Rating: 
Summary: As fresh (and controversial) as it was in 1970
Review: This is one of the finest films ever made, 'countercultural' or otherwise. It's antiwar, antiauthoritarian, irreverent, sacrilegious, and utterly without anything conventionally regarded as a Redeeming Feature.It is, in short, a great, great piece of cinematic art. When it's over, not a sacred cow is left standing. And its antiwar satire, though full of wonderfully crass and tasteless comedy, is also quite serious and spot-on. If you haven't read the book by 'Richard Hooker' (Dr. Richard Hornsberger), do so. It's a good book, and it's very different from the TV series you're probably familiar with if you were alive during the 1970s. The original tale centered on three surgeons, not two, and it wasn't (as the TV series became) a vehicle for the smarmy phildonahuing of sensitive-'70s-guy Alan Alda. In fact the book and the movie are both 'racist' in the same sense as Mark Twain's timeless _Huckleberry Finn_ -- that is, not at all, but also not exactly designed to slip in under the radar of the PC Police, who wouldn't recognize _real_ racism if it bashed them in the heads with a billy club. (Likewise 'sexism'.) In developing the TV series, developer/scriptwriter Larry Gelbart toned a lot of this stuff down, but here in the film you can see it in all of its original glory. And then some. The film actually partakes more of the spirit of Joseph Heller's great _Catch-22_ and, along those lines, develops the Hooker novel's mild irreverence to the level of a take-no-prisoners martial art. (The film officially takes place during Hooker's Korean War, but just as with Heller's nominal World War II setting, everybody knew the Vietnam War was the unofficial target. And at an abstract level, _M*A*S*H_ is a better screen adaptation of _Catch-22_ than the film version of that novel itself.) Even other satire isn't immune from 'meta-satire'. This film was produced at a time when other countercultural books and movies regularly relied on Christian imagery (_Cool Hand Luke_, _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_, _The Omega Man_) to turn their central heroes/antiheroes into savior-figures. Here, Robert Altman and Ring Lardner, Jr., had the temerity to skewer even its artistic allies by turning the Painless Pole (John Schuck in his first major film role) into the central figure at a suicidal 'Last Supper'. (Even here, in thus expanding on Painless's suicide, they took a lead from the book's own irreverence. In the novel, the guys paraded around the South Korean countryside with a longhaired and bearded Trapper hanging from a cross.) _Nobody_ is safe around this cinematic buzz saw. You probably already know who's in it, but I'd better give a quick nod to the marvelous performances by the Big Three: Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce, Elliot Gould as 'Trapper' John McIntyre, and Tom Skerritt as Duke Forrest. (I particularly call your attention to Skerritt, who seldom gets the credit he deserves for this role because -- under the influence of the TV series -- people tend to think the movie is mainly about Hawkeye and Trapper.) Everybody else is wonderful too, and I won't try to mention the entire cast by name here. In general this rambling masterpiece isn't susceptible to easy summarization. So rather than try to tell you about all of the cool stuff, I'll just tell you to see it if you haven't done so already. The DVD release is wondrous to behold. The movie is restored to perfect color and clarity and presented in widescreen format. The second disk has lots of cool features including cast interviews and stuff about the making of the film (and its groundbreaking cinematographic 'techniques').
Rating: 
Summary: Hijinks Among the Gore
Review: Though I do not agree with the politics of director Robert Altman, I am a great admirer of his artistry and most of all the independence of his from the cookie-cutter style of film-making that is prevalent in Hollywood. Though he's hit more singles than homeruns, his films are rarely un-interesting. One of the few times that he tackled a studio product, "Popeye", he made it seem like an independent film. Those not familiar with the theme of this film or the long-running TV series based on this film, it involves the hi-jinks of a group of army surgeons during the Korean War trying to cope with the horrors that surround them. This film does not so much have a story but a series of comic vignettes (the shower scene, the football game, etc.) These comic episodes are effectively juxtaposed with the operating room scenes that illustrate why these surgeons have to engage in such outrageous behaviour; if they weren't laughing, they'd be crying. Altman gathers an impressive cast here, many making their film debuts. Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye, Elliott Gould as Trapper John, and Sally Kellerman as Hotlips are effectively funny in the leading roles. Altman gives an excellent commentary here as he has done on other DVDs. Altman states in his comments his distaste for the TV series that spun-off from this film. I echo the same sentiment because I found that show pompous and sanctimonious. I would have granted this film 5 stars but I dock it one because I find the suicide scene that parodies the last supper to be extremely offensive to my sensibilities.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Exciting
Review: When my dad was in the Marines back in 68 this was the movie every one loved and it is a good movie.yes it is no where as good to being the TV show but that was unstopable but this one was pure insanity just like the 1st season of MASH plus you get the Football and the shower scene it is pretty exciting.
Story 6 Acting 7 Directing 9 Action 10 Entertainment 10
Overall=36/50 wich gets a nice 3.5 stars rate 4 on this.
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