Jackson_Browne

You say you love Altman but don't like MASH. I'm curious as to what other Altman films you have seen and which ones you think are good films?

GoldenJCJ

Perhaps it seems overrated to some because they didn't see it during that same era in which it was released. It was about the Korean War but it was filmed and released theatrically during the Vietnam War where people saw it as a metaphor for Vietnam.

I didn't see it when it was first released either (I'm only 26) but from watching it with my parents, it has a whole different meaning to them that it does for me.

I remember my mom talking about the (IMO unnoticable line) "He was drafted". In the movie it doesn't have a whole lot of weight to it, but my mom said people in the theater went apeshit when they heard it.

crazyronin

I guess I'm the only one who preferred the book to both the movie and the (shudder) TV program.

sixerb

i found it pretty boring, but loved the TV show....

dhmac

I love the movie and think it's Altman's best. And I think it's much more than just a commentary on Vietnam because a lot of what they do reminds me of the entertaining stuff I do with co-workers frequently at work, but we hide from our management because they wouldn't approve of it. That whole irreverent distain for strict leadership yet still doing your job well when the situation demands it is, I think, a universal thing that goes far beyond "just being about Vietnam".

However, I do not like the TV series - mainly because I can't stand Alan Alda and the show has one of the most annoying canned laugh tracks ever!

(P.S. I heard that Altman doesn't like the TV series either because he thinks it watered down everything from his movie)

Trout

After seeing the movie I found it hard to watch the TV show without singing the "Suicide is painless" song over the main credits (which is played faster than in the movie).

NoirFan

I own and love McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Images, 3 Women, California Split, Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, and Long Goodbye. I liked Thieves Like Us and, to a lesser extent, Brewster McCloud, Tanner 88,Fool For Love and Popeye. I was not a fan of Gosford Park, Ready To Wear, The Company or Gingerbread Man. Plan on giving Prairie Home Companion a rental.I have not seen his other films.

Sex Fiend

MASH is one of those films that has to be appreciated in the context of the times when it was made and released. It was literally the first mainstream Hollywood film to be completely irreverent and satirical about a subject (war) that every other Hollywood film had treated with complete seriousness up until that time. To those of us who have grown up in an era where nearly every medium is inundated with post-modern cynicism, it doesn't seem quite so ground breaking. But I can certainly understand why it was hailed as something brilliant and inventive when it first came out.

That having been said, both the film and the book owe a huge debot to Joseph Heller's Catch-22 which was the real touchstone of post-modern satire of the horrors of war.

MartinBlank

Also, the first film to drop the F-Bomb.

rw2516

It's been proven that a lax, flaunt the rules work environment is highly efficient and successful. There was a text book case that is studied to this day in college business management classes. Don't remember which war it was, there was a US. military outpost stuck way out in the middle of nowhere. Nobody wanted to go there, they couldn't even get supplies delivered. No high ranking officers ever came to inspect them. They were completely on their own. Nobody at the post wore their uniforms or followed military protocol. They raided other posts for their supplies. Eventually people were actually asking to be transferred there, not to goof off, but because the environment was so work friendly that the post was one of the most efficient of the war and it looked good on your record that you were posted there.

Eric D.

I always liked the Mash film. But then again I've like almost everything that Altman had done. Can't comment on the tv show though since I've never seen it. My personal favorite Altman film is a tie between Short Cuts and The Player.

Filmmaker

Damn...as someone living in America, how is that possible? Is this your chosen ticket into the Guiness Book of World Records?

Eric D.

I was born in '85 so Mash had already ended. So all that was left re-runs. Plus the show just never interested me. I caught parts of some episodes here and there but never watched them through. I still don't feel like watching it today. I have had many opportunities to do so and have passed them up. Just not my kind of show from what I've seen.

nightmaster

Could be Gould and Southerland as a team is an acquired taste. I like it better as an adult than I did when upon its release. I think the movie feels dated but it has over three decades on it now. As for the show, it ran waaaaaay too many seasons....when a TV show is longer than the war it is based on.......

Spiral Staircase

My appreciation for M*A*S*H* has grown each time I have seen it. I would put it second to McCabe. I cannot stand the television show.

Nick Danger

Of course the book was better. The book is always better.

JesseCuster

I think the film is terrific on a lot of levels though it is admittedly uneven, particularly toward the end. The football sequence *is* a radical shift in tone. And the Hot Lips character's integrity seems to get sacrificed about 2/3 of the way through the film. There's some definite chemistry among the cast though if you've seen the documentary about the making of the film on the Fox 5 Star release, you can see that it was almost in spite of Altman as many of the cast, particularly the bigger name actors, didn't especially get along with Altman and didn't trust the improvisational, seemingly unplanned way he was shooting the film. Supposedly, Donald Sutherland actually tried to get him taken off the picture.

As to the TV show, the first couple of seasons actually have a bit of the feel of the movie. IMO, it jumped the shark after Radar left.

JimRochester

Always though the movie was overrated. Fairly humorous but never really got why people thought it was so great. The characters in the TV show were better in their chemistry and comedic timing.

porieux

I think "The Player" is super overrated.

marknyc

MASH is an amazing film, mostly because Altman dumped the script and let the cast improvise almost everything. It's one of the few films where you actually feel people aren't reading lines - because they aren't! The screenwriter was furious - until he won an Oscar!

So much better than the TV series it isn't funny.....

wergo

Yeah, gotta agree with the original post. It's one of the few "admired" Altman films I just don't enjoy.

I guess at the time it was some great anti-authoritarian gesture, but it just comes off as a celebration of childish frat-boy/ macho locker room behaviour to me. This, more than anything else, is probably why Altman was branded a misogynist. It really doesn't belong on the same shelf as 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller' or '3 Women.' Well, not my shelf, anyway.