MASH

t´s now been about three years since legendary director Robert Altman passed away. His landmark film "MASH" lives on. The film was filmed back in 1969 and stars Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould are now 74 and 71 years old respectively. The long running television show that was spawned by the success of the film is no longer a staple of syndication and while the film´s anti-war message about the Korean War pushed a few buttons back in the day, today´s cinema is no longer afraid of making a statement and the ground broken by "M*A*S*H" is far from sacred. With its cast and crew and many of its fans well into their years of collecting retirement and social security, "M*A*S*H" refuses to die and the film has been chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress and Altman´s 1970 comedy is a genuine American classic.

Although Alan Alda made a career for himself portraying Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce, it was Donald Sutherland who starred in the original film alongside Captain "Trapper John" McIntyre (Gould). They star as two surgeons for the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and report to their superior, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (Roger Bowen). Hawkeye and Trapper John make friends with fellow surgeon and officer "Duke" Forrest (Tom Skerrit), but find themselves at odds with the overly religious and uptight Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall). Burns is aligned both romantically and professionally with head nurse Major Margaret Houlihan (Sally Kellerman), who is called "Hot Lips" by those that around her after a prank by Hawkeye and Trapper John. Blake sees the skills of Hawkeye and Trapper John, and he and his left hand man Corporal Walter "Rader" O´Reilly (Gary Burghoff) assist them.

There are a number of sub-stories in "M*A*S*H" that creates hilarity and the film is essentially a four act story. The first act begins with Duke and Hawkeye arriving at the 4077th and immediately causing a stir around camp when it is learned that the Jeep they arrived in was stolen. Duke is crass about his flirting with nurses and Hawkeye has trouble with authority. They are placed into a tent with Frank Burns, but demand commanding officer Henry Blake to have Frank removed from "The Swamp." Hawkeye also demands to Blake that they need a chest cutter at the camp and after a lot of reluctance, Trapper John arrives and quickly becomes a very good friend to Hawkeye and a tent-mate to the surgeons Hawkeye and Duke. Korean national Ho-Jon (Kim Atwood) is ´adopted´ by the three and is taught the finer points of making mixed drinks, in a move that further angers Burns towards them.

The second act revolves around Hot Lips and the camp´s dentist "Painless Pole" Waldowski (John Schuck). Hot Lips earns her nickname when it is realized by Hawkeye and Trapper that Burns and Hot Lips plan to write a report and undermine their tom foolery. They plan to send a report to a General, but are only embarrassed when Radar assists the mischievous surgeons in broadcasting a sexual encounter between Burns and Hot Lips. The other main plot line of the second act is that of Painless Pole feeling he may have become a homosexual and wanting to kill himself. Hawkeye and Trapper enlist the help of Father John Patrick Mulcahy (Rene Auberjonois) and the sexy and amorous Lieutenant Maria "Dish" Schneider (JoAnn Pflug) to help the depressed Captain realize that he is not gay and want to continue living and performing dentistry around the camp.

The third major story of "M*A*S*H" sends Hawkeye and Trapper John to Kokura, Japan to operate on the son of a Congressman. The soldier was injured during training and Trapper is one of the few thoracic surgeons in the region. Trapper agrees to help the Congressman´s son, but only if he can take an assistant along and he and Hawkeye travel with their golf clubs to Kokura and announce that the "pros from Dover" have arrived and immediately find themselves at odds with the military hospital´s commander Colonel Wallace Merrill (James B. Douglas). Hawkeye´s old friend Captain Ezekiel "Me Lay" Marston (Michael Murphy) serves in Kokura and serves as the Hawkeye and Trapper´s anesthetist. The pair perform the surgery successfully and then are encouraged by Marston to help a sick Japanese baby over a live-threatening medical problem.

The final act of "M*A*S*H" is perhaps the film´s most memorable. Visiting Brigadier General Charlie Hammond (George Wood) agrees with Henry Blake after the insistence of Hawkeye and Duke to have a friendly football game as Hammond is known for having a strong team in the theater of operations. The game is for bragging rights and a small pot of five thousand dollars. The 4077th needs the money, but they know they are no match for Hammond´s team. Blake is again asked to bring in a surgeon and Captain Oliver "Spear Chucker" Jones (Fred Williamson) is brought in as a neurosurgeon for the M*A*S*H unit. Jones had previously played for the San Francisco 49ers and is a ringer for Blake´s team. Through trickery and some dirty hits, the 4077th prevails and wins the game and Hawkeye and Duke then receive their orders to return home.

"M*A*S*H" is a true comedy classic and helped launch the careers of those involved with the production. Screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. deviated from the original novel by Richard Hooker and interjected more comedy into the story and moved away from the heavy racist tones of the novel in a move that helped create lasting characters and memories that lasted for decades. Interestingly, the production was noted to be problematic with the stars and the film´s director clashing routinely. Sutherland and Altman never worked again after the production and Gould apologized to Altman afterwards for being troublesome and difficult. In the end, "M*A*S*H" was filmed and for a film that was not viewed too highly by some of those making it, Sutherland and Gould became bigger stars and Altman went on to become one of Hollywood´s great directors.

The film is episodic and often succumbs story to comedy, but while the approach to filmmaking used by Altman was not viewed keenly by others, the final cut of "M*A*S*H" is cohesive and well done. There is not one long story to watch during the film and some of the situations and relationships during the film would be questionable or uneven had this been one long story instead of four smaller stories woven together. Hot Lips becomes the head cheerleader for Blake, Hawkeye, Duke and Trapper during the game after being ridiculed and embarrassed by them earlier in the film. The story takes place over a length of time, but Duke and Hawkeye arrive and leave Korea in the same Jeep during the film´s 116 minutes. "M*A*S*H" is a comedy that tells stories to be humorous and loosely paints a very anti-war message, but doesn´t use a heavy hand or deep story to do so.

Sutherland and Gould may have not taken the filming of "M*A*S*H" seriously and perhaps they did not have their hearts in the production, but Altman managed to make them memorable for their performance and while I have always preferred Alan Alda as Hawkeye, the two are hilarious as the two doctors who could care less for military doctrine and would rather drink, screw and party their way through the war and the surgery room that take anything seriously. The supporting cast is solid as well with Robert Duvall being very good as Frank Burns, the late and sadly underutilized Roger Bowen was a good Henry Blake although McLean Stevenson is how I always remember the character. Tom Skerrit was so young I hardly recognized the veteran actor as Duke, but the typically serious actor was nicely cast in the funny role. Gary Burghoff was the only actor to play his character in the film and the television show and was perfect as Radar. "M*A*S*H" could not have been without Burghoff.