Unique

Rating: 9/10 (29 April 2010)

In those long ago, pre-video days, the only way I could get enough of this movie was multiple visits to the cinema.
The long running TV series was good but, inevitably, diluted considerably in order to be piped into living rooms. But you had to make a choice to go and see the movie, and it is savage. Frank Burns and Margaret Houlihan, in particular, are drawn very differently here than the rather amiable buffoons portrayed in the TV series.
The characters are somewhere they don't want to be, having to do things they don't want to do, and this gives rise to a laxity in behaviour none of them would consider in civilian life. The movie is necessarily episodic as the characters seek activities to keep their morale sufficiently high to make life bearable until they can finally return home.
Everything about this film is brilliant, from the script and direction to all the performances. Sutherland and Gould were the headliners, of course, but everyone in this was excellent, and it's a shame that some of the careers which this film promised (Bud Cort, Jo Ann Pflug) never really materialised.
Oh, and I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but it's very funny.