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Jordan Binkerd (567 KP) rated MASH (1970) in Movies

Jul 31, 2019

MASH (1970)

1970 | Comedy, Drama, War

7.9

(17 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Broke new comedy ground (3 more)

Biting social commentary

Excellent cast

Moderately funny

Less a plot than a loosely-connected set of escapades (2 more)

Not the show you remember

Some of the stuff the protagonists get up to is legitimately awful, and this shouldn't have been okay even in the 70s

Groundbreaking at the time, but unremarkable today

If you're looking into this on account of the TV show, don't bother. It's very different. An anti-Vietnam movie about Korea, MASH is a dark comedy that's moderately funny and broke new ground at the time, but there's not much to recommend it today. Worth seeing? Sure. But it's not necessarily deserving of its cult status.

Plus, the protagonists are legitimately despicable people. You're supposed to cheer for them against the by-the-book fuddy-duddies like Burns and "Hot Lips" Houlihan, but honestly? The scene where they pull up the sides of the shower tent and expose HLH mid-shower is a bit uncomfortable, made more so by her breakdown/rant next scene as she berates the unit Commander for letting them get away with crap like that - and she's not wrong. The protagonists deserve to be court martialed for this, but no consequences are ever leveled. Even for the 70s, that's messed up....