Tag Archives: mas*h

ROBERT ALTMAN: MASH

Trapper (Elliott Gould), Duke (Tom Skeritt), and Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland) think up new schemes in MASH

MASH (Robert Altman, 1970)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Saturday, January 10, 4:00
Series runs through January 17
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Ostensibly set during the Korean War but actually about the controversial battle that was raging in Vietnam, Robert Altman’s MASH is one of the most subversive, and funniest, antiwar films ever to come from a Hollywood studio. Adapted by Hollywood Ten blacklisted writer Ring Lardner Jr. from Richard Hooker’s bookMASH: A Novel about Three Army Doctors, the film focuses on a different kind of hero: the doctors and nurses at a Mobile Surgical Army Hospital not far from the front lines. These brave men and women don’t go around with guns, grenades, and helmets; instead, they equip themselves with surgical masks, clamps, and scalpels, fighting to save the lives of those who risked theirs on the battlefield. Instead of celebrating killing, they celebrate survival, and celebrate they do, led by Capts. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and John Francis Xavier “Trapper John” McIntyre (Elliott Gould), who have their own way with wine, women, and song. Joined by Capt. Augustus Bedford “Duke” Forrest (Tom Skerritt), they ridicule Majs. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Sally Kellerman) and Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), regularly embarrass Father John Patrick “Dago Red” Mulcahy (René Auberjonois), flirt endlessly with Lt. Maria “Dish” Schneider (Jo Ann Pflug) and her nursing staff, and generally wreak havoc that their commanding officer, Lt. Col. Henry Blake (Roger Bowen), will usually let them get away with, as long as they don’t interrupt his fishing outings. Hawkeye, Duke, and Trapper drink from a homemade still, take bets on whether Hot Lips’ carpet matches the drapes, play golf, and make fun of the military and religion every chance they get, especially during a mock funeral for Capt. Walter Koskiusko Waldowski (John Schuck), the dentist known as “Painless,” who has decided to commit suicide. The wacky cast of characters also includes Gary Burghoff as Cpl. Radar O’Reilly, Altman regular Michael Murphy as Capt. Ezekiel Bradbury “Me Lay” Marston IV, Bud Cort as Pvt. Lorenzo Boone, G. Wood as Brig. Gen. Charlie Hammond, and Kim Atwood as Ho-Jon. But Hawkeye and Trapper also happen to be outstanding doctors who take their oath very seriously, even when operating on an injured enemy. Their brazen disregard for authority of all kinds and the rule of military law is a knowing slap in the face to governments around the world, who so often send their young men and women off to war for highly questionable reasons.

A special show is about to begin for the 4077th in Korea

The brash, outrageous satire, the first studio film to get the F-word past the censors, also features a wild football game with real-life gridiron stars Buck Buchanan, Ben Davidson, and Fred Williamson as, yes, Capt. Oliver Harmon “Spearchucker” Jones (and came four years before The Longest Yard), won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Kellerman), and Best Film Editing (Danford B. Greene), winning only for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it gave birth to the hugely popular television series that ran from 1972 to 1983. But there’s nothing quite like the film, a brilliant deconstruction of a different side of war, one where life is more important than death. The film’s overt misogyny gets a bit much all these years later, but it’s still a mad romp that served as the real starting point of Altman’s stellar career, which is being honored at MoMA with a comprehensive retrospective that runs through January 17 with upcoming screenings of Gosford Park and Nashville, Altman’s excellent political cable series, Tanner ’88, filmed versions of such plays as The Dumbwaiter and The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and Ron Mann’s 2014 documentary, Altman. (MASH is being shown January 10 at 4:00 with Altman’s 1966 four-minute short, Ebb Tide, in which Lili St. Cyr enjoys herself on the beach.)

THE RATIONALIST: ALAN ALDA AS HAWKEYE PIERCE IN MAS*H

Alan Alda will sit down for an in-depth conversation about his role in M*A*S*H at the Museum of the Moving Image

ICONIC CHARACTERS OF COMEDY: A CONVERSATION WITH ALAN ALDA MODERATED BY JEFF GREENFIELD
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Tuesday, October 15, $25, 7:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.comedyhalloffame.com

From 1972 to 1983, Larry Gelbart’s M*A*S*H television series ran on CBS, garnering fourteen Emmys as it explored the nature of war, politics, and the military industrial complex through the daily life of the men and women of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. The show’s centerpiece was Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, played by Alan Alda, taking on the role originally played by Donald Sutherland in Robert Altman’s Oscar-nominated 1970 film. Surrounded by such characters as Hot Lips Houlihan (Loretta Swit), Max Klinger (Jamie Farr), Trapper John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers), Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson), Frank “Ferret Face” Burns (Larry Linville), B. J. Hunnicut (Mike Farrell), Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan), Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers), Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff), and Father Mulcahy (William Christopher), expert surgeon Pierce regularly took on the establishment, fighting against absurd rules and regulations while trying to save lives — and score with as many nurses as possible. On October 15, Alda, who won five Emmys for M*A*S*H — three for acting, one for writing, and one for directing — will sit down with moderator Jeff Greenfield at the Museum of the Moving Image for “The Rationalist: Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H,” an in-depth conversation copresented with the Comedy Hall of Fame, the first installment of the new series “Iconic Characters of Comedy.”

75 YEARS OF 20th CENTURY FOX

Elliott Gould (third from left) and Tom Skerritt (far right) will be at Lincoln Center for fortieth anniversary screening of M*A*S*H, part of Labor Day weekend celebration of 20th Century Fox’s seventy-fifth anniversary

Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
September 4-6, $9 per screening, $49 All Access Pass
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

In 1935, Fox Films merged with 20th Century Pictures to form 20th Century Fox. The Film Society of Lincoln Center is honoring the company’s seventy-fifth anniversary with a fabulous slate of 20th Century Fox flicks this Labor Day weekend, with screenings only nine bucks apiece. The series begins Saturday with the noir greats HANGOVER SQUARE (John Brahm, 1945) and KISS OF DEATH (Henry Hathaway, 1947) and also includes the cult classic VANISHING POINT (Richard C. Sarafian, 1971), in which Barry Newman rides that white Dodge Challenger across the country, on the run from the law as well as life itself. Saturday’s big event, however, is the fortieth anniversary screening of a new print of M*A*S*H (Robert Altman, 1970), with Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, Tom Skerritt, and Kathryn Reed Altman participating in a Q&A. Sunday’s films begin with William A. Wellman’s harrowing 1943 Western THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, in which Anthony Quinn barely grits his teeth when removing a bullet from his body; the film takes on added significance in light of the border war with Mexico and the anti-immigrant law in Arizona. Sunday also features restored prints of NIAGARA (Henry Hathaway, 1953) and ALL ABOUT EVE (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950) and the director’s cut of ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979), with Skerritt again hanging around for a Q&A. The evening concludes with FIGHT CLUB (David Fincher, 1999), but we can’t say any more about that, because you know what the first rule of Fight Club is. On Monday, a trio of all-time favorites starts with a restored print of Elia Kazan’s 1947 exploration of anti-Semitism, GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT, followed by 70mm prints of CLEOPATRA (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963) and the military biopic to end all military biopics, PATTON (Franklin L. Schaffner, 1970). It’s quite a collection of memorable films, and you can see them all for a mere $49 with an All Access Pass, which is quite a deal, especially since the Fox Movie Channel now charges on-demand for each of its flicks.