...and I adore MASH.

To those who believe MASH is sexist -- if you look up Roger Ebert's original review, he explains Hawkeye and Trapper's antagonism of Hot Lips in an interesting way. Hawkeye and Trapper are on the brink of cracking up from all the suffering they observe. Hot Lips, however, as an army regular, is only interested in protocol; the suffering doesn't register with her. So they spend a good part of the movie trying to get her to feel something, anything, even if it is humiliation. As far as the other nurses are concerned, I think it was just that time when women were treated a different way from the way they are now.

Altman also spoke at the University of Michigan in the early 1990s (he was with an actor -- Jeff Daniels, I think?). Unfortunately, I only knew him as the director of Vincent and Theo, which I hadn't seen and wasn't particularly interested in seeing. The Player and Short Cuts hadn't yet been made; I hadn't been introduced to MASH or Nashville. So none of what he said at the time registered, and that's a shame, because now that he's one of my favorite directors, I wish to God I had listened to whatever words of wisdom he uttered that day. I regret to this day that I didn't.

I loved it, and laughed so hard that I disturbed the extremely large crowd at Film Forum (on Watts Street -- does anyone remember it?) where I saw it. One thing I loved about it was the casting of Glenda Jackson in the Adlai Stevenson role and Lauren Bacall in the Eisenhower role, even though Lauren Bacall campaigned for Stevenson for President and became close friends with him. Everyone else hated that movie. I thought it was brilliant, although not as good as the widely-accepted brilliant ones.

I also loved Pret-a-Porter. I guess I am just a fool for Altman movies.

While I disagree, your points are well stated.

For the record, I was a film student at a major university when M.A.S.H. was released, and the political and social content was a point of discussion not only in film classes, but in sociology and politcal science classes as well. I had professors in all three branches of study who were over the moon about the film. "It's really about Vietnam!" they all exclaimed. Big fucking deal. What were we supposed to take from this film? That it's cool to treat women, non-whites, and lesser educated whites LIKE SHIT, as long as you have long hair and sideburns? Put a 50's era crew cut on the two protagaonists, and no one in the 70's would have seen the film as anything but a B- military comedy.

Brilliant, and so far ahead of its time.

I totally agree with Anonymous: MASH is an extremely sexist movie, not because it depicts a sexist environment, as another poster seems to suggest, but because of the way it treats its female characters. I had a hard time watching it because of that.

For the "how dare you say such a thing" crowd, well, I'm reminded of something I read some years ago in an essay on the homophobia underlying some of Alfred Hitchcock's films: the author pointed out that criticizing Hitchcock for this homophobia was not an attempt to demean the director or his work; quite the contrary: it is because Hitchcock was a great artist and many of his films are great masterpieces that matter that it is important to point out, analyze, and, doing so, defuse, some of their more questionable aspects.

The same goes for Altman: it is because his work matters that it can/must be criticized. Great artists are not to be worshipped in silence, like mummified idols. They're to be discussed, argued over, and yes, criticized. That's how one shows respect for their work. It's when discussion and criticism end or are silenced that they really die.

I remember watching MASH as a young boy and thinking it was very funny when they pulled the ropes and everyone saw Hotlips naked in the shower. I thought it was funny when Hawkeye and Trapper John chased the Japanese nurse with an umbrella.

A few years ago I watched MASH with my wife, who had never seen it before. I was ashamed to have recommended it, because what I thought was funny as a young boy only digusted me as a grown man. The hatred towards women displayed in that movie is sickening.

I have a hard time watching any of Altman's movies now.

I know, I know--de mortuis nil nisi bonum and all that, but face it--Robert Altman has to be the most overrated director in history. From the complete lack of respect for his audience (e.g., his "realistic" audio in Gosford Park which simply meant that most of us couldn't even hear the dialogue) to his arrogance (e.g., "I'm to cool for school and the rest of you are hypocrites and idiots" in MASH), there never was any there there.

I agree with your point whole-heartedly. Criticism is vital. I was only objecting to what is the all too common online responses of "That's Crap!" et al. that don't really attempt to discuss anything further. Any dolt can login and say that everything and everybody sucks. I like where this discussion is headed now, though. I'm curious if anyone sees sexism in other Altman films. He always seemed, MASH aside, to provide complex and interesting roles for women, especially in his later work.

were the only Altman films I saw on release that disappointed me. McCabe and Mrs. Miller is my favorite. What a beautiful, potent dream! Mash, The Long Goodbye, Thieves like Us, California Split, Nashville, 3 Women, A Wedding, Popeye, Vincent and Theo, Short Cuts, Cookie’s Fortune, The Gingerbread Man, Gosford Park, The Company: all I loved or enjoyed, got lost in for a couple hours. I get stuck on all these while channel surfing.

Jimmy Dean, Health, Pret-a-Porter, Kansas City, less so, but well worth seeing. The other 10 feature films that are listed in Wilkopedia I haven’t seen yet or don’t recall.

Ideological complaints about Altman (and they used to come from the far-right-wing-rigids, now in Salon I see the far-left-wing rigids are gritting their faces and squeezing their hard, narrow little opinions out for everyone to admire), the most protean director of our times, are sophomoric. He created multi-layered slices-of-life, most with bad, hard edges, and he set them in many genres, societies and times. If your mind and heart is set on “narrow,” and you just can’t allow yourself to read between the lines, more fool you.

And what great actors and acting!

I’ve worried the last few years that he would die without creating another film. So, I’m in mourning now. Thanks Bob.