The Sword of Time Pierces Our Hearts

M*A*S*H stands astride eras, one foot in the past, another in the future. Produced in 1969 and released in 1970, this movie was on the cusp of counter-culture movements in the United States. Its story is situated during the Korean war, while passing for what could be a battle field 20 years later in Vietnam. Some elements, such as the womanizing and treatment of homosexuality, are cringe inducing and evidence of a previous era not entirely left behind by film makers. The treatment of race is forward looking and turned on its head when one of the first scenes Hawkeye Pierce, a white officer, mutters about a black enlisted soldier being racist.

The attitude towards the military can be summed up when Hawkeye says, "You're what we call a regular army clown." to Major Houlihan. Characters who are more traditional military are clown like or considered insane; the enlisted man fighting MP's as Hawkeye drives off at the start of the film, Burns knocked into boxes of tampons by McIntyre, Burns and Houlihan being outed to the camp over the loudspeakers, Burns taken away in a straight jacket and Colonel Merril duped into being photographed with a prostitute.

The clownish behavior is taken to an extreme in the football game, which is presented as a war within the war, the two sides in clownish outfits, the background music is circus like and Major Houlihan's character has essentially become an insane cheerleader.

By the time the movie progresses to the football game, another character is introduced that turns race issues on their head again. Spear Chucker Jones, a professional football player and neurosurgeon, is transferred into the MASH unit to help them win the game. Other doctors and nurses in the camp look up to him, gather around him asking him questions and are happy to see him.  After the game, he is operating on a solder with Duke, when Duke receives news that he can return home. Duke quietly accuses Jones of being a perfectionist when Jones doesn't want Duke to leave before a final check of the patient. Cringe worthy though, was minutes before Duke's use of now archaic language referring to him as a negro. While acceptable during the era this film was produced, it is not today, and the lyric of the theme song for the movie poetically ties into this with:

The sword of time will pierce our skin
It doesn't hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger, watch it grin

Time has pierced this movie and it makes some of it hurt today.

Still, there is a professionalism shown in the operating room. While some jokes are made, the pranks and drinking are kept outside the blood soaked surgeries.

"You ever catch this syndrome before babe?" Hawkeye asks Duke. "No, not with anyone beyond the age of 8 years old I haven't." Duke replies. And thus begins the film's evisceration of religion. The last supper for Painless is a pitch perfect match for da Vinci's painting. The juxtaposition of Painless going willingly to his suicide with Jesus' willingly going to his own death. Which draws out the implicit argument that Jesus was implicitly suiciding. The film links the clownishness of the military to the religious mocking when the loud speakers announce that Yom Kippur will be postponed from Friday to Sunday. Yom Kippur is the most important religious observance for the Jews and postponing it would be as absurdist as postponing the observance of the midnight mass on Christmas Eve for Christians.

The camera work in M*A*S*H notably lacks dolly or hand held elements. Anytime the camera moves, it is from a stationary position and involves panning, zooming in and zooming out. This places the audience as a stationary observer, overhearing dialogue that mixes together, and requires hearing it multiple times to pull out the various interesting conversations.