Take a walk with me ?

Suicide is Painless.

I did not know the other name for the theme song of the hit TV series M*A*S*H 4077 was - Suicide is painless. Until recently.

Remember when i was barely less than a decade old in the 1970's. I caught a glimpse of this TV series at my grandparents' as my uncles were watching and i vividly remember the catchy TV theme. Due to my age, the hit TV series did not captivate me as much compared to the cartoons, and so i did not bother to watch.

Not until the early 1990's. There was a re-run of the M*A*S*H 4077, i remembered it was aired late night on Sundays right after another TV series that i eagerly anticipated - Northern Exposure. For a season or two, these two programmes capped a satisfying weekend and kept me looking forward to the next.

M*A*S*H 4077 went on air in 1972. It was based on a 1968 novel about three army doctors in Korea during the Korean War. M.A.S.H is an acronym for - Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. The success of the series was very much a matter of timing. The Americans were in the midst of the Vietnam war, begining in 1965. By now, the general public sentiment towards the war was turning negative. A counter-culture was brewing brought in no small part by the educated, young, middle-class and the recent legislative victories of the civil rights movement in their decade. The time was ripe for a drama that deals with subject matter of war.

M*A*S*H 4077 departed from the familiar genre of war movies such as Combat (remember Vic Morrow), The Longest Day, A bridge too far and the like. By the 70's a significant population of the young, educated, cynical, attuned to the popular iconoclastic culture of the day, the intellectual appetite called for a very different narrative. A dark comedy based on a medical drama set in the Korean war almost two decades earlier. Nevertheless, the series provided much of the allegory about the Vietnam War. 

Body counts and body bags were the order of the day (the predecessor of KPI - Key Performance Indicators in todays' management speak). As casualties mounted, a sense of revulsion grew. The trauma of war was perhaps too much the young soldier could bear. Suicide - an option, for some.

Composer: Johnny Mandel

Listen for the bass guitar...

A time to heal.

The Vietnam War finally wind down in 1975. The soldiers came home, adjusting to a normal civilian life as best they could. They came home to a community bordering on resentment. For some, the damage was permanent. 

The movie - The Deer Hunter premiered in 1978. Three years after the indo China War. The main characters of the movie came home from the Vietnam War. It dealt with the mental consequences of the effects of prolonged exposure to violence and death. The incessant assault on their moral values when they were prisoners of war in Vietnam, some were stripped bare of their being human. I thought i remembered hearing some Chinese dialect (Teo Chew) being spoken by the NVA or Viet Cong soldiers as portrayed in the movie. How the ang mo directors trying to bluff us asians audiences by using any asian langauge LOL, or perhaps there really where Chinese soldiers! Correct me if i am wrong here. The scene was during the time when the three friends were POWs. They were imprisoned, submerged in rat infested waters for most of the time! And for entertainment, the NVA/Viet Cong capters would indulge in a game of Russian Roulette, at stake were the soldiers pay checks. The POWs were seated on opposite facing each other, one bullet was loaded into the revolver. "Jit liap cheng zi, puak seh si !" In teo chew, a southern chinese dialect which roughly translates: One bullet, to gamble life or death! One cannot imagine the psychological trauma the soldiers were put through.

The friends were rescued and made it back home. But for one, the post traumatic stress disorder was too much to bear. He was mentally damaged. Later, his buddy found him at a gambling den in Saigon. At stake was his friend's life in a game of Russian Roulette.

Here is the theme to the movie - The deer Hunter.

Cavatina

(Theme to The Deer Hunter)

Composer: Stanley Myers (British Composer)

Date of Composition: ~ 1970

Here performed by: John Williams (classical guitarist )

I first heard Cavatina, not from the movie, rather, from another Television programme ( i watched a lot of TV, sigh). A children's Art Programme that was aired sometime in the late 1970's to early 1980's.

The programme was called Take Hart. Tony Hart was a very creative and entertaining art teacher. I always looked forward to the afternoon "art lesson" once a week, after school. For i was momentarily transported to another world free from my school work. Sigh again.

You can hear Cavatina at 04:58 to 07:08

I also remember even till today, the main theme to Tony Hart's Take Hart.

Thank you for taking a walk with me. Here, i want to leave you with the main theme to a happy children's programme. i hope you find peace and joy and love.

Carry on living ...



04 March 2013