May 21: M*A*S*H (1970)

Published on March 12, 2010 by Alissa Wilkinson

M*A*S*H (1970)

Friday, May 21st - 7:00pm

Trailer

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%

Metacritic: 79

"One of America's funniest films." - Time

"The best American war comedy since sound came in." - Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

"Perfectly expressed the anarchic, rebellious spirit of the 1970s." - Neil Smith, BBC

"Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland are two genuinely funny actors." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"A cockeyed masterpiece -- see it twice." - Joe Morgenstern, Newsweek

A war movie without any battle scenes; a comedy we laugh at precisely because it shouldn't be funny.  Director Robert Altman's thinly veiled Vietnam War satire M*A*S*H follows a group of Mobile Army Surgical Hospital officers stationed near the front lines of the Korean conflict.  Led by sardonic captains "Hawkeye" Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and "Trapper" John McIntyre (Elliott Gould), they hatch screwball adventures as an antidote to the tragedies surrounding them.  Surgical hijinks unfold as they fly off to Japan to play golf, rig a game of football against a rival army team, and subject their priggish superiors, Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) and Major "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Sally Kellerman), to all manner of hilarious indignities.  Altman's decision to present his film as a series of loosely connected vignettes rather than a traditionally unfolding narrative perfectly captures the freewheeling spirit so unique to early-'70s cinema; the film has the feel of an absurd three-ring circus.

M*A*S*H features a huge ensemble cast all talking over each other (both Altman traits) and with its release a new form of comedy was born.  Premier Magazine rated MASH one of the 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time and AFI (the American Film Institute) named it #54 on their list of Greatest Movies of All Time.  It won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as the Palme d'Or for Director Robert Altman at the Cannes Film Festival.  An essential part of film history and a real side-splitter to this day.

Runtime: 116 minutes