90 % great, 10 % percent miserable, attempt at anti-war film

Rating: Null/10 (14 November 2004)

I've almost never had more opposite opinions about the same film, but to me, this one is largely a great one, but with AWFUL (as opposed to "dark") parts mixed in, and (though this isn't just to be different) the awful parts are the most FAMOUS ones. I mean of course the "Burns and Houlihan" scenes. Apart from a few of Sally Kellerman's moments, it was an utter waste of both her and Robert Duvall, including the hugely famous "shower" scene. I know that nearly the whole point of the movie (and the early episodes of the show) was to be "anti-establishment" (and largely about the army and Vietnam), and I've heard that that's why it was deliberately crude. And I can see the point of that, but I think that the idea really BACKFIRED when it came to the parts I just mentioned, because they were so HEAVY-HANDED. Especially the shower scene, which to me is the most overrated movie scene of all time. In fact, I don't think any other "anti-establishment" movie, song, or whatever else (even the ones supposedly written by hacks) has ever been LESS imaginative than that scene. When it comes to "stick it to the army" (or to anything else), it just doesn't work, even if I might be the only one that thinks so. ( I HAVE heard it called anti-feminist, which is a whole other subject, though I think I agree with that also.) Anyway, I don't think it, or the "Frank" scenes, belong in the same movie with the theme song, the "funeral" scene, the very grim (though for a REASON) operating room scenes, or even the football game. In spite of the two actors, I mentally "edit" the Burns and Houlihan parts (and also edit them with a VCR) from this otherwise great movie.