M*A*S*H-ing War

It took me quite a while to come around to this movie. For the first twenty minutes or so I simply could not figure out where any of the humor was in this movie. I was definitely taken aback by the lyrics to the song at the start of the film, as I was not really expecting suicide jokes in the film. By the time this film was over it had made fun of gender, religion, suicide, and the military, all for the purpose of relieving societal tensions brought on by American involvement the incredibly controversial Vietnam War.

Some of the longest running jokes in this movie deal with gender roles. From the very beginning the men treat the female nurses as playthings not real people, or if they do treat them kindly it is only so that they may get a chance to take them to bed. The longest running gender based joke deals with Major Houlihan or “Hot Lips,” the nurse on commission. She is very much focused on the equal treatment of men and women as well as upholding military protocol. The men take great joy in tormenting her going so far as to put a microphone in her room and broadcast the sounds of her having sex all over the camp, pull the cover off of the tent where she showers to “see if she is a real blonde,” and torment her with sexual jokes including the nickname Hot Lips. I feel that many of the sexual jokes in this movie were meant to reflect the sexual tensions of the times.

Religion is mostly critiqued through Major Burns who is a devout Christian, but an insufferable, hypocritical person. He tries to turn a young Korean boy to Christianity and he blames others or the “will of God” if one of his patients dies. At one point he even works with Major Houlihan to get the other men in trouble for womanizing. However, he only does this so he can win her favor and have sex with her. Burns’ actions reveal the common incongruity between the faith and actions of many religious individuals. Another scene in which religion is satirized is during the “suicide” of Painless, the unit’s dentist. He no longer desires to go on living because he thinks he is gay due to a single instance in which he was unable to perform sexually. The men recreate the Last Supper scene and give Painless his “black pill,” which isn’t actually the deadly drug they say it is. Painless takes the pill then lies in a coffin waiting for death. He is “resurrected” by Lt. Dish, whose name implies that she is a very sexually appealing woman or a “fine dish”, is sent into the tent where he is asleep to have sex with him and restore his confidence in himself. Their irreverent behavior toward religion and suicide reflects how they have become desensitized toward matters of faith and death by the horrors of war.

The military is constantly a source for farcical humor in this film. The men in the M*A*S*H unit are all members of the army, but they appear to have absolutely no respect for it. When they are working they are very easygoing, even though they are responsible for the lives of fellow human beings. They are even more relaxed off the job, constantly drinking, gambling, and playing ball together. The men use these pastimes to distract themselves from their situation; they are far away from home, many not voluntarily. Every day they are surrounded by the injured, the dead, and the dying, and, when working, they are up to the elbows in the blood and gore of fellow recruits. These dire conditions and the men’s’ absolute need for a diversion from their day to day lives criticizes the relative indifference with which the military treats people out in the field.

I absolutely believe that the main purpose of the film “M*A*S*H” was to relieve the nervous tension of the American people during the Vietnam War, as well as criticize a war which sent unwilling people overseas to fight for a cause in which they have no interest in.