The Best War Movie Period

Rating: 10/10 (12 June 2005)

I used to be critical of old TV and movies until I watched M*A*S*H on the History Channel one Sunday Afternoon. The script is perfect, there's enough intelligent laughs in the movie to make intelligent people think highly of this movie and enough crude jokes which create a few really good belly-laughs. The music played over the PA system really sort of provide an interesting juxtaposition to the dark tone of the movie. The use of overlapping dialogue is a Robert Altman trademark that makes Radar, Col. Blake and Sgt. Vollmer a sort of secondary set of stooges to Trapper, Duke and Hawkeye. Donald Sutherland's portrayal of Hawkeye is less preachy than Alan Alda's, Elliot Gould's Trapper is more of Hawkeye's equal and less of a supporting character, Robert Duval plays Frank Burns more like the Republican Caricature he was intended to be, less racist and more evangelical. Sally Kellerman's Hot Lips shows how the character sort of loses her Army credibility and sort of becomes a campy figurehead. The dialogue between the characters is priceless and funny, the practical joke humor is crude, sexual, but it causes five minute laughing fits. It's the perfect set up for the first three seasons of the TV show and is the best possible adaptation of the novel by Richard Hooker, easily a must-see.