The story of the Korean War's Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals was not new to the screen, having been told seventeen years earlier in Battle Circus, with a badly-miscast Humphey Bogart. But the world was a very different place by the late sixties, and the deep divisions within the country caused by the Vietnam conflict would require similarly divided voices in films. The 1968 release of The Green Berets covered the far right, but the major film studios -- still overwhelmingly conservative -- made it dangerous for the left to cinematically comment on Vietnam, and it took another film set in the Korean War for the left to be able to bring its message to the screen.

M*A*S*H was the sixth film directed by Robert Altman, and the one that marked his ascension to the "A" list (as it did for stars Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland). All the trademark Altman moves are here, from the hyperrealistic "unscripted" look to the multiple overlapping layers of dialog, and with a Ring Lardner, Jr. screenplay (based on Hooker's subversive novel; the screenplay was reportedly only used as a framework, with the majority of the dialog ad-libbed), the result was a superb comedy-drama of war that took many chances. Most of Altman's films are closer to filmed life than to scripted scenes due to his reliance on filming from a distance using telephoto lenses; the technique prevents the players from knowing if they're on camera at any given moment, and so all participants in a scene must "live" the scene from start to finish, lending a distinctive look to Altman's movies (think Nashville, or even Popeye). Whether his films succeed or fail rest largely on the suitability of the subject matter to his relatively unchanging technique. M*A*S*H succeeded.

(Note: In a small role look for Carl Gottlieb, who later went on to write and direct; and listen to the camp's public-address system: it's Ted Knight, who later played Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and subsequently became a frequent cartoon voice artist.) Correction: Ted Knight was not the voice of the public-address system. He was actually cast in an unnamed role, but did not appear onscreen; during post-production, Altman used his voice for occasional background announcements, but not as the main announcer.

Film Synopsis: One of the world's most acclaimed comedies, "M*A*S*H" focuses on three Korean War Army surgeons brilliantly brought to life by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, they adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff and Sally Kellerman co-star as a sanctimonious Major, an other-worldly Corporal, and a self-righteous yet lusty nurse.

Technical

Video:	Widescreen 2.35:1 (Anamorphic)
Audio:	ENGLISH: Dolby Digital stereo ENGLISH: mono FRENCH: mono
Subtitles:	English, Spanish, Closed Captions
Chapters:	40

The film is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, the wide image helping greatly in bringing a sense of "place" to the film. The image is not demo quality by any stretch of the imagination, a fault lying not necessarily with the restoration as it does with the film stock and cinematography. The image occasionally displays a fair amount of film grain, although at no point does it become distracting (in fact, coupled with the hand-held camera, it lends an appropriate sense of the documentary to the surgery scenes). As the film was largely shot using telephoto lenses (and the frequent use of fog-diffusion filters) colors and contrast are intentionally muted for the greater part of the film, with the colors appearing brighter and more distinct only when the filters were removed for the film's football game. The much-touted restoration of the film is best seen when comparing colors between the old and the new transfer; where the original video transfer skewed green (typical of late 60's - early 70's film stock), the restoration corrected the general palette closer to neutral, although an occasional greenish tinge can be seen occasionally during difficult scenes.

The sound is troublesome (do any Altman films ever NOT have this problem?), with a narrow sonic range that tends towards the mid-to-high frequencies and a noticeable hiss during quiter passages. In addition to the original mono track, a new Dolby 2.0 track is available; which is better depends solely on one's taste and tolerance for false stereo.

Supplements

Disc One:

• Sound bites:
• Officers Mess
• Showers
• Swamp
• Officers Club
• Operating Theater
• Feature-length commentary by Robert Altman
• Backstory: M*A*S*H (24:26)
• Theatrical Trailer (3:05)
• Still Gallery (44 stills)

Disc Two:

• Sound bites:
• Burns
• Chief Nurse
• Swamp
• Painless
• Operating Theater
• Enlisted: The Story of M*A*S*H (15 Chapters, 40:50)
• M*A*S*H: Comedy Under Fire (18 Chapters, 44:06)
• M*A*S*H Reunion (30:00)
• Film Restoration

Disk One contains a feature-length commentary by director Robert Altman, but it is unfortunately neither illuminating nor as interesting as one would expect considering the man and the movie. Also on the disc is "Backstory: M*A*S*H," made in 2000 for the American Movie Classics channel. The featurette is standard stuff, following the history of the original Richard Hooker novel (and glossing over the difficulties Hooker had in getting his novel published) through its development to the film, touching briefly on the subsequent long-running television series. The highlight of the featurette is the series of new interviews made with the original; for those who particularly enjoyed these interviews, however, a better supplement is found on the second disc.

"M*A*S*H Reunion," a half-hour taping made for the Fox Movie Channel, features most of the film's stars -- however, like the short-lived Aftermash sequel to the M*A*S*H TV series, it doesn't include the stars that you'd most want to hear. Still, the supplement is perhaps the most watchable of the set, and there are times that the cameraderie of the film's players is evident again.

"Enlisted: The Story of M*A*S*H" seems to add very little to the information presented in the AMC special on the first disk, and is the most disposable of the set. Better from a historical perspective is "M*A*S*H: Comedy Under Fire," more accurately referred to as "M*A*S*H: History Through the Lens" on the DVD's back cover. This featurette focuses on the actual Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals of the Korean War, and is a must-see for fans of the film or TV series.

Easter egg: On the first disc, go to the "Special Features" menu. Go right from the THX logo, and highlight the helicopter for the three-minute trailer presented in Spanish.

Gotcha #1: Silkscreened on Disk Two of the set, and repeated in the booklet, is an image of a martini glass with the olive speared by a toothpick with an American flag. The flag has fifty stars -- and at the time of the Korean War, should actually have had forty-eight.

Gotcha #2: Trapper John can be heard in the operating room as a surgeon before his actual arrival at the camp.