better, not great

Rating: Null/10 (15 January 2004)

The best way to get the MASH experience, I have found, is to READ THE BOOK. The book deftly handles the paradox of the 4077th -- that these very young doctors, nurses, etc., "too young to be doing what they were doing," were put into a medical situation that was, in essence, beyond any medical professional's real capacity. As a result, when they got out of what was essentially a butcher's shop of an operating room, they went a bit wild. But in the end, they were what they were: Americans, professionals, essentially of the tail end of the "greatest generation." Nothing more, nothing less. The film turned them ever-so-slightly into 1960s types, and after the first few years of comedy, the TV show turned them into 1970s anti-war, anti-military, anti-government, anti-capitalist whiners. All sense of comedy, irony, satire went by the board in order to preach at us, culminating with the vastly inferior "Goodbye, Farewell, Amen." I like the first few years of the TV show, and I like the book. The movie, which was a sensation when it came out, is very clever for much of its cinematography, its effects, quite a bit of its dialogue, and some really impressive fresh acting by a cast whose members, for the most part, eventually didn't live up to the promise they showed here. Oh, and the football uniforms were 1970s vintage, not early 1950s. The face masks and molded plastic helmets are a no-no.