Mobile Army Surgical Hospital

Holly Reese
3-3-13
MASH

Mobile Army Surgical Hospital

       As a fan of dark humor, I really enjoyed watching M.A.S.H. From the very beginning with the theme “Suicide is Painless” this film is full of questionable humor. Having seen the television show, I was expecting similar jokes (i.e. a man dressed in women’s clothing). I was pleasantly surprised that this film was a little deeper than the television show and it pushed the boundaries of humor.
       
This film is interesting because it set in a very traumatic environment and the filmmakers don’t hold any of the setting back. When the film opens we are shown wounded soldiers being carted off of helicopters. The soldiers are bloody and beaten up and the scenery is very harsh. The authentication of the mis-en-scene aides the dark humor throughout this film. If the costumes, sets, or setting had been unrealistic the humor would have been very different. The grittiness and dirtiness of the doctors and their home environments went well with their crude personalities. The dark humor of this film often comes from the scenes where the doctors are actually in the operating rooms. In most of these scenes, the doctors are wrist deep in a wounded soldier’s body and yet they are constantly commenting on the nurses. These men are in a serious situation  but not treating it as such. The environment is very harsh and unpleasant and yet the men are severely focused on one main issue: sex.
        
 While this film makes light of many taboo subjects-- like suicide, war, and homosexuality-- one of the main themes that is joked about is sex. It seems that the men only focused on sex from the moment they get to their camp. Trapper John and Hawkeye joke about sex constantly with each other. The harassment of the nurses isn’t overly crude thought, considering the filmmakers could have made much dirtier jokes. Most of the jokes about sex were fairly subtle and not overly vulgar. I think this worked for the film because the sexual jokes could be funny without overwhelming the audience with erotic language. For example, when Hawkeye is in the operating room and says, “It's a good thing you have a nice body, nurse, otherwise they'd get rid of you quick.” This is just a quick one-liner and didn’t have to be explained or exaggerated to be funny. While I think that most of the sexual jokes were not too vulgar or crude, I will acknowledge that some moments during the film were blunt and over-the-top (“Sixty-nine is divine!)
         
 I really enjoyed this movie. It did have moments that slowed it down but I was entertained throughout its entirety. In an interesting way I think I enjoyed it more than the television show, but that might just be because I like Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye. The humor mixed with the goriness of war was done effectively without being too excessive. I would recommend this film to anyone, whether they’ve seen the original television show or not.