Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould and Tom Skerritt in the Robert Altman movie ‘M*A*S*H’

The Robert Altman directed comedy drama M*A*S*H (1970) captures our attention this Memorial Day weekend in the United States. Set during the Korean War of 1950-1953, the movie tells the story of staff using a youthful brand of humor and practical joking in the face of the horrors of war to keep themselves sane. Writing credits rest with Richard Hooker and Ring Lardner Jr., with Hooker having written the 1968 book MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors.

(From left, Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce, Robert Duvall as Frank Burns and Tom Skerritt as Duke Forrest in the Robert Altman movie M*A*S*H).

The movie begins in a South Korean Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or M*A*S*H outfit, circa 1951. Captains Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce and Augustus “Duke” Forrest, as portrayed by Donald Sutherland and Tom Skerritt, report to camp in a purloined army jeep. The pair do not take to the overly religious officer Major Frank Burns, as portrayed by Robert Duvall, so campaign to Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, as portrayed by Roger Bowen, to move the incompetent surgeon Burns out of the Swamp, their tent. The move succeeds when they get newly arrived Captain John Francis “Trapper John” McIntyre, as portrayed by Elliott Gould, arrives to complement their preferred lifestyle.

(From left, Elliott Gould as Trapper John McIntyre, Sally Kellerman as Hot Lips Houlihan and Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce in the Robert Altman movie M*A*S*H).

The “Swampmen” of Hawkeye, Duke and Trapper John, drafted into the army all, are prone to heavy drinking, pranks and womanizing. Frank Burns, along with head nurse Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, have enlisted and prefer a straightlaced, by the book approach to running 4077th. Burns and Houlihan begin a physically intimate relationship, which becomes the object of a series of bawdy pranks aided by Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly that socially settles the matter for how the two camps will coexist as a unit going forward. Sally Kellerman and Gary Burghoff portrayed Houlihan and O’Reilly, respectively.

(From left, John Schuck as The Painless Pole Waldowski, David Arkin as Wade Douglas Vollmer, Gary Burghoff as Radar O’Reilly and Roger Bowen as Henry Blake in the Robert Altman movie M*A*S*H).

A bridge story for the movie had to do with Captain Walter “The Painless Pole” Waldowski, a dentist, becoming suicidal when experiencing a bout of impotence. This story, beyond suggesting the Johnny Mandel song Suicide is Painless, invoked an absolution and communion from Father John Patrick Francis Mulcahy, a sleeping pill masquerading as assistance in ending Waldowski’s life and an evening with the attractive Lieutenant Maria “Dish” Schneider to convince the captain that he is well. John Schuck, Rene Auberjonois and Jo Ann Pflug portrayed Waldowski, Mulcahy and Schneider, respectively.

(Rene Auberjonois as Father John Patrick Francis Mulcahy in the Robert Altman movie M*A*S*H).

Hawkeye and Trapper John were granted temporary duty in Japan following the Waldowski story. Surgery on the son of a congressman leads to an unauthorized surgery on a local infant. With hopes for golfing lost and the hospital commander threatening disciplinary action, Hawkeye and Trapper resort to blackmail of a sexual nature to save themselves.

(From left, Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce and Fred Williamson as Spearchucker Jones in the Robert Altman movie M*A*S*H).

A football game back in camp, as organized by Henry Blake and Brigadier General Charlie Hammond, leads to the final movie shenanigans. The 4077th is set to play the 325th Evacuation Hospital, with each hospital bringing in ringers. The 4077th brings in Captain Oliver Harmon “Spearchucker” Jones, a neurosurgeon who had played for the San Francisco 49ers. Betting incorporated with further shenanigans over when the different ringers played, or for how players became incapacitated, led the ballgame to end satisfactorily for Blake and the 4077th. G. Wood and Fred Williamson portrayed Hammond and Jones. Hawkeye and Duke leaving in the purloined jeep with their discharge orders brought the movie to a humorous close befitting the joke that opened the experience.

I grant the movie M*A*S*H as directed by Robert Altman 4-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, May 25, 2024

NBC series ‘Timeless’ at an end

The National Broadcasting Company series Timeless (2016-2018) seems to have made a swan song with the two-hour double episode that aired on December 20th, 2018. The series takes what the International Movie Database (IMDB) calls an “unlikely trio travel through time in order to battle unknown criminals and protect history as we know it.”

(Malcolm Barrett, left,  Abigail Spencer, center, and Matt Lanter starred in Timeless).

The trio that traveled into the past to protect history against changes by a group of competing time travelers was the hook of this series. Abigail Spencer stars as Lucy Preston, the female lead and history teacher with the knowledge of history to help navigate the trio through the past. Matt Lanter stars as Wyatt Logan, whose military acumen and leadership skills make him essential. Malcolm Barrett as Rufus Carlin is the technical wizard and time machine pilot that flies the time machine.

(Paterson Joseph as Connor Mason).

Connor Mason, as played by Paterson Joseph, invented the company and technology responsible for the spherical time machine that is in the hands of both contingents of time travelers. Much of the first season saw Mason getting blackmailed by the nefarious band of time travelers, with their “Mothership” and “Rittenhouse” view of history alteration.

(Paterson Joseph, left, and Malcolm Barrett).

We learn early in the first season that Rufus Carlin, portrayed by Malcolm Barrett, had been recruited to Mason Industries due to similar personal circumstances. The elder Connor feels some sense of guilt and kinship with Rufus. The storyline grew through the first season to have both characters explicitly subject to Rittenhouse blackmail. With the bond between Rufus and Connor firmly established, this line of storytelling, as well as the entire series, was abandoned with the end of the first season.

(Malcolm Barrett, left, and Claudia Doumit).

Wait, what? Timeless would be granted a 10-episode second season after first being cancelled following the end of its first season in the spring of 2017. Rufus’ character would take a stronger turn towards his relationship with love interest and technically inclined Jiya, as portrayed by Claudia Doumit.

We would see that Jiya was having strong premonitions and visions around Rufus’ future through the experience of dreamlike flashbacks, which were symptoms of a time travel related illness that Connor Mason knew more about than anyone. For reasons of seeming embarrassment and interest in setting history right against the likes of Rittenhouse, Connor had been withholding his awareness of the effects and reality of the illness from the “Lifeboat” team of time travelers.

(Sakina Jaffrey as NSA agent Denise Christopher).

A leader of the lifeboat team of time travelers, and recruiter of the likes of main characters Lucy Preston and Wyatt Logan, was agent Denise Christopher. It was Christopher, as portrayed by Sakina Jaffrey, who would at times conflict with Connor Mason about the course of the lifeboat team while simultaneously posing a large cliffhanger turn at the end of the first season.

(Goran Visnjic as Garcia Flynn).

Garcia Flynn, as portrayed by Goran Visnjic, straddled two worlds within the Lifeboat faction. Flynn spent the first season as an untrustworthy foil to the efforts of the Lifeboat team to set a coherent strategy of stopping Rittenhouse from the desire to save his wife and child, who had been killed in 2012 at the hands of the Rittenhouse faction. Flynn had sworn to get his family back and aimed to change history in any way that he could to achieve that goal.

Goran Visnjic, left, and Abigail Spencer).

It had been a future version of Lucy Preston, as portrayed by Abigail Spencer, who had shared a diary of the events of the lifeboat team. This action had occurred before we as an audience are introduced to Flynn, Preston, agent Denise Christopher, or Connor Mason. Preston and Flynn have a tense relationship through the first season as Preston is concerned with maintaining history as we know it. Despite backstory that I am not sharing, the end of the first season of Timeless sees Preston aim to unify the mission of the Lifeboat team with Flynn while agreeing to help him restore his family. Agent Christopher intervenes, sending Flynn to federal prison.

Much of the 10-episode second season with the 2-episode add-on that aired December 20th of last year gets into stories of love interests between Jiya and Rufus, Flynn and Preston, Preston and Wyatt Logan, and finally Logan and his murdered then resurrected wife, Jessica Logan. Flynn, Preston, and Logan each have underlying stories involving the desire to restore family members lost to the changing history prompted by Rittenhouse and the time machines Mothership and Lifeboat. Agent Denise Christopher has this to a lesser but just as authentic degree.

The 2-episode special that seemingly brings an end to the fictional playing in history that began with the humanity of the Hindenburg Disaster and ended with Hungnam Evacuation of the Korean War. The series brought resolution to many questions surrounding the central characters. A proper handling of the raised questions deserved a longer narrative arc of at least a third season.

The premise of the series was one that I enjoyed. The episodic feel of the events and storytelling was not unlike one might expect from the series Quantum Leap (1989-1993), even with a distinctly different focus and storytelling sensibility. I had hope for more of the stories being contemplated by the series Timeless. I am sad to see it go. With the realization that the abrupt ending to the stories could not be helped due to a decision to cancel the series, my overall rating of the series is 3.75-stars on a 5-star scale.

Matt – Wednesday, January 2, 2019