Sticking it to the squares!

Rating: 3/10 (30 April 2017)

"He's a real flat tire. I mean a cube, man. He's putting us on the train to Squaresville." If being put on the train to Squaresville horrifies you then you may enjoy "MASH."
Robert Altman's 1970 "MASH" is often hailed as a prime example of Hollywood's short-lived but extremely influential auteurs' era. Altman's career as a critical darling was begat by this film. It also gave a huge boost to the careers of unconventional leading men actors such as Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould which was another hallmark of 1970's American cinema. And, of course, it was the genesis of the extremely popular and long-running eponymous TV series.
The plot: Set in a near the front lines U.S. Army Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit during the Korean War, "MASH" is the episodic story of that unit's irreverent surgeons: "Hawkeye Pierce" (Sutherland), "Duke Forrest" (Tom Skerritt), and "Trapper John" (Gould) as they deal with the "insanity of war" and Army "chicken****" by boozing, womanizing, and flaunting authority. The Korean War setting is actually just a thin veil for the film's real target, the then on-going Vietnam War of which the film's makers were decidedly against.
There is no doubt that "MASH" was a ground-breaking film in terms of its story structure and filming techniques. Further, its irreverence (or outright disdain) towards religion, the military, and just any authority undoubtedly struck a chord with its intended audience- the "Don't trust anyone over 30!" crowd of drug-addled hippies. The hippie-dippie sensibilities of the film are telegraphed in its opening credits with the hippie-dippie ditty theme song, "Suicide is Painless."
However, time has not been kind to "MASH." Today, the film's "irreverent" characters come across as sexist, narcissistic jerks who enjoy being cruel and contemptuous towards others. Although many on the Left would still applaud Hawkeye, Duke, and Trapper taunting, mocking, and humiliating the religious hypocrite, "Frank Burns" (Robert Duvall), the sexism (almost misogynistic) of those characters is practically paleolithic. These guys make the sexist caricatures on "Mad Men" look like effeminate beta-males.
The sexism of the characters is shocking. The nurses are all viewed as potential sexual conquests regardless of their marital status with their physical attributes being openly commented upon. One of them is later used as a sexual "tool" to save someone from committing suicide out fear that he's gone gay. When the head nurse, "Maj. Margaret O'Houlihan" (Sally Kellerman), objects to this behavior, she is repeatedly humiliated, demeaned, and taunted into subservience. And the audience is supposed to cheer!
Why? It's because O'Houlihan is a "square." As is Maj. Burns. So, according to "MASH," they deserved everything they had coming towards them. Don't give the squares a break and drive them out if they don't "get with it, baby" seem to be the messages here.
Why three stars? A groundbreaking film in terms of its technique, but with a disjointed story and utterly contemptible protagonists. The film wants you to identify with Hawkeye, Duke and Trapper John as fun-loving, irreverent free-spirits "sticking it to the Man," but actually they come across as nasty, mean-spirited, over-aged fratboys who deserved to be slapped with multiple sexual harassment suits. I thoroughly despised these characters by the end of the film.