Comedy M*A*S*H*UP

Okay, so at first I wasn’t sure if I liked the MASH movie or not.  I grew up watching the MASH television show, but I had never in fact seen this movie.  As a result, the change in characters really threw me off guard.  The only character that has the same actor in the television series as well as the movie was Radar.  Once I was able to get past the difference in actors and actresses, I then started paying attention to the humor instead. 

So I am not sure if it counts in a narration at the beginning of the movie, but the theme song that is sung at the opening of the movie starts to set a tone for the movie, which of course is quickly changed from sad seriousness to laughing hysterically.  I don’t know if it counts as a narration because it’s a song, but it is an outside source explaining or setting the scene. 

This movie does a great job at a bunch of different types of humor and an overall well rounded script.  What I mean by well rounded is simply that the film makes jokes about a great number of things and in different ways, it is not just the same slap stick humor for every joke.  Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of slapstick, however, there is also situational humor, ironic humor, gender roles profiling, racial and ethnic references and jokes. 

One of the situational instances and just overall themes I found highly interesting was the movie’s take on sex roles.  This being a time when women had not been previously allowed into the army and are now able to achieve rankings higher than many men, many men found it hard to interact or knowing how to treat these women.  I feel like this movie did an interesting job because it pokes fun at both aspects of sex roles in the army.  It showed that many men tend to treat women as just a piece of scenery or local tail, yet could also reach a high rank in the army.  They also played at the fact that women although were ranking officers still ended up resolving to sex or their feminine charm to get what they want instead of their influence as a ranking official. 

Another thing this movie poked a lot at was simply the comedic methods of the military.  That although they are able to function and get things done in a quality manner, the methods and techniques are often a joke in itself in the way the people in the organization interact with each other. 

All in all whether you have seen the television series or not, I would highly recommend this to anyone in search of a good laugh and to just enjoy watching it as much as I did.