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My theory of the movie MASH vs the TV show MASH

posted 12 years ago by Movie_map
11 replies | jump to latest

My theory is that people who saw the movie first had an easier time embracing the TV show than the other way around. The three biggest complaints I read about the movie are that 1, it's very dark. 2, the overlapping dialog can be confusing and 3, its more a series of vignettes than a traditional narrative. For those reasons I suspect that it might be harder for long time viewers of the series to get into the movie. For myself, I saw the movie several times before the show premiered. I happen to think that the three complains I listed are actually some of the films strengths. Once I got past the cast changes and the fact that some things that occurred in the movie were ignored, I got into the series pretty quickly.

I'm wondering anyone agrees. I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has the opposite view.

[–] Cold_In_Space 12 years ago

I first saw the TV show and I have to say I prefer tthe movie to the show's later seasons.

- Gothamite #4

I've learned that it's OK to be flawed - Winona Ryder

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jojopuppyfish 12 years ago

I never liked the tv show but I've been on an Elliot Gould kick lately.
I liked the movie much better than the tv show due to the actors.
All 3 leads in the movie are terrific while I find the tv show annoying (specifically Alan Alda)

[–] mingusal 12 years ago

The first couple years of the TV show were darker and much more like the movie than the later, and more conventional, "uplifting" show it became. Of course, there were a lot of aspects of the movie that couldn't be shown on 1970s U.S. television (and, indeed, when the movie itself finally showed up on TV it was very heavily edited). I do think that people who got used the characters and feeling of the TV show - particularly in its later seasons - have problems dealing with the much more anarchic, dark, and rough movie, that is very much of its early '70s Vietnam-era time.

[–] michaelward15 11 years ago

I saw the TV show first. The saw part of the movie as a teenager and hated it. Years late when my opinino of the TV show had already declined, I saw the movie and loved it. Now I don't even like the TV show.

[–] lynda618 11 years ago

Interesting, because I had the opposite take on it. I saw the movie when it came out, LOVED it, and could never stomach the TV show, which seemed a pale imitation. During the show's run, I asked several people who liked it whether they had previously seen the movie, and the answer was usually no. From that (hardly scientific) research, I deduced that fans of the movie never got into the TV version.

So...there you go.

[–] DocCasualty 11 years ago

I suppose I had seen a few seasons of the TV show in original run before I saw the movie and absolutely loved the movie from the get go. I continued to watch and enjoy the TV series until I eventually tired of it. Different strokes . . .

"Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye." 2001: A Space Odyssey

[–] bond_98 11 years ago

Frankly i never thought much about the Movie. Yeah Its not Horrible. But i didnt care as much as i did with the Series. I felt that Alan Alda and Mike Farrell or had much better chemistry than Sutherland or Gould. When i think of Character of Hawkeye Pierce. Alan Alda is the one that pops up in my head.