University of Virginia Library

UCLA Response

Question: You just showed your
film at UCLA, what was the
reaction of the students?

Altman: Well, I don't take
anything too seriously; and students
do. They usually rip you
apart and I find that kind of fun
because they're so serious about
their questions. You know, they're
talking about motivations that I
don't even want to think about.
But this time there weren't any
questions. People were just in awe.
And then there would be questions
which said, "I'd like to say this is
the finest film I've ever seen." The
cold question thing was just a
complete bomb; because they just
didn't know where to begin.

Question: Were you ever
tempted to move the setting of
"M*A*S*H" to the Viet Nam war?

Altman: No, but in another
sense we did. Our whole approach
to the thing was that we felt it was
much easier to get our zing in by
making it the Korean War. They
had four during that war and then
they dropped the whole thing. We
just felt that technically there were
so many things that you could get
funnier with. And I like the idea of
dealing with the period. It really set
up the whole thing. But after we
had established all of our research,
we then let things go. We let the
guys have long sideburns, long hair.
It gives the feeling, I think, that
most people will connect with It as
"war." We made no real effort to
say it was the Korean War.