Harsh and Unfair

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2016)

I agree with the reviewer who talked about what this film represents. I don't rate it as low because the subject matter of Korea was an abomination at the time. For God's sake, we just got out of World War II. Here we have an interesting situation that would have been done so much better. An Army surgical hospital near the front lines. I wonder how many films have had this as their foundation. Now we take that provocative setting and put group of cynical, hard drinking, womanizing men who sort of terrorize the entire place. They have their foils, people they don't like. One is the self righteous Robert Duvall (Frank Burns) who is merely obnoxious. What do they do? They harass him and assault him until he breaks. I know this is supposed to be humorous and that in war, bad things happen, but this is really sadistic. Sutherland and Gould are a couple of cases of arrested development. Granted, they aren't happy with their situations, but somehow they take over the camp and play cruel tricks on people.