By Marc S. Sanders
Forgive me. I’m not sure my position on Robert Altman’s film will be fair. All my life, I think I deliberately eluded seeing the motion picture of M*A*S*H as I have been so accustomed to the classic television show that ran for eleven seasons on CBS. As I expected the two properties couldn’t be further apart from one another.
Altman’s movie still carries a zippy kind of perspective to the horrors of war. With their hands and surgical scrubs in the thick of gory, blood red surgery, the characters are so much more apathetic to the turnaround of wounded that arrive at the 4077th American mobile army hospital, located three miles from the explosive front lines of the bloody Korean War. The well-known characters were first given live action roles here following the published novel by Richard Hooker.
Most surprising is near the end of the film when two doctors realize they are being sent home. One surgeon who is in the midst of operating on a head injury actually instructs a colleague to take over. This guy has his hands covered in brains and blood and chooses not to finish saving his patient’s life. Alan Alda of the television show, as a writer, director or while portraying Hawkeye Pierce, would never respond in such a manner. Yet, this is the approach that Robert Altman chose to follow, having infamously always despised the TV series that eclipsed his film in popularity.
Altman’s movie is a slap in the face to the famed oxymoron called “military intelligence.” In 1970, we say bravo for finally saying something frank and honest while a Vietnam War has carried on far too long for not necessarily any of the right reasons. It’s not so simple to declare war is hell. It’s much more complicated and horrifying than that.
The film’s opening bylines are quotes by celebrated military leaders of the time, like MacArthur and Eisenhower. However, these championed commanders are lampooned as we watch shlubby Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) arriving in Korea. He heads directly towards a General’s jeep and steals it, plain as day. From there on, M*A*S*H operates like a precursor to Animal House with a series of hijinks and a lack of care for military leadership or the U.S.’s purpose in this conflict.
About the only time, there is any care or forthright anger from anyone is when the jerky Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) chastises an underling. Trapper (Elliot Gould) and Hawkeye punch his lights out and the schmuck ends up in a straightjacket. Nonetheless, these guys could care less about criticizing and exposing the truth about the institution they have been drafted to serve. Their purpose is not to make an ironic statement like a Doonesbury comic strip. They just punch the commanding officer in the face and drink. The TV show was at its strongest when it relied on the wit and delivery. Trapper and Hawkeye never use irony or intelligence to belittle a buffoon. They punch, or they embarrass an authority who’s taking a shower. Regretfully, it’s the dialogue that’s lacking. Robert Altman encouraged much improv on the set and overlayered conversations within his scenes. He found nothing organized or neat and pretty about war, including daily functioning. Chaos did not only reign on a battlefield.
The pace of M*A*S*H moves episodically, and it is likely what led to the idea of a half hour TV show that dominated the airwaves for the better part of eleven years. A character called Painless contemplates suicide and so a Last Supper reenactment before he sends himself off is inserted. It’s a funny caption from these halfwits, but a storyline focused on deliberately ending a life does not connect with me in a humorous way here. Burt Reynolds, the dark comedy Heathers, and even more recently Tom Hanks toed the line of humor to be found in death by suicide. I think it worked better in those examples. With the somber, well known theme song of “Suicide Is Painless” that is forever linked with M*A*S*H, I just could not muster the laughs for this bit.
There’s also time to build comedy against another regular army brat like Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Sally Kellerman, also the best and most memorable of the cast). The iterations of shower hijinks has been duplicated so often since the release of this picture. Therefore, this gag is dried up. It does not hold its impact fifty years later after dozens Porky’s movies. As well, there’s golfing off the helicopter pad, heavy drinking and a long, drawn-out final act of an overstayed football competition which leads to one of the first times the F-word was used in a mainstream American film.
In 1970, Robert Altman delivered a bold, risky and daring film to counteract against a losing Vietnam War and the heroism of John Wayne’s bravado in war pictures. The chutzpah to lash out against American politics likely felt relatable to many who saw different and more realistic images when they understood their young sons and daughters were not coming home and were thus forever changed. Richard Hooker’s properties and stories lent an understanding to the animosity of those who forced the war on America’s children and loved ones. War has never been consistent with the short film propaganda asking you to buy war bonds. M*A*S*H negated the heroism of Hollywood sensationalism found in machine gun fare and overtaking a hill while draped in green fatigues with shiny bronze ammunition hanging off their shoulders. These soldiers of war deserve our country’s utmost respect, but they did so much more than what John Wayne demonstrated. They offered up parts of themselves they would never get back.
M*A*S*H deliberately left out the heroes. However, seeing the film for the first time, over fifty years later, I wish that at least we could follow the escapades of doctors who also directed a bed side manner to the pawns who were dying while upholding their leaders’ cause. The doctors of Robert Altman’s interpretation hardly emulate a reason to care.
The film interpretation of M*A*S*H is outdated of its time of release and the period in which it takes place. I like to think we live more humanely than not just how our military leaders functioned. I wished these physicians used their scalpels with a much less obtuse absence of empathy. Hate the puppet masters, yes. Yet would it kill these guys to still care about the puppets?
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 