June Recommendation: M*A*S*H

 

            We're nearing the end of June, and I necessarily didn't pick a good June film this for this month. Usually, it would be more about summer films, but I would say in a sense the film that inspired one of the greatest TV sitcoms about War as well as Army Doctors. I have to admit I don't remember a whole lot of the movie version to Mash other than remembering the football scene where they're literally drugging a football player, though in all honesty this film was on my radar for quite some time and now that the film is on Amazon Prime I figured why not give this movie a watch. 

             Irreverent black comedy following the exploits of a host of offbeat characters at a medical unit during the Korean War, including surgeons Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper John McIntyre (Elliot Gould) who create havoc with their martini parties and practical jokes while the war rages around them. The film spawned a successful television series and won an Oscar for best Screenplay.

             Mash without a doubt was a huge part of my life and I don't need to speak a whole lot about why, other than, I was raised by great parents who watched great television back in their adult years. More importantly by the time I was in elementary school this show would be on constantly in terms of reruns for your typical Nebraska TV shows that would air either early morning on ABC or late nights, and I was literally watching some of these episodes because my Dad would watch the show before he went to work and I was a block from my school and I would literally watch some of these episodes by 8 a.m. then would head down to school because school didn't start till 8:15 a.m. I think around two maybe three years into my TV Job years I found the show on Netflix, furthermore decided to binge on the show and for reasons I can't explain or you may understand the way I explain it is well, mostly the work environment I began to relate to the most besides the war I mean sure this is a story about Doctors patching up soldier's day and nights with very little to do in the spare time, but at its core doctors would most certainly have to put up with people they find incompetent and sometimes narcissists as well as sticklers who always go by the book. And really that's what we all can relate to as regular people, right? I mean we have jobs that we always hate, must deal with people who are at times annoying and toxic furthermore Mash is defiantly one of those movies as well as shows that I personally relate in terms of everyday work environments. The challenge personally for me when coming on to watch Mash for the very first time was taking the great actors of Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, Gary Burghoff and the late great Loretta Swift. And surprisingly enough it really wasn't that hard, granted the movie alone is a R rating and so, what you do in the movie you can't do on the TV show, furthermore the actors as well as the direction of the movie was really good, in addition what makes the film amazing is director Robert Altman, allowed his actors to improvise with the dialog and let them go crazy through the course of the shoot. The other shocking thing was that all of these amazing great actors you have assemble from Donald Sutherland to Robert Duvall, this was in fact their very first big role, take Sutherland for example by 1969, he was literally out of work and couldn't afford a cup of coffee, even the same goes to Elliot Gould who I remembered the guy as Ruben from the Ocean's Eleven films. The important thing in Robert Altman's direction was of course allowing improvisation but more importantly using quick zoom techniques so, he wouldn't have to move the camera, even using creativity and cunning to get some of the shots right, especially some of the mild nudity scenes Rada aka Gary Burghoff and Altman would drop their pants in order to capture "movie" Hot Lips with the right timing as well as the right shot. Ring Lardner Jr. (whose father was Ring Lardner who in fact exposed the Black Sox Scandal) infamous for Steve McQueen classic "The Cincinnati Kid", was very upset with the change of dialog that he even told Altman that he ruined his film, unfortunately he was in the minority and yet, he got an Oscar for his writing so, deep down I would assume both men each made peace with one another, though I would imagine Lardner felt bad when telling that Altman ruined the film. I will say that Mash to me is most certainly one of those great movies as well as shows that still stands the test of time of exploring the human spirit as well as showing a rebel side in all of us, plus the film and show also shows us that no matter how good you are at your job in your everyday life you can still have a great time and live a little, more importantly is to be a humble, human being and not your typical narcissist or incompetent a-hole. And now living into my mid-to final years of 30's I give a ton of thanks to Mash for showing that you can always have a little fun in your everyday work life, as well as being a humble person to your own profession and I personally hope that everyone whose grown up with Mash as a show or movie would have the opportunity this June to finally watch and enjoy more importantly Mash is and always will be a personal inspiration for me in terms of comedy as well as having to express comedy, though despite not doing the crazy things Hawkeye and Trapper would of done I at heart, was one of those guys. Also, this film is on Amazon Prime so, if you’re always having free time on your hands, I would highly recommend watching the original Mash that started off one of the greatest TV sitcoms of all time.