M*A*S*H the Movie

[M*A*R*G*A*R*E*T]

Well, I just got finished watching it & it loved it! I had never seen it completely, because I thought I would hate having a totally different cast, and it was just so unlike the T.V. series I was used to..it's great in a different sense. It seemed almost more realistic and more mature (I hate that word, but it fits) with the plots and practical jokes. But, I did notice some differences - you get to see the patient more, and their wounds ; their gowns were also a LOT bloodier than on the series, which made it look a more real. Over all though, it's fantastic and you've got to see it!

[treky]

yes; it is a great movie! I have an old VHS tape of it that I bought way back in 1988. It has an ad at the end for "GFA" ("Goodbye, Farewell and Amen"-the finale of the series)

[tdf4077]

See, I've just never been able to get into it for some reason. I have no clue why.

[AKA]

Seeing the movie for the first time four years ago is what got me interested in the show, which I'd dismissed in my youth as just another sitcom about the military. M*A*S*H, Hogan's Heroes - what's the difference, I thought.

I wasn't paying close enough attention. In fact, I didn't even know the show revolved around medical staff.

When I first watched the movie, I saw a piece of brilliant film-making, and it piqued my interest in the whole M*A*S*H franchise. So I went out and bought the first season, which had just been released on DVD, and I wound up liking it it. A lot (the fact that you can watch the show without the laugh track on the discs really helped).

I eventually got to the point to where I love the series more than the movie. The movie, while still one of my favorites, lacks the depth and heart of the series.

I was disheartened to hear that Robert Altman, the director of the film, did not like the series. His remarks about it, I feel, are horribly misguided.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Brad

Seeing the movie for the first time four years ago is what got me interested in the show, which I'd dismissed in my youth as just another sitcom about the military. M*A*S*H, Hogan's Heroes - what's the difference, I thought.

I wasn't paying close enough attention. In fact, I didn't even know the show revolved around medical staff.

When I first watched the movie, I saw a piece of brilliant film-making, and it piqued my interest in the whole M*A*S*H franchise. So I went out and bought the first season, which had just been released on DVD, and I wound up liking it it. A lot (the fact that you can watch the show without the laugh track on the discs really helped).

I eventually got to the point to where I love the series more than the movie. The movie, while still one of my favorites, lacks the depth and heart of the series.

I was disheartened to hear that Robert Altman, the director of the film, did not like the series. His remarks about it, I feel, are horribly misguided.

For a really fascinating and bracing view (I found it so anyhow) watch Altman's M*A*S*H and "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", the final episode of the television M*A*S*H now packaged as a DVD "movie", stand-alone and thus intended to be viewed out of context as the "last" M*A*S*H story with the original film, also available on the same shelves, as the "first", and watch them back-to-back as I have.

Only Hawkeye, Father Mulcahy and Hot Lips remain in the story by "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen", and and the two films in this context nicely show M*A*S*H at the start and finish of the Korean War... odd, but it really sort of works as a higher story arc in the M*A*S*H mythos, and as more and more time passes these two works could more often wind up together like this more by default than intention.

With all this in mind I put in:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASH_(film)

"In 1951, the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is assigned two replacements: Captains "Hawkeye" Pierce and "Duke" Forrest, who arrive in a stolen Jeep. They are insubordinate, womanizing, mischievous rule-breakers but they soon prove to be excellent combat surgeons. They immediately clash with their new tent mate Frank Burns, who is both a religious man and an inferior surgeon. Hawkeye and Duke pressure Lt. Colonel Henry Blake, the unit CO, to have Burns removed from "their" tent. They also ask him to apply for a specialist thoracic surgeon to be assigned to the 4077th. Their wish is granted when Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre arrives at the 4077th. Major Margaret Houlihan, the newly assigned chief nurse of the camp, arrives and has a tour of the camp [...] Not long after the football game, Hawkeye and Duke get their discharge orders and begin their journey home - in the same stolen Jeep they arrived in."

Assume Duke did get away, Hawkeye wound up staying (both of which did actually happen when a short while later the film got the kind-of sequel with the television series... and flash-forward the real time couple of years to the end of the Korean War to...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye,_Farewell_and_Amen

"The episode's plot chronicles the final days of the Korean War at the 4077th MASH and features several storylines intended to show the war's effects on the individual personnel of the unit, and to bring closure to the series. After the ceasefire goes into effect, the members of the 4077th throw a closing party before taking down the camp for the last time. After tear-filled goodbyes, the main characters go their separate ways, leading up to the final scene of the series..."

And then it all ends... and the story wither goes off "to Maine" or "AfterM*A*S*H", or both...

Fascinating combination, as Spock might say (given Star Trek is currently facing slightly similar revision in the here and now).

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Brad

I was disheartened to hear that Robert Altman, the director of the film, did not like the series. His remarks about it, I feel, are horribly misguided.

Oh yes, Robert Altman was livid in his dislike of the television series... somewhat unreasonably so, I feel:

Internet Movie Database
http://www.imdb.com
M*A*S*H Director Hates TV Version

Director Robert Altman hates the TV series based on his 1970 movie
M*A*S*H - because it completely missed the point of the film.

Altman received an Oscar nomination for his irreverent black comedy set
in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean war but he says the
subsequent hit TV series, that used the same characters as those played
by Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould and Robert Duvall in the movie, was
"despicable".

Altman fumes, "Personally I hate that television series; I think it was
despicable. It was just the opposite of what my M*A*S*H intended. It
became a propaganda piece."

Altman adds that in his movie he tried to convey the lack of patriotic
feeling in the war. He says, "It was as big a comment as I could make.
You never saw the war, y'know? Just the results of it. The only gunshot
you saw was in the football game at half time."

"I don't mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy." -- Samuel Butler

[treky]

Richard Horneberger who wrote the book (under the name Richard Hooker) also hated the series. In fact he wrote the follow-up books as a sort of "attack" on it.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by treky

Richard Horneberger who wrote the book (under the name Richard Hooker) also hated the series. In fact he wrote the follow-up books as a sort of "attack" on it.

Yes, and since apparently he based a lot of Hawkeye on himself he was very much irked by the "liberal" take Alan Alda took the character.

In Hooker's version of M*A*S*H (and since he created the series and characters, I feel he should be respected) Hawkeye is married to Mary and has three children: Billy, Stephen and Karen. He worked for a while in East Orange, New Jersey, but then returned to Maine, where he started to work at Spruce Harbor General Hospital. Together with his old friends from Korea, he also opened Finestkind Clinic and Fishmarket.

One of his later "M*A*S*H Goes To..." novels even has Hawkeye saying something like "One of the finest things to do in the morning is kick a liberal just to stay in shape..." the exact quote and book will come to me later I'm sure... it is 3:30 am where I'm typing this!

Hooker also hated that the television writers killed Henry Blake, also, and so much so that in his novels, Blake never died:

"M*A*S*H Goes To San Fransisco" says that "despite irresponsible reports to
the contrary from people who would have known better had they been able to read words of more than one syllable, survived the Korean War and achieved high rank". He's now Major General Henry Blake, Medical Corps, U.S. Army, commanding general of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

I go into more detail on this elsewhere, in the "AfterM*A*S*H" thread on this Forum.