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.)