OK,
I am not a "lefty" but the whole point of a war movie is to be anti-war.
I am not a combat vet, but I have spoken to many combat vets of the WW2/Viet Nam wars.
I do not remember hearing "boy I loved war, I loved shooting the shit out of a man/woman/kid"
Being a Vet of the "Cold War" I have no say in what combat is like. I do not have delusions of feeling that I missed out by not going to war. When I got out in 87, I felt "ripped off" that I missed Gulf War 1 by 2 weeks. But after talking to friends that were there, hearing how horrible it was and how sick some soldiers got made me feel lucky I did not go.
The point of a war movie is to show us how horrible war is. Yes we MUST NOT FORGET, we MUST honor those who fought for us. But I doubt that any of us would march off to war because we love it. We would march off to war because we HAVE to. Big difference here.
All of the movies listed in my opinion are good war movies. Talk to a D-day vet, a Iwo Jima vet and they will tell you how horrible it was (if they will even talk about it) and how scared they were. But they did what they HAD to do, for what they BELIEVED in, not because they loved it.
These movies when taken in context with war do a damn fine job.
All Vets deserve the Medal of Honor in my book.
Rant off...
oh, as for MASH, I worked with a Korean War vet and he tells me that he feels that they copied his Air Force unit for the idea of MASH. He said his unit was so far back from the line that most of what MASH showed really happened. Who knows......?