Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen 

In the closing days of the Korean War, the staff of the 4077 M*A*S*H Unit find themselves facing irrevocable changes in their lives.

Director:

Alan Alda

Writers:

Alan Alda, Burt Metcalfe

Stars:

Alan Alda, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Alan Alda	...	Capt. Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce
Mike Farrell	...	Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt
Harry Morgan	...	Col. Sherman T. Potter
Loretta Swit	...	Maj. Margaret 'Hot Lips' Houlihan
David Ogden Stiers	...	Maj. Charles Winchester
Jamie Farr	...	Sgt. Maxwell Q. Klinger
William Christopher	...	Father Francis Mulcahy
Allan Arbus	...	Maj. Sidney Freedman
G.W. Bailey	...	Sergeant Luther Rizzo
Rosalind Chao	...	Soon-Lee Klinger
John Shearin	...	The Chopper Pilot
Kellye Nakahara	...	Lt. Kellye Yamato, RN
Jeff Maxwell	...	Cpl. Igor Straminsky
Lang Yun	...	The Woman on Bus
Jon Van Ness	...	'Truman'

Storyline

In this final episode, the staff of the 4077th M*A*S*H unit find their lives no less hectic despite the fact that it appears that the war may soon be over. Until then, the staff must deal with events like Hawkeye has been temporarily institutionalized due to a nervous breakdown, Winchester has finally found people who share his taste in classical music and Father Mulcahy has been permanently deafened in a mortar attack. At last, the ceasefire is declared and the staff must come to grips with the fact that this time in their lives is over.

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Plot Keywords:

crying infant | korean war | mother kills own child | sacrificing a loved one | directed by star | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | War

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Did You Know?

Trivia

B.J.'s iconic motorcycle in this episode is his third of the series. In "The Yalu Brick Road" (1979), he and Hawkeye are given a bike with a sidecar by a Korean farmer they rescue. In "Blood and Guts" (1982), a soldier who wrecks his motorcycle gives it to B.J. as thanks for patching him up. The first bike inexplicably disappears in subsequent episodes, and the second is totaled by a joyriding war correspondent.

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Goofs

Potter, BJ, Winchester, and Hawkeye are saying their goodbyes to Margaret. When she and Hawkeye begin kissing passionately, the other three become uncomfortable and look away; BJ slowly removes his hand/forearm from Winchester's shoulder (where he had placed it, comrade-style, a few moments earlier). The kiss continues, and BJ again slides his forearm off Winchester's shoulder.

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Quotes

Maj. Winchester: I don't understand why it should take so long to construct a simple potty shed.
Col. Potter: Winchester, you'll just have to use the ravine latrine like everybody else. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Maj. Winchester: Rome? Rome?

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: The Man Who Grew Too Much (2014)

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Soundtracks

The Darktown Strutters' Ball
(uncredited)
Written by Shelton Brooks
Sung in Japanese on the radio

User Reviews

A fantastic end to the greatest show of all time

What can one say about this movie, which wrapped up one of the longest running television series in history? Admittedly it was much darker than most of the episodes were, but Alan Alda did it all in this finale: wrote, directed, and starred in a powerful and fitting finale to this immortal show.

In case there are still people out there who are yet to see it, I refuse to give anything about the movie away, save for the fact that Alda's performance as Hawkeye in the first half of the movie is absolutely brilliant, as he takes the character in a direction seldom, if ever, seen in the series.

While there are still laughs in this finale, the laugh track is conspicuously absent, as the focus here is more on the characters and their reaction to the end of the war and the breakup of the 4077th MASH family and a focus on the issue that's been sublime in the series since 1972: War is Hell. We see it as Major Winchester, who has tried every trick in the book to shut out the war around him, finally has it broken through his defensive wall. The goodbyes at the end of the film, between Hawkeye, BJ, and Colonel Potter, and between Hawkeye and BJ, followed by the last, slower (almost haunting) playing of the MASH theme as a chopper flies Hawkeye away from the 4077th forever, provide a befitting swansong to the greatest television show ever. No show will ever outperform MASH. Ever.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Korean

Release Date:

28 February 1983 (USA)

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Ranch, Malibu Creek State Park - 1925 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone Sound Recording)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1