Filmmakers break down into three categories. The three “isms”. If you don’t know where inspiration comes from, and you find a laugh and a good cry out of anything, you’re working within the absurd. (“Absurd-ism”) If you stand on the sidelines of life, watching others create and explore, that’s normal. (“Normal-ism”) And if you don’t know what you’re going for, and you don’t sincerely believe in your original God-given voice, you fall flat on your face sucking at everything. That’s called “Suck-ism” (e.g. “The Gingerbread Man”, “The Company”). Robert Altman is an amalgam of these three categories. He manages to willfully challenge and shock the most imaginative minds, while not fully explaining any given theme, and unfortunately sometimes presents his ideas in a boring manner that straight up sucks. (most of "Brewster McCloud")
MASH came out of nowhere. I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted its success, and no one would’ve anticipated a “dramedy” inside the Korean War to be so entertaining and inventive. Some might say it’s expensive TV, and there’s nothing wrong with that, if you do it right. Altman, having experience directing “Combat” television episodes, came on full-throttle with MASH. This film not only explores the absurdity of war, but serves as the perfect cinematic manual on how to enjoy your life under extreme circumstances. The camera cuts from blood-tweaking operating procedures to golf in Japan, to martinis under fire. Is this really absurd? Is it normal? What would you do in their situation? In my opinion, and comparative to Altman’s films to come, this is a very realistic comedy. Life is realistic comedy if you’re one with Altman’s view of the world through the eyes of a grandiose workaholic cinema painter. MASH, on a ground level, is an ensemble cast displaying every kind of person you might be like at war: the goofball, the cynic, the preacher, etc. It’s a vehicle for which to ask that formidable question- “how do I live, when I could die at any moment?” There’s nothing absurd about that. The capers, adventures these characters fall into is the absurd part of it, but underneath, it’s a movie that reads like a self-help book for complainers. It screams- get on with your life and stop complaining, things could be worse.
The most interesting idea behind MASH, is the reality of war, the film’s universal setting is the absurd side. Flip it around, the quirky humor, the zany character antics, the ridiculous unreasonable situations these soldiers place themselves in are very normal to me. So, I would say when “isms” are crossed, that’s where the magic is. You can’t classify this film as being part of one or the other. Its dysfunctional/functional narrative doesn’t need closure, or have to explain itself. It’s like Jazz. You either feel it or you don’t. War is absurd, and so is life, death, sex, drugs, rock and roll, or any other way of living that gets you through the night.
Robert Altman RIP
The TV show was better. Alan Alda rules!
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