Rating: 
Summary: Old school P.C.
Review: Oh what a difference the decades make. This groundbreaking film, released in 1970, is inevitably found on everone's short-list of all-time greatest comedies. Director Robert Altman hit the bigtime with this one. And, many great films later, it's still widely considered his best. It should be seen especially by the young. Because it should be remembered that once there was a day when a film could be the director's personal vision, without regard for the social compacts of a given time. The 70's broke the written rules from before only to eventually succomb to the unwritten rules that were to follow.At it's release, MASH was received as an overtly left-of-center showcase for the most urgent progressive causes: the anti-war movement, sexual liberation, integration, anti-authority, 70's style feminism. The MASH version of feminism is particularly ironic. As in the later TV version, feminism is mostly expressed as a woman's "empowerment" to engage in promiscuous, premarital sex. Men and women engaged in open, frank and raunchy dialogue and interaction was then considered sexy, fresh, and indicative of the "new lines of honest communication" between the sexes. Today, men who talk to women as do captains Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland) or Trapper John (Elliott Gould) would be run out of the officer corps and sued for sexual harrassment. The famous Hotlips' (Sally Kellerman) shower scene would never make the final cut in today's Hollywood. The liberal minded irony behind the handle "Spearchucker Jones" is now considered too subtle or esoteric to ever be trusted to modern audiences. A new movie would never risk such a character name in today's hyper-sensitive times. The suicide-spoof scene is of a resounding political incorrectness. The linked lyrics in the original theme didn't even survive to see the TV series (which featured only the score). "Irreverence" in today's cinema is usually code for scatalogical humor. The substance abuse/heavy drinking is portrayed off-handedly, incidentally and for comic effect. Today's director would need not even a prompt to self-censor himself through either: (a) direct, negative consequences for such behaviour, or (b) confining the imbibing to secondary, "idiot" characters. The characters meant to show the Establishment's backside are only slightly more extreme than characters that are back on today's Good Guy rosters. In fact, some of the sanctimonious drivel from none other than Major Burns (Robert Duvall) is very similar to what, today, is uttered in all earnestness. Like Welles' "Citizen Kane", Altman pioneered many fresh cinematic and soundtrack innovations here. Also, the viewer is flattered with nuanced characterizations and an absence of spoon-fed audience "lessons". More importantly, the viewer is presented a gut-splitting riot of comedic scenes that entertain throughout.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and entertaining movie
Review: MASH is on of the greatest comedy movies of 1970's.I think it's far better than the boring TV series that hold the same title.The direction by Robert Altman is great and the cast including:Donald Sutherland,Elliott Gould and Robert Duvall did a wonderful performances.
Rating: 
Summary: War Never Seemed So Funny
Review: Even now, thirty years after it's release, I can still get a few good laughs out of this movie. There are nonstop teenage pranks pulled off by Hawkeye, Trapper, and Duke and they seem to be masterfull surgeons. How it is that nobody can by the series and not this is beyond me. I recommend this title along with "Animal House" and the entire "MASH" series.
Rating:
Summary: Great film; great DVD
Review: Anyone who like me is looking for high-quality transfers of old, beloved films onto DVD will not be disappointed here. And you finally get to see the whole "last supper," not a panned and scanned butchery of it. Spec-tac-ular.
Rating:
Summary: "This isn't a hospital! It's an insane asylum!"
Review: For the generation that grew up with the television series, "MASH" the film is a little disorienting. Sure, all the names are familiar: Hawkeye, Trapper John, Hot Lips, Frank Burns, Col. Blake, and Father Mulcahy. Yet, the faces from your memory do not match the names. The only recognizable face is that of Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff). It, therefore, becomes quickly apparent that the film is a completely different creature from the television series and must be judged on its own merits. In that regard, "MASH" is a pretty good film. Robert Altman's film opens with with doctors "Hawkeye" Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and "Duke" Forrest (Tom Skerritt) arriving in Korea. They are told to report to the MASH 4077th but can't find any available transportation. They decide to steal a jeep to solve their problem and the fun begins. Soon "Trapper John" McIntyre (Elliott Gould) arrives on the scene and the drinking, partying, and womanizing kicks into high gear. Like the early seasons of the television series, the targets of most of the swampmates' practical jokes are the uptight duo of Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) and nurse "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Sally Kellerman). "MASH" essentially is a series of comedy segments patched together to come up with the 116 minute running time. Some of these segments are hilarious while others fall flat. The shower tent victimizing of Hot Lips and the visit to Japan are probably the two high points of the film. The film's satire also seems a little tame compared to today's standards. When it is compared to the satire of the recent South Park film, you can see just how much edge the film has lost. Yet, Altman has included enough quality material to keep you entertained. Sutherland and Gould make a good comedy team and there's enough wackiness from beginning to end to keep a goofy grin on your face. In terms of cultural impact, the film version of "MASH" will never match the legacy left behind by its television counterpart but it is still an amusing film taken on its own.
Rating:
Summary: Form and function meet perfectly in this movie
Review: The other day it struck me what an incredible intellectual concept MASH is: a war movie without any combat, without a gun being fired onscreen (save for the referee's pistol in the football game), a movie about the futility of war where no one talks about the futility of war, a movie that protests Viet Nam without ever mentioning Viet Nam. Has anyone else ever made such a daring and unconventional war film? MASH was the first time director Robert Altman made a rambling, ensemble piece without a storyline, but it was not his last. For many years, however, I could not figure out why I felt the approach worked so much better here than in other efforts, either by Altman or other directors. One day I realized the very simple answer--the structure, or *lack* of one, compliments the point of the story. Simply, Altman managed to make a film that showed the aimlessness, waste, and futility of war, without ever having a character SAY that the action they were involved in was aimless, wasteful and futile. Instead he SHOWED it, with a spontaneous camera technique and a script that (deliberately) went nowhere. It's as if he is saying our boys wasted two years of their lives over there (and were also then wasting years of their lives in Viet Nam, if they weren't losing them) and he showed this waste on the screen through the series of unconnected, seemingly pointeless stories--an example of form matching function perfectly. And that's the fundamental reason I think MASH is one of the great films of all time. Unlike films such as Thin Red Line, unlike the very TV series that came from this movie, there is no moralizing here, and no irony. It isn't needed, and would have brought the movie down. Also interesting is how many of the then-radical techniques have now become part of everyday film and TV language. With ad-libbed dialogue, "floating" camera in the documentary style just gaining in popularity, and the absence of "movie" lighting (and probably move makeup for that matter), this film must have looked bold in 1970, although today you can see these techniques on everything from commercials to crime dramas. True, some of the crude sexual humor and the obsession with "bedding the nurses" dates the film badly, and there are a few too many substories that deal with the obsession with reproductive organs. I understand these were young men away from home for the first time, in a unit with young, attractive nurses, and it doesn't matter if you're married or engaged, what are you going to do between shifts? Still, I think the one misfire is that Altman hit on the sex theme too repetitively. There are times where the film is in danger of becoming insignificant and childish. But there are also some unforgettable moments: the first visit to the OR (shocking then and still shocking now), the moment where they face a critical blood shortage in the OR because of bureaucratic conflicts, the scene where Hawkeye and Trapper perform an operation to save a little Japanese-American baby, the vignette where Hawkeye is interviewed on the street by a TV reporter and says hi to his dad, or a few moments later where Ho-Jon is inducted into the Korean army, despite Hawkeye's crude attempt to keep him out. *These* scenes speak out against war in a way that the preachiness of later anti-war films never could, and for this reason I think MASH is the best anti-war film, period. The DVD release is excellent, with a beautifully-restored film (soundtrack is as good as can be expected for the time) and lots of goodies: not one but several documentaries, of varying quality. There is a lot of overlap--some of the interviews are the same in each one--and they probably were not all necessary, but I'd rather have too many extras than not enough. One documentary has a lot of material on the real Korean War and shows actual MASH unit footage that you can compare to the movie. There's even a short that contrasts the restored print of MASH with the faded original. The final program, a cast reunion 30 years later in which Altman is given an award by Fox, is the weakest, but it's amusing to see that at 64, Sally Kellerman thinks she can still dress like a 21-year-old. (She almost gets away with it; she's had so much plastic surgery it's amazing she doesn't melt under the lights.) The directory commentary track is fairly useless, as Altman tends to talk slowly, pause a lot, and repeat himself. (He is the proverbial absent-minded professor-type.) Still, this is overall a superb release; I wish all classic films would get this kind of thorough treatment.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Movie... If You're A Liberal. Otherwise It STINKS
Review: One of the worst movies of all time.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the greatest films of all time
Review: M*A*S*H is without a doubt one of the greatest films of all time. There are laughs, there are sighs, there is excitement, there are cries. Just about everything's superb. The DVD is also superb. I wish I could give it ****1/2, but oh well!
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Movie of All Time
Review: This movie is great. If you were a fan of M*A*S*H the television series before you saw this movie it will fall a little short, but it is still filled with great laughs.
You can see many great schemes including when Hawkeye bets Duke on whether or not Hot Lips's hair is really blonde or whether she dyes it and most of the camp sees her in the shower, and the famous football game against the 325th Evac. Hospital. You also see how many of the famous characters from the series came to the 4077th including Hawkeye, Trapper, Hot Lips, and Spearchucker.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best ever - but still good
Review: I personally hated the television series MASH, but came to this movie trying to learn more about the groundbreaking movies of the 60's and 70's (The Graduate, Chinatown, etc.). I think that MASH is a good movie, and I think that the people who have given it one star have, as usual, missed the point. Mysoginistic, maybe a little racist? Yeah, it kinda is - but so is the army. People shouldn't attack a film just because it shows an uncomfortable truth. Admittedly, the laughs don't come hard and fast. This is primarily because much of the movie was improvised - it depends more on sharp dialogue and throwaway lines than on sight gags and obvious punchlines. If you enjoy modern shows like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or the old "Gary Shandling Show", you'll appreciate the humor - even 30 years later. MASH created an image of the disaffected, cynical soldier that could not have existed before World War II. As a prototype, it's obviously a little flawed - but it laid the groundwork for some of the truly great war movies (comedies and dramas) that would follow it. (Note: The DVD comes with several features, like a behind-the-scenes documentary and commentary by the director, that make it even more worthwhile).
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