MASH

"MASH" is a war satire that is neither consistently laugh-out-loud funny nor witty enough to be amusing. Altman's direction is disjointed, nerveless and quite sloppy at times. There's no plot to speak of, rather than random, uninteresting incidents stitched together. The dialogue, despite some brilliant lines that mostly get lost amidst the rumble, is uninvolving and dull. The humor is mostly juvenile and often misogynistic and the characters unsympathetic. So yeah, I didn't like it very much.

If you came here expecting to see Alan Alda, then you've got another thing coming. While TV's Hawkeye and Trapper John had a great chemistry, the interplay of Gould and Southerland is far superior. And then there's Kellerman's shower scene. Plus the first use of the F-Bomb.

I'm a huge Altman fan, with 3 Women, The Long Goodbye, Nashville & Short Cuts being some of my favorite films of all time. But MASH is unforgivably bad. Sure, it's cynical, it's a black comedy, it's an anti-war critique, whatever; in my opinion, it's about as insightful and relevant as Porky's, only it is manages to be even more Misogynistic, Asinine, Sophomoric and Homophobic. And less funny.

This is probably just what the doctor prescribed for American culture at the time: a simultaneously light-hearted and dark satire of Vietnam, thinly veiled behind the Korean War. Some lines just smack you in the face with their bite and hilarity. It maintains just the right tone of Altmanian absurdity, and while it occasionally drags (I'm looking at you, lengthy football game), there's plenty enough to love that everyone should watch it. Elliot Gould is just the best there is.

MASH is about as funny as the TV show. Which is to say, it's hardly ever funny and while is overall good, I suppose, it's not my cup of tea and not something I'd watch again.