M*A*S*H (Widescreen Edition)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Irreverent Anti-War Comedy that's Almost As Good As Catch-22!, 2008-08-25
For its time, this was an entertaining comedy with an anti-war message that was loved for its ability to express the feelings of most Americans at the time on the Vietnam War. This is a film about the Korean War only in name but as you will see throughout, the de facto Vietnam theme is prevalent throughout sometimes subtly but even blatantly for instance in the downtown "Korea" scene where the women are all wearing Vietnamese-style conical hats which is not indigenous to Korea. br / br /Overall, this comedy doesn't age well for modern viewers although its anti-war message is very clear and resonates even today. Some parts are simply boring and I especially found the whole football scene totally sleep-worthy and I didn't see how it added to the overall theme unless it's a way to show how Americans try to impose their culture on Asians with a sport that even today is struggling to find acceptance outside the U.S. and certainly within Asia. br / br /One scene that I found very powerful and which made this film at least watchable for me was the suicide scene. The U.S. is this big superpower that everyone respects (Painless) and yet the truth is that it is insecure and needs to express its "manhood" to regain its potency and the way they decided to do this is to commit "suicide" by going to war and it takes his friends (allies) to show him the way and to stop him from going through with his plans. In a way this movie's premise represent the allies and the Vietnam War/U.S. government is "Painless". The Hotlips/Frank Burns humiliation scene is also powerful in that it exposes the hypocrisy of the U.S. government in trying to tell other nations how to live and govern themselves when it itself is inherently corrupt and filled with major problems of its own as is shown in another scene with Duke exhibiting his racist tendencies for example. br / br /Otherwise, the film is rather disjointed and comes across as a collection of anti-war skits that doesn't flow very well. This dvd package is also disappointing as it unnecesarily puts into 2 discs what can be put onto one as the special features are not that long and the only reason I can think of why they would do this is to have the excuse to charge you more for the 2 discs. The picture quality is slightly above VHS quality and there are still frames with white spots and other imperfections despite the heroic attempts at restoration of which they go through great pains to tell you on the second disc and in the accompanying booklet. br / br /The sound quality is okay coming in Dolby Digital THX mastered stereo although they really should have provided 5.1 surround options as well. However, the documentary "Enlisted: The Story of MASH" is a gem as it relates the true life of a MASH unit in Korea and this accounts for one full star of my rating. This movie is also important though as it started the highly successful and in my mind much better long-running television series where you get much better script writing and hence jokes than you get here. br / br /Still, this is an entertaining film that in a number of collected skits successfully shows us the futility and insanity of war.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

original MASH, 2008-06-16
In addition to the video being a hit, the seller was quick to send the video and the shippment went great!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

M.A.S.H. the TV Series ... Great. M.A.S.H. the Movie ... humph., 2008-05-21