March 27th - Robert Altman's "MASH"

MASH (1970)

The Auditorium at 6:15 p.m.
Runtime: 1 hour 51 minutes

Set in a U.S. military hospital during the Korean War, MASH is not so much a movie as a series of events featuring the hellion trio of Hawkeye, Trapper John and Duke. These guys are army doctors – they do great with the doctor bit, but with the army part... the less said the better! One cannot do everything, after all, not in a war. The battle zone does strange things to people. Even the officious types are a bit off, to the point of being buffoons. In the end it is all about how one copes. Gallows humor at its best.

About the director: Robert Altman (b. 1925, d. 2006) had an up-and-down career in the business. MASH was his major breakthrough, and he quickly followed it up with other [critical] successes. A slump, punctuated by Popeye (1980), dragged his banner in the dust, but he made a comeback with The Player (1992). He had a character-driven approach to making movies, frequently letting his actors improvise their pieces.