Movie/Music: MASH / Suicide is Painless

The TV version of M*A*S*H lasted 11 years whereas the actual Korean conflict went for 3.

As with many TV series, it came from a movie, also named M*A*S*H, which was released in 1970. At a time when the US (and Australia) were involved in the Viet Nam war, M*A*S*H was director Robert Altman’s comment on that war but set in Korea.

When the movie became TV fodder, it took with it from the movie Gary Burghoff as Radar and G Wood as General Hammond. Notably it also took the theme music, played during the opening credits of the TV series but this time without without lyrics.

The haunting song,"Suicide is Painless”, was sung in the movie by Ken Prymus during the suicide scene and is also used for the opening credits.

The suicide scene is a classic and one of the most memorable scenes from the movie. Walter Waldowski, commonly referred to as “Painless Pole” or just “Painless”, the MASH dentist, declares his intention to commit suicide after an episode of impotency. The rest pretend to go along with his plan and have a final dinner at which they wear their surgical gowns. Sitting at a long table, they mimic Da Vinci’s famous painting of the Last Supper. As each says goodbye, after he has taken the supposed fatal pill, Suicide is Painless is sung.

See and hear the scene and song at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wkJT-zIgKo

The lyrics are:

Through early morning fog I see

Visions of the things to be

The pains that are withheld for me

I realise and I can see...

That suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

And I can take or leave it if I please.

I try to find a way to make

All our little joys relate

Without that ever-present hate

But now I know that it's too late, and...

The game of life is hard to play

I'm gonna lose it anyway

The losing card I'll someday lay

So this is all I have to say.

The only way to win is cheat

And lay it down before I'm beat

And to another give my seat

For that's the only painless feat.

The sword of time will pierce our skins

It doesn't hurt when it begins

But as it works its way on in

The pain grows stronger...watch it grin, but...

A brave man once requested me

To answer questions that are key

'Is it to be or not to be'

And I replied 'oh why ask me?'

'Cause suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

And I can take or leave it if I please.

...and you can do the same thing if you choose.

Some comments and trivia about the song and the movie:

- Johnny Mandel wrote the music but was having trouble coming up with lyrics. Director Robert Altman’s 14 year old son, Mike, came up with the lyrics.

- In an interview on the Johnny Carson Show, Robert Altman stated that whilst he had been paid $70,000 for directing the movie, his son had earned over one million dollars in royalties for the song. It is estimated that that figure is now about $2m.

- Johnny Mandel:

"It was written for that last supper scene, and because it actually had to be played by one of the actors, it had to be written before the movie was shot. [Director Robert] Altman wanted something that was funny and kind of stupid to accompany this scene, and he came back after three days and said, 'I can't write anything that ridiculous.' So he got his teenage son to do it, and I wrote what you now know as the 'Theme From MASH' to those lyrics."

- My take on the lyrics is that on one level it is a play on words in the context of the movie. On a deeper level, the singer is saying that despite all the sadness and grief, experienced or to be gone through, by having the option of suicide and not taking it, the singer is still in control and winning. Further, the act of suicide is itself an act of control: I can take or leave it if I please.

- The US Army used Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals until 2006 when the last one was donated to Pakistan.

- Writer Ring Lardner Jnr practically disowned the movie when he saw that very little of his original script made it into the final cut. Out of 5 Oscar nominations, the only one won was by Lardner for screenwriting.

- The dialogue is 80% improvised.

- The loudspeaker items were added after editing began when it was realised that transition devices were needed.

- When studio execs first saw the dailies, they complained to Robert Altman that the soldiers looked dirty compared to the soldiers in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and Patton (1970). Altman replied that soldiers in war are dirty. The next day the execs told the producers of those two films to make their soldiers look dirtier.