M*A*S*H - Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

When it premiered on February 28, 1983, some 106 million viewers tuned in to see how the Korean War would end and to say goodbye to the beloved characters of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M*A*S*H): humanistic anarchist chest-cutters "Hawkeye" Pierce (Alan Alda), family man BJ Hunnicut (Mike Farrell), and erudite blueblood Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers); commanding officer Col. Sherman T. Potter (Harry Morgan), a veteran of the Great War; head nurse and proto feminist Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Loretta Swit); company clerk Max Klinger (Jamie Farr), and camp priest Father Mulcahy (William Christopher).

But what the show's phenomenal ratings numbers fail to mention is how deeply personal watching M*A*S*H's last show was for so many Americans. It became a collective, national cathartic experience: the end of an era, the end of both a nightmare (the war) and a surrogate family audiences vicariously joined and came to know intimately.

Writers Alan Alda (who also directed), Burt Metcalfe, John Rappaport, Thad Mumford, Dan Wilcox, David Pollack, Elias Davis, and Karen Hall get just about everything exactly right. The honest, heartfelt sentiment of friends and colleagues saying goodbye is balanced with constant reminders that this was, after all, a show about a war where more than 54,000 soldiers lost their lives and more than 100,000 more were wounded. The writers and producers of M*A*S*H quite rightly were determined that none of the show's leading characters was going to walk away from their tours of duty unscarred and unchanged. (And, for audiences watching "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" when it first aired, many were concerned a major character might even be killed off. The death of Col. Henry Blake in "Abyssinia, Henry" was still fresh in their minds.)

The episode's strongest storylines involve Hawkeye and Major Winchester. Some of M*A*S*H's best scripts had centered on Hawkeye's occasional mental trauma, mysterious maladies whose cause gradually would be peeled away by witty, understanding psychiatrist Dr. Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus). But where past illnesses had primarily been disturbing to Hawkeye, the nervous breakdown that has confined him to a mental treatment facility at the beginning of "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" proves equally disturbing to his longtime friends (and, by extension, the viewing audience). Good ol' Hawkeye has for reasons unclear become downright unsettling to be around - clinically mentally ill. The cause, eventually revealed, is a tragedy symbolic of all war, everywhere.

Probably the story that made the biggest impact with 1983 audiences, however, was the sad and lonely fate of Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester, the snooty, well-bred surgeon from the privileged class of Boston, who instead of embracing the comfort offered by his admittedly diverse comrades chose to live out the war detached and isolated, drowning his misery in imported cognac and classical records. When a group of North Korean P.O.W.s are temporarily housed at M*A*S*H, Charles opens up, however tentatively, when he discovers that some of these prisoners are self-taught musicians with whom he can teach Mozart's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581, a piece viewers rushed to the record store to buy after the show aired.

Throughout the show are wonderful little touches: a reference to the growing conflict in Vietnam, a chance for the often-seen but rarely heard from bit players to talk about their plans after the war, and allusions to past shows and snippets of dialogue, like Dr. Freedman's great exit line, "You know, I told you people something a long time ago, and it's just as pertinent today as it was then. Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice - pull down your pants and slide on the ice."

The Extra Features

By far the set's best supplement is M*A*S*H: 30th Anniversary Reunion, a 2002 special that reunited all the surviving main cast members (Alda, Wayne Rogers, Farrell, Swit, Morgan, Stiers, Gary Burghoff, Farr, Christopher, and Arbus)*, along with writer-producers Larry Gelbart, Burt Metcalfe, and Gene Reynolds, and which included archival interview footage of the late McLean Stevenson and Larry Linville. The creators of this special have done a marvelous job, shrewdly getting everyone together on a recreated M*A*S*H set so that everyone gets a chance to reminisce and share stories about the series. Everyone is clearly having the time of his life, and this spills over to the viewing audience. (Best moment: Morgan's anecdote about making classic Hollywood star Mary Astor pee her pants.) Peppered with choice clips and interviews with other staff writers, the program admirably focuses on the creative process: the creation and writing of the series over its 11 seasons, and the actors' approach to their characters.

M*A*S*H: Television's Serious Sitcom is an okay episode of A&E's Biography that covers much the same territory, with a greater focus on the show's many cast changes, not all of them happy ones from the actors' point-of-view.

Just the FAQs is a lame interactive trivia game of little value, but Cast Interviews and Clips from the Last Day of Filming is quite sweet. Swit can't stop crying, while Farr, the only cast member who actually served in the Korean War, telling a harrowing story about how he nearly suffered the same fate as Col. Blake did on the show.

A blooper reel is fun, though undermined by bad editing and an unasked-for laugh track, while My Favorite M*A*S*H Promo Spots unearths cast intros shot for the show's early run in syndication, as well as a lame collection of promos that appear derived from one local station's airing of the show in reruns. Also included is are a series of Public Service Announcements, mostly featuring Farrell, and a Jocularity compilation oddly mixing archival cast interviews, fan comments, and overworked clips generally seen in the other features.

Memories of M*A*S*H is yet another retrospective documentary, this one from 1991 and hosted by Shelley Long. Its main asset is that it includes more footage of the late Mclean Stevenson and Larry Linville. A Fan Base featurette is just that: fans talking about the show and of no interest at all. An Unproduced Script: Hawkeye on the Double, appears to date from the show's first season or so; it's interesting but no revelation.

Video & Audio

M*A*S*H - Goodbye, Farewell and Amen looks very nice for a TV movie from 1983, and vastly superior to the old laserdisc that a few will remember. An alternate French track is included, along with optional English and Spanish subtitles. The extra features aren't subtitled and in English only. Everything is full frame, but most of the material looks good, including the bloopers and other archival material.

Perhaps because it was rushed into production, the packaging is notably sloppy. The series finale is labeled "Season Finale"; technically true, but.... It's also labeled "Disc One" on the box but "Disc Three" on the disc, since it was disc three in the three-disc 11th season set. Meanwhile, the special features discs are labeled discs "Two" and "Three" on the DVD box, but discs "One" and "Two" on the DVDs themselves.

Parting Thoughts

Even if you already own M*A*S*H's 11th season box set, you won't feel cheated double-dipping on M*A*S*H - Goodbye, Farewell and Amen for the extras alone. Highly Recommended.

* Sal Viscuso, the voice usually heard without credit over M*A*S*H's public address system, provides similar bridging narration, a nice touch.

Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV's most recent essays appear in Criterion's new three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel. His audio commentary for Invasion of Astro Monster is now available.