Better than the TV series

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2002)

I first saw MASH (the movie), unedited, late one night on a rather daring local TV station while the TV series was still in production. I immediately saw how much better the movie was than the TV series.
Not that the TV series didn't have some merit, but the movie is funnier, edgier, and gets its anti-war message across without spelling it out, which gives it greater impact. The TV show got very preachy during its run, and often seemed to forget it was supposed to be a comedy. The movie's comedy had an anti-authoritarian bent to it, which kept it from degenerating into complete farce or cheap laughs (which the TV series did--e.g. Klinger).
But MASH isn't just better than its TV follow-up--it's a great movie in its own right. Thirty years later, it's still funny as hell. And the surgical sequences are still shocking--especially that sound as Hawkeye saws a through a bone, or the sight of that spraying artery. The overlapping dialogue, muted lighting, and the episodic plot (or lack thereof) still strike me as daring; few movies these days are willing to take those sorts of chances. This is one of the best comedies, and one of the best war movies, ever made. It was a pleasure watching again recently on DVD, which enriched the experience considerably--I highly recommend it.