Review of M*A*S*H (1970) by Compi24 — 20 May 2020

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 sucks 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.