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[caption id="attachment_2114" align="aligncenter" width="193" caption="A promotional poster for the movie found at: http://www.mash4077tv.com/category/mash-the-movie/"]<a href="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mash_ad_1970.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2114" src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mash_ad_1970-193x300.jpg" alt="Promotional Poster for M*A*S*H" width="193" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

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<p style="text-align: left;" dir="LTR" align="CENTER">Here is the theme song for M*A*S*H. "Suicide Is Painless", by Johnny Mandel. It was used as an instrumental at the beginning of the movie and then sung with the words to a guitar accompaniment in this scene. "Jawbreaker" is unable to have sex with a gorgeous nurse and decides that it is probably because he has always been gay. He believes his life will be too hard if he has to live it as a gay man and decides to commit suicide. The three star surgeons of the movie intervene at the chaplain’s request and stage a fake suicide for him by giving him a "Last Supper" and the "Black Pill".  To hear the entire song and see a portion of the scene, go to the link below.  The entire clip is less than 3 minutes.</p>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVUXPjFWfX4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVUXPjFWfX4</a>

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<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">M*A*S*H has three important lessons that it is imperative that we preserve for the future. The first is that humor is a formidable weapon. The second is that all of us have the free will and responsibility to question authority. Third, "there are no victors in war, only victims" (Fiero, 418). Throughout the film, images of the real life results of war and the way that a M*A*S*H unit during the Korean war deals with the fallout are juxtaposed. No matter  where human beings go, we carry the potential for violence. Our people, generation after generation need to learn and remember that they cannot be sheep in the play of life. They must always use humor and compassion to question authority and to reach a consensus among themselves. They must never forget the results of war.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">M*A*S*H was originally a book written by Richard Hooker about his real-life experiences as a surgeon during the Korean War. It was entitled "MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors". During the Korean War, surgeons and medical personnel were in short supply, so they were drafted into the United States Army to serve overseas. Some of them ended up in Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (M.A.S.H. for short). Typically, these units set up in tents and removable buildings within three to five miles of the front lines.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Ring Lardner read the book and was inspired to write the screenplay. "Fifteen Hollywood directors turned down making it (a movie) because, they felt that the screenplay lacked the necessary coherence to give the movie a clear and strong narrative momentum" (Monaco, 197-198). Stanley Kubrick was among the directors who rejected it (Gilby, 122). Robert Altman read the script, loved it and elected to direct it for Twentieth Century Fox. M*A*S*H was released to the public in 1970.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">The movie starred Donald Sutherland as "Hawkeye", Elliott Gould as "Trapper John" and Tom Skerritt as Duke. These three young and rather inexperienced new faces, at the time, played the drafted surgeons who were the main characters in the movie. The story follows them through short vignettes of serious surgery followed by short scenes of the way they try to maintain their sanity in an insane situation called war. One short section of the film may highlight the surgeons hands inside the chest cavity of a wounded soldier. The next scene might be the set-up of "Hot Lips" Houlihan, played by Sally Kellerman, to settle a bet between the surgeons. They want to find out if "Hot Lips" is a natural blond. At all times, the film highlights the dysfunction of the army and the rebellious behavior of the young doctors who know they are above reprimand because they are too valuable for the army to discipline. Even though the doctors act in sacrilegious and disrespectful ways, they maintain their respect for human life. Their medical oaths are taken seriously for everyone, no matter which side of the conflict they come from. Scenes of silliness and hilarity are interrupted by incoming helicopters bearing the wounded.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">"By the 1960’s, the events of a war in the jungles of Vietnam were being relayed via electronic satellite in American living rooms." "In 1969, in a live telecast, the world saw the first astronauts walk on the surface of the moon" (Fiero, 479). In South Africa, Christian Barnard performed the first heart-transplant surgery in 1967. But, despite the technological advances of the Information Age and the hopes they engendered, the mood in the United States was gloomy. "Named the "Me Decade" by journalist Tom Wolfe in 1976, the 1970’s were seen as a time of growing individuality and diminished civic engagement." "Economically, politically, and socially, the decade was marked by growing cynicism and uncertainty as Americans questioned the integrity of their political leaders and institutions" (Batchelor). The economy was slowing down, unemployment was increasing and all around were people, young people in particular, who were growing more disillusioned and dissatisfied with the role the United States was playing in Vietnam. Protests, spearheaded by students who didn’t believe in the "civil action" but, could be drafted to fight and die at any time, bloomed on college campuses nationwide.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">This climate of disillusionment and cynicism propagated a form of writing that grew popular in the 1960’s and 70’s. Satire and sarcasm were used to make fun of institutions and individuals. "Gallows humor evoked laughter at what was hideous and awful" (Fiero, 418). Much of the fiction of the time focused on the depersonalization of the individual and the ability of humans to destroy each other. "Catch 22", a book written by Joseph Heller (1923-1999) in 1955, was one of the first of this genre. In it, "Heller describes "the humbug hypocrisy, cruelty and sheer stupidity of our mass society" (Fiero, 418). Out of this tradition comes the movie M*A*S*H.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">M*A*S*H, as directed by Robert Altman, was produced with the same philosophy that Heller used fifteen years earlier in his book. As the characters in M*A*S*H "try to preserve their identity and their sanity, they became the enemies of the very authorities that sent them to war". (Fiero, 419) "Altman was known at the time, in the industry, as a brash and loud-mouthed liberal who voiced a strong contempt for authority" (Monaco, 198).</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">As heard in an interview with Altman and others, (included in the Collectors Edition of M*A*S*H in 2005), Altman made the movie a deliberate protest against the "war in Vietnam and war in general". (Fiero, 495) Altman and the people that helped him film the movie, lived in fear that Twentieth Century Fox would find out what they were really doing and shut them down. Twentieth Century believed that it was a war movie that had some laughs in it. Altman hid all references to Korea in the film. In one scene, that visits a supposed village in Korea, Altman has extras wearing the conical hats that are worn in Vietnam and not in Korea.  (M*A*S*H: Collectors Edition, 2) Altman produced M*A*S*H as an anti-war film.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">The art of film-making is constantly evolving. 1970 was no different in this respect. Altman’s contribution to the world of movies is called "overlaid" sound. At the opening of the movie are two lines of overlapping dialogue spoken at the same time. During the movie, background noises and conversations overlap, birds singing and jets flying over are audible. The camp loud-speaker may be heard to announce that a movie will be shown that evening or blare Japanese takeoffs on American swing music while the main character is speaking. The colonel and Radar often speak the same lines at nearly the same time.  Radar always speaks just ahead of the colonel This underscores the confusion about who is really in charge. Altman’s innovation produced a more true to life experience and helped emphasize the points he wanted to make. Hearing ten different conversations in the surgery, while young soldiers hang between life and death on tables and surgeions hands work to save them, adds to the chaos and confusion. Hearing a jet fly over, during an otherwise silly conversation, reminds the viewer of where the speakers are and the seriousness of why they are there. Those jets are carrying bombs. People are going to die.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">M*A*S*H was filmed near Santa Monica, California. Altman hired a cast of improvisational actors he found performing at a nearby theatre to play the extras in his movie. They were encouraged to make conversation as their characters might if it were in a real situation. Altman allowed the actors to improvise on the spot. Ring Larder, Jr. was heard more that once, yelling at Altman because, Altman wasn’t following Lardner’s script. Altman "used long lenses, slow zooms and tiny microphones to ambush his performers  -  to catch them accidentally being natural" (Gilby 123).</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">M*A*S*H was an instant success when it hit movie theaters in 1970. "That M*A*S*H was" Altman’s "breakthrough movie had as much to do with synchronicity as quality." (Gilby, 122) The time was ripe for a movie that Fiero wrote was a "biting satire on war in general" and classified it with others in a genre she called "Social Conscience" films. (Fiero, 495) M*A*S*H was a nominee at the Oscars for best picture and best film editing in 1971. Ring Lardner, Jr. won an Oscar for best screen writing. "A popular television series, part comedy and part drama, also named M*A*S*H, spun off from the film" (Roman) and ran from 1972 until 1984; twelve years.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">I saw the movie, in a theater, in 1970. I was a high school student in my Junior year. I had read Time magazine and seen the news. I knew about the protests against the war. Everywhere were signs that the Information Age was having a profound effect on our society and way of life. When I came out of that movie I was beyond words. The amount of blood, the broken bodies of young men, the sexual freedom and independence of the nurses, the complete disregard for army authority and the constant chaos of helicopters, loud-speakers and over-lapping conversations shocked me. I was forever changed by the depictions of a surgical arena filled with surgeons and their patients, the shortages of medical supplies, and the honest caring of the doctors for those who came to be on their tables. James Roman wrote it for me in his article entitled M*A*S*H. "War is never pretty and its visual imagery is fraught with controversy and concern. Altman (bathed) his satire within the context of humor, which makes an even more profound statement on the destructiveness of these ritualistic moral constructs. It (M*A*S*H) is a timeless portrait of disdain for the ineptness of leadership and the costs endured." I could not have said that, at the time but, I did know it on some level when I came out of that theater back in 1970. In vivid, bloody color, Altman’s humor had taught me what my life experience hadn’t gotten to yet.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">In 1931 Charles Chaplin (1889-1977) took a tour around the world. He visited many countries including Germany. He became very concerned with what he saw. He said he wrote "The Great Dictator" (1940) because, he couldn’t write anything else at the time.  He said, "And now another war was brewing and I was trying to write a story for Paulette (Paulette Goddard, a popular young actress of the time and also an ex-wife of Chaplin’s) but, I could make no progress. How could I throw myself into feminine whimsy or think of romance...when madness was being stirred up by a hideous, grotesque, Adolph Hitler" He later wrote that "Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I could not have made "The Great Dictator"; I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis." (Vance, 236)</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">The United States’ attitude, during the 1930’s was one of conciliation and appeasement. Hollywood was afraid of insulting the Germans, because they didn’t want to lose the German market. Maybe, Chaplin made the movie as a reaction to a piece of German propaganda that reached him. The propaganda called him a Jew and a bore. Chaplin proceeded to write, direct and star in "The Great Dictator"  despite Hollywood’s reticence."The Great Dictator" is a tale of two worlds: the palace, where the dictator rules, and the ghetto, where the Jewish barber lives." "The comedic device in the film is the resemblance between the dictator and the barber."  People had noticed Chaplin’s likeness to Hitler for a long time. It was rumored that Hitler adopted Chaplin’s mustache because of Chaplin’s well loved character in "The Tramp". Giant X’s replace the swastikas and Chaplin’s character’s name was Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomania. "The theme of the story, at its basic level was the struggle between good and evil" (Vance, 240)</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Both M*A*S*H and "The Great Dictator" are meant to be pointed jabs at wars and the human machinery that cause wars. "The Great Dictator" was made before the United States got involved with WWII. M*A*S*H was made while the U.S. was embroiled in conflicts in Vietnam. While Chaplin directly satirized Hitler and his cohorts. Altman chose quips and keystone cop-like antics to make fun of the "brass". Charlie Chaplin’s story is about good and evil and portrays Hynkel as idiotic and evil. Altman’s movie chooses a broader brush and paints with a lot of gray the various personalities that are found on any army base. While Chaplin gives Hitler a direct hit, Altman skirts around issues and gives glimpses of his opinions by using only the visual shots of the surgery itself to bring his points home. One of the memorable lines from "The Great Dictator" is, "life would be wonderful if people would leave you alone". In M*A*S*H, "Hot Lips" Houlihan asks how such a disrespectful and unmilitary man could be promoted to Head Surgeon. A corpsman on the side is heard to say, "He was drafted.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Chaplin made his opinions known by choosing actors who closely resembled Hitler’s top aides and then naming them Herring and Garbitsch. (Vance, 240) Chaplin took whatever information he had about Hitler and then exagerated it so that it was a close approximation to the reality, but twisted it and misnamed it, to expose it to ridicule. Altman chose scenes of blood and gore, men moaning and crying out, overlaid by a the loud-speaker announcing that "marijuana is a dangerous drug." Chaplin’s humor was up front and in your face. It was typical of the era. People didn’t quite know yet how to watch a movie and they were treated that way. Altman’s films require thinking and noticing the details. So much of what Altman did is packed and overlaid so densely with lines and symbols, that it requires more than one viewing to understand the full significance of what is happening in any one scene. Chaplin’s film seems simple in comparison. Both of the movies use slapstick comedy.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">A copy of M*A*S*H, and in particular "M*A*S*H: Collectors Edition", should be included in the 2100 Time Capsule. It’s method of production and humor are timeless. The message is one that should be repeated over and over. People who have been through a war believe in their side of the story, but they seem to forget very quickly what this type of engagement costs everyone. When the message is presented in visual form, with the humor aimed at those who keep the machinery of war well oiled, the moral of the story cannot be forgotten. Our children, and all the generations to come, need a reminder of where we come from and why. They need to always be mindful that as Fiero writes, "There are no victors in war, only victims." Human beings, who leave this Earth in the 2100 Space Capsule, need to question authority, debate everything, come to a consensus of opinion and always, always, keep a sense of humor about it all.  They must never forget the results of war. M*A*S*H can be a lesson and reminder to future generations. It must be included in the 2100 Time Capsule.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="CENTER">Works Cited</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Batchelor, Bob. "Introduction to the 1970’s (Overview)." <em>Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas</em>. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2011.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Fiero, Gloria K. <em>The Humanistic Tration: The Early Modern World to the Present</em>. 6th Ed. Boston: McGraw Hill. 2011. Print.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Gilbey, Ryan <em>It Don’t Worry Me: The Revolutioary American Films of the Seventies </em>New York: Faber and Faber, Inc. 3002. Print. "Plot summary for MASH" <em>IMDb</em> Amazon.com, n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2011.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">M*A*S*H:Collectors Edition.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Dir. Robert Altman. Perf. Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt and Sally Kellerman. 1969 Twentieth Century Fox, 2005 DVD. Two Disc Set.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Monaco, Paul. <em>History of American Movies: A Film-By-Film Look At The Art, Craft, and Business Of Cinema</em>. Scarecrow Press, 2010. eBook Collection <em>(EBSCOhost). </em>Web. 6 Nov. 2011.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Roman, James. "M*A*S*H(Film, 1970) <em>Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas</em>. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2011.</p>
<p dir="LTR" align="LEFT">Vance, Jeffrey. <em>Chaplin: genius of the cinema </em>New York: Harry N. Abrams. 2003. Print.</p>
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