Goddamn Army.

Why it’s a left-wing film

Maybe my eternal affection for director Robert Altman’s brilliantly irreverent comedy clouds my judgment, but I don’t want to be too hard on “MASH.” Yes, it uses Korea as pretty weak cover to deliver a withering anti-war criticism of Vietnam and the military, and in the person of The Mighty Robert Duvall’s Frank Burns, the attack on Christianity does, at times, border on mean-spirited (Burns is a cold, manipulative, ambitious, backstabbing, unbalanced hypocrite and the Catholic Father Mulcahy is bumbling and absolutely useless), but man this movie’s fun…

…And funny.

And brilliant.

And refreshingly politically incorrect.

But now we’re getting into…

Why it’s a great film

One of the very first jokes in “MASH” perfectly sets the tone for what’s to come. After a quick sequence at the 4077th and a subtle jibe at Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Capt. Hawkeye Pierce arrives in the person of Donald Sutherland. He’s fresh off a plane from the States and needs a ride to report for duty. While waiting by a jeep, Hawkeye barely gets a word out before a Black enlisted man from the motor pool dresses him down under the assumption he’s going to get pushy about demanding the ride right away. Hawkeye had no intention of getting pushy, barely gets a word out, and after the jerk walks off, Hawkeye mutters under his breath, “Racist.” (more…)

M*A*S*H  (1970): Robert Altman’s irreverent film adaptation of Richard Hooker’s novel is a spoof on the futility of war that was set in Korea but coming as it did while our troops were fully engaged in Southeast Asia, its anti-establishment subtext is really about  the confusion and cultural clashes during the Vietnam War.  

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Set in the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital somewhere near the stagnant Korean War front lines, the plot ambles along following several zany yet competent doctors “Hawkeye” Pierce (Donald Sutherland), “Trapper” John McIntyre (Elliott Gould) and “Duke” Forest (Tom Skerritt) as they try to adapt their markedly undisciplined lifestyles to the rigid protocols of the US military—saving lives along the way.

Featuring notable performances by Robert Duvall as the bumbling and overly-sanctimonious Frank Burns and Sally Kellerman as a career military nurse “Hot Lips” O’Houlihan who cannot get out of the way of her own sexuality, this dark comedy is as good as it gets in the genre of biting satire. (more…)

Why is it that on the silver screen, the Jewish chick is always the undesirable one, the safe choice, the ugly/annoying one?  Even women who are Jewish (or half) in real life play the “desirable gentile goddess” while the Jewish woman character is the second fiddle.  It might have something to do with the self-hatred of many male Jews in Hollywood for whom the Jewish woman is exactly that stereotype; besides, many of them need to justify marrying outside of the faith.  Or maybe it’s just the self-hatred.

I ask this because in “Two Lovers,” which hit nationwide release this week, Joaquin Phoenix plays a Jewish guy whose parents want him to date (and marry) the beautiful Jewish daughter (Vinessa Shaw), of the couple who are buying their business.  But, instead, he prefers the hot blonde gentile woman (played by the half-Jewish Gwyneth Paltrow) who doesn’t want him.  The Jewish woman as the safe, not-as-sexy-or-hot choice is nothing new in Hollywood.  We’ve seen it in sooo many TV shows and flicks, like the 1972 incarnation of “The Heartbreak Kid” in which Elliott Gould Charles Grodin dumps the homely Jewish stereotype-ette for the hot (at that time) Cybill Shepherd. (more…)