Hawkeye Pierce

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

M*A*S*H character
Image:HawkeyeEpisode.jpg
Hawkeye
Rank	Captain
Gender	Male
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Blue
Home city	Crabapple Cove, Maine, USA
Film portrayer	Donald Sutherland
Television portrayer	Alan Alda
First appearance	M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors
Last appearance	"Goodbye, Farewell and Amen"

Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce is the lead fictional character in the M*A*S*H novels, film, and television series. The character was played by Donald Sutherland in the film and by Alan Alda on television.

Contents 1 About the character 1.1 "Hawkeye" nickname 1.2 Changes in the character 1.3 Hawkeye in the television series 2 After the war 3 References 4 External links

[edit] About the character

Born and raised in Crabapple Cove, Maine, Hawkeye is (according to the TV series) the son of Dr. Daniel Pierce. According to the novels, his father is “Big Benjy” Pierce, a lobster fisherman. Hawkeye attended Androscoggin College, where he played football and intercepted a Hail Mary pass thrown by Dartmouth quarterback John McIntyre. After his medical residency in Boston, Hawkeye is drafted into the U.S. Army Medical Corps and called to serve at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War. Between long, intense sessions of treating critically wounded patients, he makes the best of his life in an isolated Army camp with heavy drinking, carousing, and pulling pranks on the people around him, especially the unpleasantly stiff and callous Major Frank Burns and Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan.

[edit] "Hawkeye" nickname

The novel established that Pierce’s nickname of "Hawkeye" was given to him by his father. It comes from the novel The Last of the Mohicans, which Pierce, in Hooker's book, claimed was "the only book my old man ever read."^[1]

In an episode of the TV series in which Hawkeye believed himself to be in mortal danger due to heavy enemy shelling, he made out a will and left Colonel Sherman T. Potter (whom Hawkeye stated was like a father) the edition of The Last of the Mohicans that his father had given him. “It was his favorite book,” Hawkeye wrote in the will, implying that he had read more books. {The TV series also reveals that Hawkeye nearly drowned when he was very young and also suffers from claustrophobia when MASH has to move into a cave}.

[edit] Changes in the character

Although the Robert Altman film followed Hooker’s book somewhat in structure, much of the dialogue was improvised and thus departed even from Ring Lardner, Jr.’s screenplay. The screenplay itself departed from the book in a number of details (e.g., Frank Burns becoming a major instead of a captain, and also combined with the novel's Major Hobson, the zealously religious officer that Pierce and bunkmate Duke Forrest got removed from their tent and, subsequently, the camp), but on the whole, the main characters and mood were left intact.

Perhaps the biggest change in Hawkeye’s characterization from the book, to the big screen and finally to the small screen comes in his marital status. The Hawkeye of the book is married to Evelyn Pierce with children (according to the sequels) and faithful while in Korea (as far as the reader is concerned). He offers several doctors love advice, "Jeeter" Carroll for example, extolling the virtues of extramarital sex but never partaking himself. The film version of Hawkeye is still married, but gives himself more moral leeway, arguing that he is far from home, no one is ever going to know, and it will reduce stress for both involved.

Finally, the film’s Hawkeye was transformed into the womanizing and single Hawkeye of the TV series. In the pilot episode, however, Hawkeye told Lieutenant Dish that he was engaged, and in a later first-season episode he broke up with several women, when he believed the war had ended, by telling them that he was married, although it was revealed at the end of the episode that he was lying. In 4/23, Hawkeye does admit to having had a de facto common law relationship {before the Korean War} with a nurse.

Richard Hooker, who wrote the book on which the show (and the film version) was based, noted that Hawkeye was far more liberal in the TV show (in one of the sequel books, Hawkeye facetiously makes reference to "kicking the bejesus out of lefties just to stay in shape").

In the original novel and film, Hawkeye is given to frequently uttering "finest kind" as a catchphrase, and throughout the latter, he produces a distinctive whistle (which is appropriated by Radar O'Reilly at the film's end). The whistle does not carry into the television program, however, Hawkeye in the first episodes of season one and two does use the phrase, "Finest Kind," referring to their homemade gin. The phrase is not used often and is more of a hat tip towards the movie and novel.

[edit] Hawkeye in the television series

The television version of Hawkeye proved to be a somewhat different character. While his professional and social lives were much the same, he also gradually evolved into a man of conscience trying to maintain some humanity and decency in the insane world into which he has been thrust, sometimes to the point of trying to force his own sense of moral superiority onto others. This was to a large extent due to actor Alan Alda’s influence, as he infused the character with some of his political ideals and morals. Some fans regretted the change in Hawkeye, feeling that he eventually became too self-righteous and sanctimonious for his own good and the good of the show, and profess that Hawkeye worked better as a sardonic goofball.

Developed for television by Larry Gelbart, the series departed in some respects radically from the film and book. The character of Duke Forrest was dropped altogether, and Hawkeye became the center of the MASH unit’s medical activity as well as the dramatic center of the series itself. In the book and the film, Hawkeye had played football in college (Androscoggin College, based on Hornberger’s alma mater Bowdoin College); in the series, Alda’s Hawkeye was hardly the football champ type and even seemed proud of it and reveled in it, while his cohort Wayne Rogers’ Trapper could be seen playing football in several episodes, and later Mike Farrell's B.J. could be seen lifting himself up by his arms from a metal pole post, thus suggesting this his friends were more physically durable than him. He seemed to resemble Groucho Marx, with his quick wit and “madcap” antics, sometimes even affecting a Groucho-like schtick.

As noted above, Hawkeye had been married in the book and the film. Near the beginning of the series, he claims to be married, though this was a ploy on his part to get out of marrying a nurse he had been involved with. Presumably this alteration rendered his romantic dalliances (chiefly with nurses) more morally acceptable in the eyes of Gelbart and the other series officials. (In general, Gelbart tried to make the series less deliberately offensive than the film while nevertheless retaining some of its anarchic spirit.) Also, in early episodes, Hawkeye tells his father (Daniel) in a letter to say hello to his mother and sister, but in later episodes, he says he is an only child and his mother died when he was young. There is also a reference in the episode “Dear Dad,” where he wrote a letter to his father, that their home is in Vermont, and this is also in the Season 1 episode “Ceasefire,” but all other references, including in the book and film, are to Hawkeye being from Maine. Most episodes refer to the senior Pierce as a physician, but in at least one episode, BJ addresses him over the telephone as “Mr. Pierce.” In addition, when Hawkeye is writing to his father in one episode, he explains medical terms he would not have to explain to a doctor.

Also in a bit of "turn about is fair play", Hawkeye was twice placed in command of the 4077th, the first of which he afterwards remarked how truly difficult the burden of command was for Blake, Potter and even Burns, to which Margaret Houlihan replied, "If only Frank Burns could see you now." The third time Col. Potter left, however, Hawkeye seemed reluctant about taking the reins and relinquished control to Major Winchester.

[edit] After the war

At the end of the television series, Hawkeye was the second-to-last to leave the dismantled camp with the announced goal of returning to his hometown of Crabapple Cove, Maine, to be a local doctor who has the time to get to know his patients instead of the endless flow of casualties he faced in his term of service.

In Hooker’s two sequels to M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, (M*A*S*H Goes to Maine and M*A*S*H Mania), Hawkeye returns to live in Crabapple Cove, near the fictional town of Spruce Harbor, Maine. The fictional town is described as having 30,000 residents, a large fish wharf, a café which is frequented by the protagonists, an international airport, and the Spruce Harbor General Hospital.

Having left the Army, Hawkeye is established to be working for the Veterans Administration. In May, 1954, he is laid off. At this point, Hawkeye does not have much money in the bank, is 31 years old, and has three children: Billy, Stephen and Karen.

The day he is released, Trapper John comes to visit and sets Hawkeye’s future in motion. Trapper John, a Lieutenant in the medical organization of Maxie Neville in New York City arranges for further thoracic training for Hawkeye, first in the East Orange VA Hospital in New Jersey, then at St Lombard’s in Manhattan from July, 1954. After two years Hawkeye breezes through the Thoracic Boards. At the end of his training in June, 1956, two Spruce Harbour locals, Jocko Allcock (the man who was responsible for Hawkeye being fired by the VA) and “Wooden Leg” Willcox (the local fish magnate) come to visit Hawkeye to set him up in practice—by betting favorably on the outcome of his operations.

The first operation, with Trapper John’s assistance (upon Pasquale Merlino), is a success, and thanks to his superior training Hawkeye becomes the local surgeon. As time goes by, Hawkeye is given more patients by the local general practitioner of note, “Doggy” Moore, goes into private practice with ex-Spitfire pilot, Tony Holcombe, and plots the eventual reuniting of the Swamp Gang. By 1959 Hawkeye has lured Duke Forrest, Trapper John and Spearchucker Jones into his net, and thanks to the proceeds of the “Allcock-Willcox” syndicate, a new “Finestkind Fishmarket and Clinic” is set up along with the new Spruce Harbor General Hospital.

In the twenty-year period described in Hooker’s two sequel novels, Hawkeye becomes notably more conservative politically (he supported Republican “Crazy Horse” Weinstein for governor of Maine and railed against people with “Recall Ford” bumper stickers), but remains as playful and humorous as ever. His golf game improves to an eight handicap depending on the time of year. He donates heavily to various causes, such as needy children and the re-education of a local clamdigger, and spends an inordinate amount of time caring for his patients. He is, however, prone to use racial and homophobic epithets.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website with character profile

v • d • e M*A*S*H
Film:	MASH · Differences between book, film and TV versions of M*A*S*H · "Suicide Is Painless"
TV series:	M*A*S*H (episodes: Season 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11; finale; guest stars) · Trapper John, M.D. · AfterMASH · W*A*L*T*E*R
Characters:	Hawkeye Pierce · Trapper John McIntyre · Duke Forrest · B.J. Hunnicutt · Henry Blake · Sherman T. Potter · Frank Burns · Margaret Houlihan · Charles Winchester · Radar O'Reilly · Father Mulcahy · Maxwell Klinger · Nurse Kellye · Igor Straminsky · Luther Rizzo · Sidney Freedman · Col. Flagg · Spearchucker Jones · Ugly John · Walter Koskiusko Waldowski · Ho-Jon · Nurse Bigelow · Lieutenant Dish · Donald Penobscot · Zelmo Zale · Staff Sgt. Vollmer
Books:	MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors · M*A*S*H Goes to Maine

no:Benjamin Franklin Pierce

pl:Hawkeye Pierce sv:Hawkeye Pierce