10 movies to watch if you love Mash

of catch-22 to Good morning, VietnamThere are many great movies that balance compelling character drama with incisive dark humor as effectively as this MASH. Most war movies, like Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse nowAnd The Deer HunterOffer bleak, harrowing accounts of the horrors of warfare and the devastating psychological toll it takes. But there are many filmmakers who have used the inherent absurdity of warfare to satirize geopolitics and human nature, like Stanley Kubrick with his Cold War farce. Dr. Strangelove Or Ivan Reitman with his light buddy comedy Strips.

Robert Altman’s transgressive comedy blockbuster MASH and the subsequent hit television adaptation both showed audiences how to laugh at the pain of war. Altman’s film used its Korean War setting as a time parallel to the then-ongoing Vietnam War, and the TV show used a workplace sitcom set in a war zone to depict triumphs of the human spirit—even under such trying circumstances, people can make Make friends and build a community. of Three kings to Stalag 17There are a ton of great movies that have done the same.

11

Biloxi Blues (1988)

The film was directed by Mike Nichols

Among his hit movies burning sensation And Working girlMike Nichols helmed the underappreciated military comedy Biloxi Blues. Biloxi Blues It stars Matthew Broderick as a rebellious teenager who is drafted into the US.

It was based on the semi-autobiographical play of the same name by Neil Simon, and Simon’s self-written screenplay adaptation exemplifies his signature razor-sharp wit. At the beginning of the movie, Broderick’s private Jerome decided not only to survive the war, but also to lose his innocence.

The tongue-in-cheek humor of Biloxi Blues Brings the coming-of-age trope of sexual maturity into a deadly World War II setting. Simon’s typically amusing script, Nichols’ typically lean, focused direction, and Broderick’s typically charismatic performance all come together to make Biloxi Blues A gem.

10

Kelly’s Heroes (1970)

The film was directed by Brian G. Hutton

Brian G. Hutton S Kelly’s Heroes Transplant a wicked heist comedy into the battlefields of World War II. It follows a ragtag band of American geese who go AWOL so they can go behind enemy lines and rob a stash of Nazi gold from a French bank. Kelly’s Heroes Satirizes war by focusing on the soldiers’ pursuit of personal wealth over the underlying politics of the conflict itself.

It is a war movie in which the heroes have no interest in the war they are fighting. Clint Eastwood and Telly Savalas lead the ensemble, With hilarious supporting turns from Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland and Harry Dean Stanton.

Troy Kennedy Martin delivers a screenplay that’s just as grittyInventive, and wildly entertaining as his script for The Italian work. like MASH, Kelly’s Heroes is less interested in the wartime setting and more in its cast of colorful characters.

9

Three Kings (1999)

The film was directed by David O. Russell

Still making his mark with the acclaimed low-budget comedies Spanking the monkey And Flirting with disasterDavid O. Russell helms his first big-budget studio movie with the Gulf War heist caper Three kings. Set at the end of the first Gulf War, Three kings Star George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube and Spike Jonze as four American soldiers in Iraq. They set out to steal a hidden cache of gold during the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein.

Much like MASH, Three kings Sends his absurdist fiction crashing into the real-life story of a controversial war. It sets an explosive blend of action and humor against a backdrop of political turmoil. Although the story is ridiculous, the approach is realistic; Russell used Steadicam shots and handheld cameras to give the film a documentary-like sense of immersion.

8

1941 (1979)

The film was directed by Steven Spielberg

After the back-to-back blockbuster success of Jaws And Close encounters of the third kindSteven Spielberg had the freedom to make whatever movie he wanted to – and what he wanted to make was a farcical one. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world-style ensemble comedy set during World War II. 1941 Tells the story of the Great Los Angeles Air Raid of 1942 as an absurdist caper. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, panic spread throughout the Los Angeles area (with comical results).

Although it was a critical and commercial flop in its time (especially compared to Spielberg’s previous films), 1941 has since been reevaluated as a cult classic. His ensemble cast includes some of the funniest performers in Hollywood, such as Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, John Candy, Michael McKean, Penny Marshall and Slim Pickens, to name a few. It’s impressive just to see the lengths Spielberg went to to pull off elaborate, expensive sight gags.

7

Strips (1981)

The film was directed by Ivan Reitman

Before donning their proton packs to bust ghosts, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis worked with director Ivan Reitman on a very different comedy: 1981’s. Strips. Murray and Ramis play two immature slackers who decide to enroll in the US.

Once they join the military, they get into all kinds of hilarious hijinks. Murray is at the height of his powers, And his on-screen chemistry with Ramis captures a ride-or-die friendship.

While Strips doesn’t have much to say about the military-industrial complex or the absurdity of war, It’s a delightfully irreverent comedy with likable characters and plenty of great gags. In this sense, it is much like MASH; It takes place in a dangerous environment, but it has the heart of a found-family storyline.

6

The Boys in Company C (1978)

The film was directed by Sidney J. Fury

The first chapter in Sidney Y. Fury’s Unofficial Vietnam War Trilogy, 1978s The boys in Company Cis still the most famous. in 1967, The boys in Company C Follows five young men as they go through basic boot camp training before being shipped off to fight in Vietnam. Once they actually get to the battlefield, it dawns on them that no amount of training could have prepared them for the horrors they find there.

Much like MASH, The boys in Company C encapsulates the camaraderie that binds soldiers together in battle. The five main characters all become good friends in boot camp, But the traumatic events of the war bring them together as brothers-in-arms. Just under a decade before his iconic turn in Full metal jacketR. Lee Ermey gave his first on-screen drill instructor performance in The boys in Company C.

5

Stalag 17 (1953)

The film was directed by Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder followed his film noir classics Sunset Blvd And Mouse in the hole Featuring one of the greatest POW movies ever made: 1953’s Stalag 17. Based on Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzczynski’s autobiographical Broadway play of the same name, Stalag 17 It revolves around a group of American pilots during World War II, who are locked up with 40,000 other prisoners in a German prison camp somewhere on the Danube. The movie focuses on one specific barracks, where the men begin to suspect that one of their fellow prisoners is an informant.

Wilder conveys the play’s balance of humor and tragedy – The same balance was well handled in MASH – to the medium of film. Wilder’s fast-paced direction and the fine performances of the cast make this a true masterpiece. Stalag 17 is such a pitch-perfect picture of life in a POW camp that it ended up inspiring the creation of Hogan’s heroes.

4

Catch-22 (1970)

The film was directed by Mike Nichols

Before he made Biloxi BluesNichols had previously satirized war in his 1970 film adaptation of The Defining Anti-War Satire: Joseph Heller’s seminal debut novel catch-22. catch-22 Lampoons the ridiculousness of drafting unwilling citizens to fight in a war zone with the story of a group of soldiers trying to maintain their sanity while performing their military duties. Nichols retimed with The graduate Screenwriter Buck Henry to condense Heller’s devilishly complex novel into a two-hour movie.

Nichols not only captures the chaos of the source material, but his biting deconstruction of the absurdity of war. Alan Arkin gives one of his finest performances in the lead role of Captain John Yossarian, With strong support from the likes of Bob Balaban, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins and even Orson Welles. Like the book it’s based on, catch-22 is as clever as it is funny.

3

Good Morning Vietnam (1987)

The film was directed by Barry Levinson

Loosely based on the experiences of real-life Armed Forces Radio Service DJ Adrian Cronauer, Barry Levinson’s Good morning, Vietnam is a refreshingly warm-hearted counterpoint to harrowing Vietnam War movies like Apocalypse now And The Deer Hunter. Set in Saigon in 1965, it stars Robin Williams as Cronauer, who keeps up the spirits of his fellow troops with a hilarious radio show. Although he proves to be massively popular among the soldiers, his superiors are increasingly frustrated by his “irreverent tendency.“

Williams received his first of four Oscar nominations for his turn in Good morning, VietnamWhich is equal parts hysterical and heartfelt. Levinson masterfully balances the comic levity of Kronauer’s radio show with the unspeakable horrors that occur just outside the walls of the base. Much like MASH, Good morning, Vietnam is all about the human spirit triumphing in the face of war.

2

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The film was directed by Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick effectively captured the bleak horrors of warfare in Paths of glory And Full metal jacketBut he took a much more comic approach to the subject in his brilliant 1964 satire Dr. Strangelove. Formed at the height of the Cold War, Dr. Strangelove Sees the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation. The American president and his cronies are desperately trying to prevent a planned nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, which was ordered by a mentally unstable Air Force general.

Although the source material of the film – Red alert By Peter George – is a straightforward dramatization of a potential nuclear war, Kubrick recognized the inherent absurdity of mutually assured destruction and adapted it as a nihilistic comedy. Dr. Strangelove Arrived as the sharpest political satire in cinema since The great dictator (And remained the sharpest ever MASH came). It was made to poke fun at Cold War era paranoia, but its satire of the nuclear arms race is, sadly, just as relevant today.

1

M*A*S*H

M*A*S*H is a drama-comedy series set in the Korean War, centered on the lives of the staff at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital as they navigate the challenges of wartime medical service with humor and resilience.