M*A*S*H is a comedy like no other. I come to this with some baggage. I grew up watching the TV series, which is a far more typical sitcom than this film. The film is far darker. My first viewing came when I was a holier than thou college student with a PC chip on my shoulder. I hated the film. With a few more years under my belt, I still find the film cruel and juvenile at times, but it’s honest and that’s what makes it so good.
Set during the Korean War, the film takes place at a front line surgical unit where the doctors and nurses engage in any vice they can think of to ease the pain of the horrible reality of war. Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland, KLUTE) and Trapper John McIntyre (Elliott Gould, THE LONG GOODBYE) are new doctors to the M*A*S*H unit and swoop in like a whirlwind. Along with martini-loving Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt, A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT), the duo is there to do their job, which is to save lives to the best of their ability, whether it be on the surgery table to by drugging a Korean 17-year-old so that he won’t be drafted into the army.
Hawkeye and Trapper John have total contempt for the rules and pointless decorum that creates a detachment from the death around them. Two officers particularly come in conflict with them — holy-roller Frank Burns (Robert Duvall, APOCALYPSE NOW) and by-the-rules Margaret “Hot Lips” O’Houlihan (Sally Kellerman, BREWSTER MCCLOUD). Their torment of Burns and Hot Lips is relentlessly cruel, but it definitely works to make them wake up to the real world around them.
The humor has a sly way of creeping up on you and increases as one follows along with the film. Big laughs come from the wordplay between the commanding officer Lt. Col. Henry Blake (Roger Bowen, WHAT ABOUT BOB?) and his sidekick Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff, TV’s M*A*S*H). Additionally, the reactions to the antics from Father Mulcahy (Rene Auberjonois, MCCABE & MRS. MILLER) are priceless.
Director Robert Altman uses his overlapping dialogue style to perfect extent. It creates a zany, madcap feel to a film where anything can happen. Sutherland and Gould give one of their best performances. Their casual style makes the film sly and witty when it could have spun off into crude and sophomoric levels with less skilled performers. Time it seems has lessened some of the film’s daring, but it’s still funny and skillfully made. Still, the film is a testament to what a good cast and a great director can do with material that could have been painfully bad in the hands of someone else.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
