Fairly Entertaining but I Much Preferred the Television Series

Rating: 6/10 (21 October 2018)

This movie essentially begins with two surgeons named "Hawkeye Pierce" (Donald Sutherland) and "Duke Forrest" (Tom Skerritt) having been drafted and now reporting for duty at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) somewhere in South Korea during the Korean War. As draftees neither of them particularly want to be in Korea and they certainly don't want to be in the United States Army. And their rebellious attitudes are reflected in their conduct at all times. Fortunately for them, their commander "LTC Henry Blake" (Roger Bowen) is more than a little overwhelmed at running the hospital to take any action and relies heavily upon the advice of his company clerk "Corporal Radar O'Reilly" (Gary Burghoff) just to get through each day. As a result, both Hawkeye and Duke-and a later arriving surgeon named "Trapper John McIntyre" (Elliott Gould)-pretty much do anything they want. And their main desires include drinking and womanizing as much as possible. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I liked this film and it won several notable awards to include "Best Motion Picture" at the 1971 Golden Globes and the "Palme d'Or" at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. In addition it was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Picture" as well. High praise indeed. Having said all of this, however, my main problem with this film is that most of the main characters were just not that likable. At least, not to me. Not only that, but I didn't think they were nearly as good as those chosen to play these same characters in the subsequent television series. For example, although he was nominated for "Best Actor" at the Golden Globes, I consider the performance of Alan Alda in the television series to be much superior to that of Donald Sutherland in this film. Same thing with Wayne Rogers as "Trapper John McIntrye" over Elliot Gould. No contest. Likewise, I much preferred Larry Linville's television performance as "Major Frank Burns" to that of Robert Duvall in this movie. Admittedly, Sally Kellerman did a fine job as "Major Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan" and her nomination for "Best Supporting Actress" at both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes was well deserved. But Loretta Swit was, in my opinion, equally good in that particular role in the television series. Naturally, there was no drop-off in talent for "Corporal Radar O'Reilly" as Gary Burghoff played this part in both the film and television series. Anyway, as I said earlier, I enjoyed this film to a certain extent but my particular concern has to do with the likeability of the main characters and the comparison of them to those in the subsequent television series. That being the case, I have rated this film accordingly.