating room or, oddly, onto the football field. They had jokes that would make us laugh, words that would inspire, and goofiness that would only befit Altman, but there was something desperately lacking with our guy near the front line. Sutherland was fun, but as I watched, he was Donald Sutherland in a G.I. outfit. It was Duvall pre-"The Apostle". It was Tom Skerritt being, well, Tom Skerritt. This was the ultimate shortfall for this cast. They could not shake their own personalities - their own selves for these roles. Concluding with this feeble football game that came from nowhere (supposedly fitting in with the tangents of war), that gave us no emotional throwback for these characters - we were left with shells of what could have been. This was a good movie, maybe lower than good, but greatness was in an earshot if only these fine actors would have tried.

Aside from the actors, the story itself seemed a failure from the beginning. Not knowing the original "theme song" to this film, the "suicide" song set the wrong tone for the beginning of this film. Sure, the morbid nature seemed to fit with what was happening in the operating room, but during the off chance that we knew what was happening in there, it just didn't seem to fit. Then, when the dentist has his moment of sanity, we are returned to that same song. It felt like one big cliché that Altman didn't want to acknowledge. While the television music could not be shaken from my mind, this little ditty needed to be erased completely. Aside from the song, mentioned before, there was just no story to this Korean caper. "M.A.S.H." would have been a stronger outing as smaller stories within one connecting story instead of trying to just keep it all continuous. At one moment we are listening to Hot Lips and Frank, in another we are fighting for a Korean boy to not join his national army, and then to wrap it up, we are playing in a cliché football match-up with an outcome everyone expected. It felt like Altman had the ideas; he just didn't know how to connect them all cohesively. The thought probably being that he could connect them through the surgery room banter was not worth the printed reel, while the guy doing the announcements at camp was not a close enough second place. I wanted to like the quirkiness of the characters; I wanted to see the juxtaposition of the tragedy of the war, with the comedy of the doctors. I wanted to see Sutherland use humor to alleviate the blood of war - alas - this never happened. I chuckled once during the big Hot Lips shower scene, and that was it. There was a level of brevity with Altman's war-torn camp, but at times it felt more along the lines of apathy. Nobody cared, nobody had heart, nobody showed emotion except for Frank, and he was less than a secondary character. What was needed to make "M.A.S.H." a stand out film was a big emotional element or characters with flaws, not the cheapened suicide song coupled with sexual escapades. It just didn't work.

Overall, I cannot say that I was impressed with the praise that Altman has received for this film. "M.A.S.H." may have been a pioneering film for the time, but over the years it has become more and more chaotic, and less meaningful. Altman's control over his characters and story is non-existent, as he just added short story over non-connective short story in hopes to make at least a two-hour long feature film. Add in Sutherland's semi-annoying whistle, and we have monumental film that seemed avante-guard for the time, but now just feel misleading. Remember, this was pre-"M.A.S.H." the television show, which was a defined comedy/drama show. Looking back at the film, it did work in simple 30 minute segments, so perhaps Altman was thinking television while he made this - that would make stronger sense for the continuity issue. Either way, "M.A.S.H.", with the cast and director had bigger hopes in my eyes, but was let down in the long run. Time has nearly corrupted this film, and even with our current war standings - it just doesn't relate.

Grade: ** out of ***** May 21, 2008

As described. I'm prefectly satisfied.

The DVD was new, worked fine. I'm perfectly happy with the purchase and delivery. Thanks! April 12, 2008

M*A*S*H

One of my all-time FAVORITE movies! How could you not like it???? I watch it over and over and over again an never get tired of the jokes....... February 5, 2008

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