M*A*S*H-ed potatoes

For me, MASH was a major curve ball. I felt as though he entire style of the movie was way different than any of the other films we have seen for this class to date. For one, I did not feel that it was a comedy. Sure, there were a bunch of jokes spread all over the place, but it seemed as though such humor might be present in any situation where there are men. I guess they did take it to the extreme on occasion, like when Hawkeye and Trapper go to Japan for surgery, in complete golf garb. But I do not think I can recall a time where i was actually laughing at anything that happened. Second, I had a very hard time finding any sort of plot in the entire movie. Nothing was consistent, the characters sort of moved and acted upon their own devices, and there seemed to be little to no organization. Because of this, I think the audience has a very hard time focusing on what's happening and, in my case, completely losing interest in the film as a whole.

The entire film was very anti-climactic. The football game was the most exiting event that took place, and that did not support the film's structure or "plot" at all. This is quite odd, because the game itself takes up a lot of the movies screen time. However, I found that the anti-climactic mood of the film was very important on the whole movies theme. That is, war itself is anti-climactic. It is almost never like the movies we see where the group of heroes embark on a mission, fight a final battle, lose a few main characters, and go home legends. No. 99% of the time, soldiers experience exactly what the surgeons in MASH did - get deployed, serve their time, get sent home. No slow motion explosions, no heroic acts of valor. Just the monotony of surgery. I saw this exact same theme in the book, The Things They Carried. In it, a man was drafted to serve in Vietnam, so that's what he does. Sure there are some firefights and exiting parts, but that happens to a front line soldier. Before you know it, O'Brien, the main character, is sent home.

This brings me to the idea that the book and the film were not made exclusively for the public’s enjoyment. I feel as though they were created to bring our perspective of war down to reality. It is not always about honor and heroics. Most of the time, it is monotonous, routine, and absolutely horrible. Hawkeye had to operate on men who were going to die anyways every single day, as did all of the other surgeons. O'Brien often recalls the one and only time he took the life of another human being, and how it haunted him every day of his life. It is very important that we as civilians are constantly reminded of the reality of war. That way, we might understand how truly awful war is. Even while sometimes necessary, it is never an easy thing to experience. And with that, I close.