M*A*S*H Page #9

Completing the group is Ho-Jon, who sits on the floor,

silently taking in everything that is done or said.

Finished with his decorating effort, Trapper reaches into

the depths of his parka to produce a can of beer. He digs

into the other side, finds an opener and opens the beer.

Then his head goes back inside the parka along with the can

as he takes a swig from it.

DUKE:

(to Hawkeye)

Now I got you for a witness, I'm

going to try again. So far all I

dragged out of him is he's from

Bahston and he's only been in the

Army two months.

(to Trapper)

Where were you when they drafted

you?

TRAPPER:

Home.

DUKE:

I mean, what were you doing? Were

you a resident or on a staff

someplace?

TRAPPER:

That's right.

DUKE:

Where?

TRAPPER:

Hospital.

DUKE:

Which hospital?

TRAPPER:

Back home.

DUKE:

Is there any reason why we shouldn't

know the name of it?

TRAPPER:

No.

(a long swig of beer)

Or why you should.

HAWKEYE:

(to Duke)

I think I've seen this nut somewhere.

(to Trapper)

Haven't I?

TRAPPER:

If you don't know what you've seen,

why should I?

Hawkeye is unsatisfied. He keeps staring at Trapper, sure

he's seen him before.

DUKE:

(to Trapper)

You ready to switch to a little tonic

we generally take us about this time?

Ho-Jon...

Ho-Jon goes to the table and takes a few ice cubes from a

hospital ice-bag, puts them into the pitcher along with gin

and a dash of vermouth.

TRAPPER:

Don't you use olives?

DUKE:

Where you think you are, boy? They

probably never seen a olive in this

country.

Ho-Jon pours three water-glasses full of martini and starts

to distribute them.

HAWKEYE:

(to Trapper)

That's the front up the road a few

miles. We have to get by without

some of the comforts of home.

TRAPPER:

I like an olive.

He reaches into his parka, comes up with a bottle of olives,

takes one out and puts it into the martini Ho-Jon serves

him. Then, as Hawkeye and Duke gape at him, he offers them

the bottle.

TIME LAPSE:

INT. OPERATING ROOM – DAY

There are two operations going on, one of them being a simple

procedure requiring one surgeon and one nurse. The other by

contrast is a very special event. Trapper is operating,

assisted by another surgeon, a couple of nurses, a corpsman,

and the anesthesiologist, UGLY JOHN BLACK. Beside these actual

participants almost all the nurses and doctors from both

shifts, including Duke, Hawkeye (with Lieutenant Dish), Frank

and Henry, are in a circle around the operating table as

spectators.

Trapper's job is repairing a lacerated pulmonary artery, or

some other delicate piece of surgery close to the heart and

involving a large chest incision. We see enough of the process

to observe that it is gory and deep inside a critical area,

but necessarily it is the reactions of the people watching,

especially Duke and Hawkeye, that tell us how tricky an

operation it is and how expertly Trapper is handling it.

The sequence is silent except for incidental operating room

noises.

Even Trapper's occasional terse instructions to his assistants

and his brief exchange with Ugly John are spoken too low for

us to hear.

There are four stages to the action:

1. The beginning of the operation before an attentive

audience, drawn by their interest in the new man and by the

fact that this is a surgical procedure they have never dared

to attempt.

2. Limited approval and professional respect for the assurance

with which Trapper plots his incision and starts working his

way to his destination.

3. Mounting tension as the crucial stage is reached. The

suspense reaches its crest during the few moments when Trapper

is doing the actual mending job to which all the preliminaries

have led. The faces of his colleagues express anxiety and

hope that he can accomplish what he set out to do, and

accomplish it quickly enough to permit the patient to survive.

Henry, not certain of his own judgment, looks to Duke for

confirmation, and Duke nods to indicate he thinks Trapper

has the situation under control.

4. The tension breaks as Trapper finishes the job to his

satisfaction and begins, along with his assistant surgeon,

to close up. Henry's smile of relief is unsure and only

tentative until he catches Hawkeye's signal that the job has

been done to perfection.

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