M.A.S.H.

This movie is supposed to be a satire of the Vietnam War but takes place in Korea. In case no one looked, M.A.S.H. stands for mobile Army Surgical Hospital. The movie stars Captain Trapper and Captain Hawkeye. They are both medical surgeons that work for the military and perform surgery on the wounded from the war. I thought the song in the opening scene was hilarious. It was called “Suicide is Painless”. Its funny because this movie is about war and people hurting and the song is talking about a type of killing that doesn’t hurt. I'm sure killing hurts no matter what for m it is. The song "Suicide is Paineless" is one of the motifs that occurs in the film. Another motif is Captain Hawkeye's whistle. I'm not sure exactly why he does it but the whistle is his "thing" in the film.

A couple themes in the film that I noticed was names. There is Captain Hawkeye, Captain Trapper John, Hot Lips. There are more but these were the ones that i picked up on. I know that Hawkeye got his name from his dad, Trapper was caught with a lady while having coitus, and Hot lips was also having coitus, but with Frank, and everyone in the camp heard her say that she had "Hot Lips". That was a classic scene. That is something you would do to someone during band camp. The reason everyone picks on her during the film is because 1) she is a "dim whit" and 2) picking on her is keeping everyone sane from losing their mind during the war.

An instance of irony that I saw was when Hawkeye steals the jeep and the MP jeep breaks down right as they begin the chase. This is classic because you can not chase someone in a broken vehicle. And so Hawkeye gets away. The scene immediately after this is funny as well because the Lieutenant asks Hawkeye if he stole the jeep. And Hawkeye responds, " No, its right there". The definition of to steel is asking without permission. So yes, Hawkeye did steal it, but the Lieutenant was completely fine with his explanation.

One last thing that i would like to point out is the last supper scene in the film. Now, I am not a religious freak but I did take art history and this was on of the pieces i had to know for my test so I recognized it. Painless decides that he doesn't want to keep going so he wants to commit suicide. So he has one last good time with his colleges before he goes. In the Painting, this was suppose to be Jesus last meal before he was betrayed by his disciples. In a way I guess painless was betrayed because he wanted to die but Hawkeye found a way to help him out with his lady friend.

Most of the funny things that happen in this film between sex and the relationships between colleges are all to help with the insanity of the war. After talking to a war veteran I am sure that my hypothesis is correct. Not everyone has gone to war and seen all of this. The authors did a good job of making this film into a satire because war is a serious thing and making the situations funny helps ease the idea of war onto the mind of the innocent.