If you missed my first post where I explain what this is and how I’m scoring things, here you go.
Life has really weird timing sometimes. Usually, my goal with this project is to write about one movie a week. Obviously, life happens, and reviewing movies isn’t my full time job, so there are times where I go a week or more without checking a movie off of the list. Basically, what I’m saying is that if I stayed on the schedule that I wanted to stay on, I would have written about M*A*S*H weeks ago. Since I delayed my process, a couple of things happened. First of all, the week before I watched M*A*S*H for the first time, the lead actor in the film, Donald Sutherland passed away at the age of 88. While he had a very long and prolific career in acting, when you Google his name, the first film that is listed in the results is M*A*S*H, so it seems like a fitting way to honor his life. Secondly, as I am writing this, it is literally the Fourth of July, and this is a movie about the United States Army, so that seems very fitting as well.
Let’s start with Sutherland, who plays Captain Hawkeye Pierce, a surgeon in the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. He is the driving force of the plot of the film, as the action is focused on his arrival and time with the 4077th unit, and the film ends when his time serving with them is over. As with other films I’d seen Sutherland in, he commands a certain type of presence, which is quite an accomplishment given some of the other actors I have seen him on screen with. He is a very believable leader, not just as Hawkeye Pierce, but also as President Snow in the Hunger Games films, because he has a certain charm to him that he can turn on to win people over, but also a certain amount of sleaze where he is totally believable in misusing that power. As Captain Pierce, this comes out in his ability to literally rally the troops into his shenanigans, while charming himself out of trouble with his superiors the entire time. I haven’t seen many actors who could have pulled that off, so it speaks to Sutherland’s talent.
As for the Fourth of July bit, there are a lot of reasons to be grateful for the United States of America, but the constant stream of foreign military involvement isn’t one of them. M*A*S*H in no way celebrates US involvement in war, and for that reason, it is again, fitting timing.
As I go through the categories, I think you’ll see why:
Entertainment Value- 2/2
I, like most other people, enjoy a good laugh. A good comedy has a way of just grabbing my attention unlike most other genres. M*A*S*H is a comedy, and a pretty funny one, too. Donald Sutherland as Captain Hawkeye and Elliott Gould as Captain “Trapper John” McIntyre are a hilarious duo, even if their actions aren’t exactly appropriate or shining a positive light on the US Army.
Correctness- 0/2
About that comedy, a lot of the humor comes from things that probably (definitely) would not be acceptable in a movie today. Is admitting I found this movie funny problematic? Maybe, but I’m going to argue as to why it’s not, just to make myself feel better.
My reading of this film as a criticism of war stems from all of the people on base taking part in wildly immoral behavior. Anyone who criticizes this immorality is found to be a fraud, and simply hiding the fact that they are just as messed up as everyone else. The thing is, the ridiculous and otherwise problematic behavior is juxtaposed against the truly awful and horrible things that are happening as a result of the literal war going on, where the doctors and nurses on base watch young men die of horrific injuries every day. In a way, the characters leave the film free of any fault, as everything they do is a coping mechanism to deal with the atrocities of war. The audience knows that what is happening on the base are a series of horribly inappropriate actions, but the comedy comes from the juxtaposition, and the realization that the real terrible thing in the film is the war.
Influence- 2/2
The response I got from every person I told what movie I was watching was “like the TV show?”
Yes, the film did inspire the creation of the television series, and the series finale of M*A*S*H is still the most watched scripted television event in United States history. However, by all accounts, the director of the film, Robert Altman, despised the television show.
“Rewatchability”- 2/2
Like I said, a funny movie will get me every time.
Technical Score- 1/2
Nothing here really stood out to me as really all that visually stunning. Not to say it looks or sounds bad, but it lacked the real “wow” factor that a lot of the other films have given me. I have had the theme song stuck in my head for a solid week, though.
Overall- 7/10
This movie is definitely not for everyone. It is offensive, it is vulgar, and there is a lot of blood. I had a great time.
You can rent M*A*S*H on the service of your choice.
Hasta luego,
Josh
Up Next: #55 The Sound of Music (available on Disney+)