Review of M*A*S*H (1970) by Ian R — 28 Jan 2016

I sure wish I liked it. Despite some decent laughs in the final quarter of the movie, during a football game that acts as a clever, goofy metaphor for the war M*A*S*H depicts, most of this movie seemed to follow a series of bullying antics orchestrated by surgeons Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland), Trapper (Elliott Gould), and Duke (Tom Skerritt). Without much thought for the cruelty of their acts, broadcasting sex over the military base intercom and hosting a ritual for a man ready to commit suicide were interesting enough to warrant laughs. Beyond that, there was a very dated quality in how the soldiers humiliated anyone who dared to be an outsider. The overtly religious, poor-tempered Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) is teased to the point of a mental breakdown, the uptight Hot Lips (Sally Kellerman) is stripped of any dignity until she no longer holds any respect for her position, and one soldier, Painless (John Schuck), who questions whether or not he is attracted to women is naturally treated to a surprise sexual visit from a nurse. Look, I can understand why this was likely hilarious during its release, but these elaborate pranks do not hold up well.

The aimless form of storytelling plays everything out like a montage of the best times that our heroes had in this camp, and, looking past the cruelty of the pranks, you can see a strong sense of community in the camp. Whenever one soldier rallies up the other men and women to start singing, I long for a greater emphasis on the war aspect of the tale. Going further with the idea of M*A*S*H being a montage movie, perhaps the movie is a representation of what soldiers WANT to remember about their times at camp. Sure, everyone had to deal with death, and those were tough moments. (To clarify, there was one scene of dealing with death, which only led to greater antics.) The cruelty of the pranks must then be how everyone copes, because war blows. Justifying the actions is easy enough for both audience members and the soldiers on the screen. As a black comedy, M*A*S*H felt very hit-and-miss. If it were a war movie with a black comedic edge, I could see M*A*S*H ultimately succeeded. Close, but not quite.