M*A*S*H (2006, DVD)

MY REVIEW OF THE MOVIE PROPER (4 l_l)

The Robert Altman style, so familiar to moviegoers over the last thirty years, was unleashed in this film about doctors at a Korean War-era Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. The documentary-style camera work, laying back from the action but given license to zoom in and out as it sees fit, works its wonders best in the operation scenes. Three tables of patients and doctors, all acting at once, and the camera still manages to capture every piece of relevant information, without making the whole mess confusing. The overlapping dialogue, which I imagine gave those charged with subtitling the DVD version fits, works in much the same way. No one would ever confuse "M*A*S*H" for anything but a Robert Altman film.

Curiously, however, Altman does move away from his trademark slapdash mosaic style in several key moments. He lets conventional Hollywood editing and camera blocking take over during these important sequences. The wondrous thing is that they never give the audience the impression that they're watching a different movie. Everything is so seamless. For example, during the Painless Pole suicide sequence, Altman abandons any semblance of realism, instead constructing an almost theatrical tableau. All the doctors, dressed in their surgical whites, sit on one side of a long table, recreating da Vinci's "The Last Supper". It's a wonderfully composed, and purposefully profane, moment.

The sequence where Trapper John, one of the three main surgeons, is called to Tokyo to perform heart surgery on a congressman's son, and he takes along Hawkeye, his chief partner in crime, is another example of Altman straying from his anti-convention. It's staged almost like a Marx Brothers' comedy (Hawkeye, at one point, even says, apropos of nothing, "Say the secret word and I'll give you a hundred dollars", a line probably more suited to Trapper, seeing as he's the one with the Groucho moustache). Trapper, in a fit of rage, plays swashbuckler with his umbrella, in an attempt to get into the hospital. Altman plays the scene from the point of view of the nurse who's the victim of this abuse. The jokes in the scene, in startling contrast to the rest of the movie, are punctuated with aplomb. A loud gong follows one punchline; another gets a classic double-take treatment from Elliott Gould.

The football sequence, which in a film without a narrative manages to function as a climax, even looks differently. While the rest of the film is composed of grainy and dirty images, these last scenes capture the bright colours and energy of your standard All-American cinematic gridiron game. Complete with rousing marching band and hyper-comical sound effects that amplify the bone-crunching hits, its metaphoric nature as the only real battle scene in what is ostensibly a war picture is almost lost on the viewer. Almost.

Despite the absence of battle, "M*A*S*H" is not devoid of blood. The surgery sequences are filled to the brim with the red stuff, and serve as a stark contrast to the movie's more goofy comedic moments. Sometimes within the same scene. One notable example: Hawkeye, with a note of apprehension on his face, must saw off a wounded man's leg. After a few strokes back and forth -- complete with cringe-inducing, nails-on-the-blackboard-style sound effects -- he asks the nurse for a clamp. What for? she asks. To scratch his nose, he cheekily replies, and the laugh they share perfectly diffuses the horrific moment. This scene, to me, is "M*A*S*H" in a nutshell.

When thinking of the characters who inhabit "M*A*S*H"s landscape I am reminded of the realization I had while watching George Cukor's "The Philadelphia Story". That classic makes its audience root for the stuck-up rich girl and the spoiled rude millionaire layabout, two character types often cast in roles of villainy, while fostering resentment towards a man who earned his fortune by pulling himself up by his bootstraps, usually the hero. It's a neat trick that the movie pulls off cleanly. And so does this one. Hawkeye, Trapper, Duke, et al., are terribly mean men. They are type-A personalities all, unwillingly to accept anyone who doesn't conform to their lofty, intellectual standards, or their well-developed sense of anarchy. Witness the way they treat bible-thumping surgeonFrank Burns. True, he turns out to be a less than sympathetic character as we go along, but they hate him on first sight just because he happens to be religious. Does he deserve their torment? Well, in the end he does. But not for this "crime" alone, he sure doesn't. And yet he gets insulted and mocked till the cows come home. But just as the humour of the film is a defense mechanism against the insanity of war, this cruelty also serves a purpose. Anyone without a strong character, and an affinity for the kind of team these men are building, must be weeded out and destroyed. It's this realization that allows the audience to sympathize with the tormentors rather than the tormentees. And it allows you to let down your moralistic guard and like them just the same.

Still, there are some moments here that go so far over the line that even a quasi-liberal observer like myself -- one who can casually accept immorality in movies because art must exist in an amoral state -- gasping. "Can I still like these men, given their actions?" I often found myself asking. There are facets of the film that embrace casual sexuality bordering on harassment and casual racism worn as a badge of honour. An example of the former is the way the men treat Hot Lips, "army clown" that she is, as an object of both desire and ridicule. An example of the latter can be found in some of the self-imposed nicknames the men give themselves: Painless Pole, Dago Red, Spearchucker Jones, etc. True, the obscenity of warfare is a much harsher villain than the obscenities the men practice ('obscenity' is too judgmental a word for my tastes, but I'll let it stand in the absence of anything better), which is why the film is allowed to go to such lengths. But be warned that much here is designed to make the audience uncomfortable, and to question their beliefs.

Balancing this discomfort is a dramatis personae full of characters that are wonderfully likable despite their flaws. Hawkeye Pierce is probably the most developed character, brought to life by some witty dialogue and some fine acting by then-unknown Donald Sutherland. Hawkeye is a man of many mannerisms: he calls everyone "Babe", he's constantly hiding behind his downturned cap and thick spectacles, and, with apologies to Karen Silkwood and Woodward & Bernstein, he's cinema's greatest whistleblower, punctuating each moment with the same simple three-note phrase. There's a casual elegance that Sutherland brings to Hawkeye (and every other role he's ever played) that shines through even the swampiest of settings here. Elliott Gould's Trapper is a Zen-like shaggy dog, ravenous in his appetites but dedicated to his surgery. Gould has a calmness about him that belies the man's manic nature, but it all fits together so well. Hawkeye and Trapper are one of film's greatest subversive comedy teams; they seem to share a brain, so easily are their plans hatched and executed.

The rest of the cast, primarily made up of unknowns, are mostly spotless. Robert Duvall, as Frank Burns, brings dignity and composure to a man who is supposed to be inept as a surgeon and as a man. Sally Kellerman is loud and abrasive and stiff as Hot Lips Houliahan, a woman who, despite her sexy exterior, is supposed to be loud and abrasive and stiff. Tom Skerritt brings some southern charm, and a hint of incongruity, to Duke Forrest, Hawkeye and Trapper's cohort in cruelty. Roger Bowen, Rene Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff, John Schuck and Bud Cort all get about the same amount of screentime, fill up the backgrounds admirably, and do yeoman's work when they're called to the front.

Robert Altman, a director whose work and style I've never been able to give my heart to, managed to craft a wonderfully satiric and entertaining little anti-war picture, that I can wholeheartedly endorse. To top off this particularly tasty confection, he's added one of the most self-aware closing credit sequences ever put on film. They are meta-credits, if you'll allow me to coin a phrase. "Attention," comes the squawk of the loudspeaker, "tonight's movie has been 'M*A*S*H'." Before introducing the ensemble, Altman and Co. soften the blow and provide one final laugh.


MY REVIEW OF THE M*A*S*H (FIVE STAR COLLECTION) DVD

Despite a lot of redundancy, the "M*A*S*H (Five Star Collection)" DVD is a worthwhile buy for new and old fans of the film.

Disc 1 begins with a restored print of the film. I remember seeing "M*A*S*" many times before, but not until now was I able to enjoy the wonderful work of Altman and cinematographer Harold E. Stine, who managed to keep the images clean and crisp, despite the documentary feel.

Next, you'll find Robert Altman's audio commentary track. If a DVD's audio commentary is graded based on its quality relative to the quality of the movie on which it commenting, then the best I've ever heard was Dennis Dugan's witty track for his awful film "Saving Silverman". Conversely, Altman's effort is at the bottom of the class. Non-sequiters, nonsensical rambling, self-congratulating, and long breaks for silence are its main characteristics.

The commentary appears to bore Altman, for even he's not listening to what he has to say. No less than three times does he tell us that he defends the film's gallow's humour, for if the doctors hadn't been cracking jokes, they would have been cracking up. He constantly reminds us that most of the film was improvised (while, paradoxically, complimenting Ring Lardner, Jr.'s script). And he mentions maybe a dozen times the fact that David Arkin (as Sergeant Vollmer) was the voice over the loudspeaker, and that these announcement were only added in during the editing stage. Altman's constant repetition got so annoying that I wanted to reach into the DVD player and muzzle him.

Altman claims to not like the TV series based on his movie, because its message was the antithesis of everything he was trying to say. He goes on to claim that the series was all about how "the brown people with slanty eyes" were the enemy, a message it kept saying "every Sunday night for 12 years". Anyone who has seen an episode of the show knows that this statement could not be further from the truth. In fact, the TV show is even more compassionate towards the enemy than the movie. I won't bother bemoaning this point any further, though, because Altman shoots his credibility in the foot by stating that the show starred "Alan Albert or whatever his name was."

Disc 1 also contains "AMC Backstory: Behind-the-Scenes Documentary", a quick, 24-minute feature, which contains interviews with film critics, as well as studio head Daryl Zanuck, Altman, Sutherland, Gould, Skerritt, and Kellerman. It's a glossy history of the film, from conception (the book), to execution (the script, the shooting), to culmination (critical acclaim).

Disc 2 begins with "Enlisted: The Story of M*A*S*H". It's another behind-the-scenes documentary, much in the same vein as "Backstory", only longer (40 minutes). Altman, who must be a big fan of d j vu, repeats many of the same stories here again (if I never hear the bit about how "Tora, Tora, Tora" and "Patton" distracted the executives at Fox from worrying about "M*A*S*H", or the line about how "M*A*S*H wasn't released, it escaped", it will be too soon; good lord, get this man some new writers!). Some interesting insights do pop-up, though. John Schuck (Painless Pole) reveals that he got his role, as the hospital's dentist, because of his horrible teeth! And Gary Burghoff, who played Radar in both the movie and the TV-series, appears to have turned into Truman Capote since we last saw him (easy on the pancake there, Gary). Also, there's a touching moment where Donald Sutherland, recalling the scene where he encounters an American TV-reporter in Seoul, tells of his father's first time seeing him in a movie.

"History Through The Lens: Comedy Under Fire" is the best featurette here. It not only covers the same ground that we've seen twice (three times?) before on this disc, but it adds some background information. Richard Hooker's book, and the real life men (including himself) he based the characters on, are discussed much more thoroughly. There are interviews with real Korean MASH surgeons and nurses, who recall their time in the army hospitals (we even get some footage of same). A quick history lesson, detailing the lead-up and postscript to the Korean conflict provides some much-needed background information. In one startling scene, the documentary is actually critical of the film for its lack of Korean characters (nice touch, that). And finally, unlike anywhere else on the disc, this documentary speaks highly of the successful TV-series that was spun off from the movie. This section includes one delicious moment, where a gruff, Lawrence Tierney-lookalike war veteran, comments, "We didn't have anyone dressed up in women's clothes [a la Klinger] he would have got to looking too good after eight months or so, and it wouldn't have worked." A twinkle in his eye helps the joke cut through his hard, outer shell. Priceless!

A ceremony honouring Robert Altman's cinema career, held in July of 2000 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, serves as a nice excuse to have the "30th Anniversary Cast Reunion". This segment, put together by the Fox Movie Channel, includes some superfluous footage of channel executives extolling their own virtues, before it gets down to business. Film critic Andy Klein moderates a discussion between Altman, producer Ingo Preminger, Kellerman, Auberjonois, Schuck, Cort, Gould, and Fred Williamson. Many of the same stories are told again, but the pride and passion the cast feels for the film shines through.

Finally, there's a neat little section devoted to the restoration process used on the film, in preparation for the DVD release. Shots, side-by-side, of the old and new footage, show just how well the crew did in cleaning up the print.

"M*A*S*H", the DVD, repeats too much of the same material to give it full marks. But if only to have the restored film, and the "History Through The Lens" doc, in my DVD library, the whole enterprise is very much worthwhile.