M* A* S* H (Blu-ray)
Directed by Robert Altman
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Year: 1970
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 116 minutes
Rating: R
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 1.0 English, French, others
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish, Thai, others
Region: A
MSRP: $ 34.99
MSRP: $ 34.99
Release Date: September 1, 2009
Review Date: September 4, 2009
The Film
4.5/5
One of the greatest, most iconic antiwar films ever made, M*A*S*H plays just as wonderfully today as it did on its initial release. In fact, with director Robert Altman repeating his same stylistic choices used here in many subsequent pictures over the years, movie audiences now have grown much more accustomed to a plotless, grab bag style of anarchic humor used in the movie thus making M*A*S*H one of the seminal works of one of America’s most innovative and iconoclastic directors. Despite a hit television series that ran for more than a decade with mostly different actors playing these infamous characters, the film version of Richard Hooker’s comic novel gets the text and tone markedly right allowing the subsequent television series to take the characters and the situations even farther into areas of farce and poignancy.
It’s 1951, and the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital operates a mere three miles from the front lines during the Korean War. In conditions which would drive the sanest of men crazy, surgical and off hours hijinks unfold as Trapper John McIntyre (Elliott Gould), Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland), and Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt) find ever-original and chaotic ways to subvert superiors like Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), Major “Hot Lips Hollihan (Sally Kellerman), and Colonel Henry Blake (Roger Bowen), chase after wary nurses (Jo Ann Pflug as Liuetenant Dish), and have fun with syringes during an epic football game--all the while remembering that they're living in the backdrop of a seemingly senseless war zone where the primitive operating room conditions and the appallingly injured soldiers are anything but joyful.
M*A*S*H was only the second film directed by Robert Altman but his now emblematic techniques of overlapping dialog, plotless storytelling, free roaming camera moves, and a tone that can change from hilarious to horrific in the blink of an eye were all established with surety in this movie. Though Ring Lardner, Jr.’s script won the adapted screenplay Oscar, everyone agrees that the film was mostly improvised by the actors using the script only as a place from which to jump off. Though many at the time were revolted by the graphic operating room sequences, they seem almost quaint today some forty years after the fact. Despite a lack of linear storytelling, one never seems to feel he isn’t moving through a real story. The many characters are so finely etched by these (then) mostly unknown actors that the lack of a central story is never a problem. True, the sequences where Trapper and Hawkeye travel to Toyko and the climactic football game (funny as it undoubtedly is) seem less a part of the whole than the rest of the movie now, and there is a silly anachronism when the song “Hi Lili, Hi Lo” blares forth from the camp speakers about two years before it was actually written, but these are quibbles. The anarchy that the three major surgeons subject the camp to remains wondrously funny and prescient, and if the film could have possibly made somewhat stronger satiric references in its antiwar sentiments, what’s there is pointed enough for all but the thickest of wits to ascertain.
Donald Sutherland earns the lion’s share of praise for his hilariously rebellious Hawkeye Pierce while Elliott Gould and Tom Skerritt as his two brothers-in-crime make firm impressions without taking over the movie. Robert Duvall has some excellent early scenes as the hypocritical Frank Burns, but his exit from the movie so early robs the pranksters of a perfect target. Sally Kellerman earned an Oscar nomination for her starchy Hot Lips while Gary Burghoff made the part of company clerk Radar O’Reilly adorable enough to be swept right up into the subsequent TV incarnation. Others making fine impressions are Roger Bowen as the dithering Colonel Blake, John Schuck as the confused camp dentist, Rene Auberjonois as the earnest but ineffectual priest, and Jo Ann Pflug as the alluring Lt. Dish.
Video Quality
3/5
The film’s Panavision 2.35:1 aspect ratio is delivered in 1080p using the AVC codec. The film has never looked sharp or especially bright due to the diffusion filters and slightly brownish tint that was a part of the original photography. However, the Blu-ray release features scenes where sharpness and grain levels vary throughout. This is most definitely the cleanest I have ever seen the image look, and film clips in the documentaries on the disc show how rough and dirty the film’s elements were at one point. So, what’s here is imminently watchable, but assigning a score to the way the film looks in high definition is a near impossible feat. The film has been divided into 43 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix has taken the original mono elements and added some spread to the sound branching it out into the front channels, but the rears have been little utilized. The dialogue is firmly rooted to the center channel, but for the original theatrical effect, one might wish to choose the 1.0 track even though it’s not presented in lossless audio.
Special Features
4/5
Robert Altman’s audio commentary is a frustrating experience since the master director doesn’t choose to talk much. The start and stop nature of the comments will likely lose all but the film’s most ardent admirers. Much of what he says here is repeated in other documentaries on the disc.
“The Complete Interactive Guide to M*A*S*H” is a series of pop-up annotations for characters and their offenses as the film plays. You get to see exactly how many court martial-level offenses our heroes commit as the film runs.
All of the featurettes ported over from previous releases of the movie are presented in 480i.
“AMC Backstory: M*A*S*H” is the excellent 24 ½-minute behind-the-scenes look at the making and reception of the film with many of the leading people before and behind the camera taking part.
“Enlisted: The Story of M*A*S*H” is a much longer version of the same making-of documentary used for “Backstory.” With many of the same interviews and film clips, the documentary runs 41 minutes.
“M*A*S*H: History Through the Lens” is a 44 ¼-minute documentary on the history of the property from the book through its film and television incarnations. Narrated by Burt Reynolds, this feature is perhaps the most thorough of the featurettes on this release.
“Remembering M*A*S*H: 30th Annual Cast & Crew Reunion” finds Robert Altman receiving the first awarded Legacy Award from the Fox Movie Channel, and the occasion calls for a panel discussion with members of the original cast plus the producer and director answering questions after a screening of the film. This runs for 30 minutes.
Two trailers, the original and a Portuguese translation, are offered. Both run for 3 minutes each.
A stills gallery featuring dozens of color photographs and portraits of the stars may be stepped through.
In Conclusion
4/5 (not an average)
A great film from the Fox vaults with an appropriately thorough Blu-ray release, M*A*S*H comes highly recommended!
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
