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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Filed under: Imported

As the years stomp by (and all over us), there are still milestones that make me see all over again how fast it's going, and realizing last week that 1) Robert Altman just had his 70th birthday, and 2) his film M*A*S*H turns 35 this year, was one of them. It brings me down for a couple of reasons, one of which is the thought that, at one time, it was possible for a director like Altman to trick a major studio into making and releasing such a subversive picture. Those were the naive days of movies, and most of us would give anything to have them back.

Despite the studio's insistence that a superimposed title be used at the beginning that tied the story to the Korean war, Altman (aided by an ad campaign that featured the very counter-culture poster seen above) was able to get his message about the ongoing war in Viet Nam across virtually unhindered. The good guys were hippies and the bad guys were murderous, self-righteous Army clowns. And everybody, then and now, had a good time laughing with the former at the latter. Seems like no big deal today, but only because this movie changed things as much as it did. (After all, it was only two years earlier that John Wayne made The Green Berets.)

Fifteen actors were "introduced" in the opening credits, acknowledging their "first film" status, and they included Gary Burghoff, Carl Gottlieb and Fred Williamson, who's surprisingly good as Spearchucker Jones. (I say surprisingly in case you've seen any of Fred's later blaxplotation work, where his acting chops apparently eroded.) Even the people who were already movie pros, like Sutherland and Sally Kellerman, were unknowns (although I remembered at the time, with a shock, seeing Donald as the brutish handyman from the Hammer film Die, Die My Darling with Tallulah Bankhead). While a little of the freshness of Altman's ensemble style is gone now (only because he and others got so much more subtle with it later), the naturalness of the acting and dialogue is still the most striking thing about the film all these years later.

So congrats to the people who knew it from the "football" audio clip last week, and-- credit where it's due-- congrats to me for using the one scene that might actually fool people (it did): Wayne Palmer, E. Yarber, Tammy Riggins, Hank Parmer, Mark Gisleson and Corey Anderson. All our winners will receive a front-row ticket to the next shower taken by Hotlips Houlihan (although, considering that Sally just turned 69, you might not want to use it).

Posted by Steve Monaco at July 24, 2005 2:14 PM

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