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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
He could splash characters onto the screen with what seemed like mad abandon, yet each, under his hand, popped out into three dimensions and breathed on his or her own. He didn't "do" throwaway characters. His eye and his heart helped to define a generation.
And I am not the kind of person who goes around looking for sexism with a magnifying glass, believe me. It was blatantly chauvinistic while disguising itself as "alternative" and "satirical."
There are only two kinds of women in the film - the sexually submissive kind who adore the he-men Hawkeye and Trapper John and do their bidding both in and out of bed ("How do you want your steaks, doctors?") or they were repressed, repressive schoolmarms who wouldn't sleep with Hawkeye and Trapper but what they hell - they'd probably never had an orgasm and didn't know what they were missing, heh heh heh!
Ah well, boys will be boys!
The movie is unwatchable because its sexism is so offensive. If you are a woman and you don't believe me, rent it. Try to figure out where you would fit in M*A*S*Hworld.
That was the first Robert Altman film I ever saw and I was not impressed with the others I tried to sit through.
That doesn't mean I'm not sad that he died. It's sad to see film icons pass, whether I liked them or not. He influenced a lot of people. I can only hope it was for the better.
You know, that could have waited. No matter how true or not what you had to say, it could have waited a couple of hours more.
To a young film student during the early 70s, Altman and a handful of others provided a cutting-edge challenge to "Hollywood" film-making.
It was a big thrill when he addressed one of our seminars and debuted "The Long Goodbye" to us - starring his muse of the day, Elliot Gould.
Ironic, of course, that leading movie stars have always clamoured to work with him - and his sprawling celebrity casts have always been a key part of marketing an Altman film.
Whatever. He found a way to work the system instead of being swallowed up and rendered stupid - or worse, irrelevant as an artist - by it.
And I really wish someone else besides me remembered "Images" (Susannah York) - far as I'm concerned, it ranked right up there with the best output from some of the other guys producing that golden time.
...has it right. And who gives a damn about her (or his) timing.
M.A.S.H. was a sexist, racist glorification of a couple of self-absorbed, alchoholic bullies. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when it first came out, given that it was already being hailed as a "progressive, anti-war, counter-cultural anthem." Christ, it was about as counter-cultural as an evening at The Playboy Club.
Robert Altman was very much a man of his own time...and that isn't a compliment.
A titan and a gnat. Have you ever been in the military, Anonymous, you too callow and spineless to even invent a nom de plume? The military in the days depicted in MASH was sexist to the core; what was Altman supposed to do? Wish it away? Lie it away? It was a great movie by a great man, and you're an insect- my guess is dung beetle.
Anonymous, M.A.S.H. takes place in the fifties. It's about the Korean War and there wasn't much feminism in the Korean War. Do you want him to lie? Maybe you do.
But I love the film and I have since I first saw it. It's a work of genius.
It's not about Vietnam but it felt like it was when it came out, and that made a difference in how we saw the war.
For example, we saw all that blood. You weren't supposed to show all that blood in war movies. War movies were about courage and honor, not about blood.
But here was a war movie covered in war blood, with doctors in war blood up to their elbows.
It was a very powerfully symbolic thing to see in 1970 when we were struggling to get out of Vietnam.
Altman joined the NORML Advisory Board in 2002.
He'll be missed by a lot of people, that's for sure. But luckily we still have his films.
M.A.S.H. was a sexist, racist glorification of a couple of self-absorbed, alchoholic bullies. I couldn't believe what I was seeing when it first came out, given that it was already being hailed as a "progressive, anti-war, counter-cultural anthem." Christ, it was about as counter-cultural as an evening at The Playboy Club.
Nobody used the word "progressive" back in the seventies.
And M.A.S.H. was never advertised as counter-cultural. It was beloved by many people in the counter-culture, but that was because it showed pot smoking and anti-authoritarian acting out.
I'm having trouble right now believing you watched M.A.S.H. in 1970, because I don't remember any men back in 1970 when the film came out who had heard the word "sexist" or would have judged Altman's film that way -- the women's movement hadn't yet become that well known or powerful or visible.
In fact, back in 1970, the most "progressive" men around were actually very sexist. Women in the anti-war movement were expected to type and make coffee.
You sound like someone who went to college in the nineties -- the way you use your power of judgment to hold yourself superior to an entire decade and shower verbal abuse down on everyone beneath you.
i guess i'm joining the fray here, but this article was written about robert altman, and not about his critics. haven't they had their say, at one time or another, after all?
chad
M*A*S*H is one of my all-time favorite movies. I don't give a crap "where I would fit in it." I wouldn't fit in The Godfather either but what on earth does that have to do with it being an extraordinary movie?
I felt the news of Altman's death like an actual hit to the gut this morning, and I'm not usually affected by news of famous people's deaths. Altman loomed large on my private cinematic landscape; not everything he did was a masterpiece but every one bears his unmistakable craft, without the self-conscious presence of many lesser marquee directors.
And I too loved Popeye. It's criminally underrated.
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