Review of M*A*S*H (1970) by Jeff L — 10 Nov 2010
All the trademarks of an Altman film are present in this irreverent look at the Vietnam War and life a military hospital. The setting is actually the Korean War in the early 1950s but a 1970 audience would have linked the movie to the degenerate imperialistic war in Vietnam.
The director's famous overlapping dialogue makes its entry early on as the male doctors play fast with the equally fast female nurses. Altman doesn't shirk from portraying the seriousness of injuries suffered by US soldiers; being Americans, the doctors also operate on an injured Viet Cong (the home of the brave and equal in movies). Sutherland and Gould are fun to watch as the easygoing, rebellious doctors who drink, screw and operate. The camp even gets to play American football, which necessitates the introduction of a black male doctor to provide some equal rights in the movie.
Laughs are abound in this movie, eg, when the camp goes all out to embarrass Hot Lips by transmitting the sounds of her lovemaking with another surgeon, and then bringing down the shower curtain when she is bathing.
This review of M*A*S*H (1970) was written by Jeff L on 10 Nov 2010.
M*A*S*H has generally received very positive reviews.
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