Hawkeye Pierce

Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce was the lead fictional character of the book M*A*S*H (and sequel books) (by Richard Hooker, the pen name of Dr. H. Richard Hornberger), the film M*A*S*H and television series M*A*S*H. The character was played by Donald Sutherland in the film and Alan Alda on television.

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. He attended Androscoggin College where he played football and intercepted a Hail Mary pass thrown by Dartmouth quarterback Trapper John. After his medical residency in Boston, Hawkeye is drafted US Army surgeon 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.

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 became a major instead of a captain, and was identified with the zealously religious officer that Pierce and bunkmate Trapper John McIntyre got removed from their tent and, subsequently, the camp) but on the whole left the main characters and the mood intact.

Perhaps the main difference in the character's development from the book, to the big screen and finally to the small screen comes in Hawkeye's marital status. The Hawkeye of the book is married to Evelyn Pierce with children (according to the sequels) and faithful whilst in Korea, as far as the reader is concerned. He offers several doctors love advice, "Jeeter" Carol for example, extolling the virtues of extramarital sex but never partaking himself. The film version of Hawkeye is still married but has more leeway with his morals, arguing that he is far from home, no one is ever going to know and it will reduce stress for both involved. Finally, he becomes the womanizing and single Hawkeye of the TV series.

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").

Hawkeye in the television series

The television version of Hawkeye proved to be a somewhat different character: While his professional and social life was 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. 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, the Chief Surgeon had been "Trapper" John MacIntyre; in the series, Pierce had that honor. 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 looked sturdy enough to have played football. He seemed to resemble Groucho Marx, with his quick wit and 'madcap' antics, sometimes even affecting a Groucho-like schtick.

Interestingly, Hawkeye had been married in the book and the film; at the beginning of the series, he was married as well, but references to his marriage were eventually dropped and it was made clear that he was single. 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 and more "politically correct" 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 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 also in the Season 1 episode "Ceasefire", but all other references, including in the book and film, are to Hawkeye being from Maine.

"Hawkeye"

The film 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 initially claimed was the only book his father ever read to him. In the book, it is the only book his read. In an episode in which Hawkeye believed himself to be in mortal danger due to heavy enemy shelling, he made out a will, and left Colonel Sherman Potter the edition of The Last of the Mohicans that his father had given him. "It was his favorite book," Hawkeye wrote in the will.

After the war

At the end of the television series, with the truce, 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 A Novel Of Three Army Doctors, M*A*S*H Goes To Maine and M*A*S*H Mania, Hawkeye returns to live in Crabapple Cove, near to the town of Spruce Harbour, Maine. Having left the army Hawkeye is established to be working for the Veterans Administration. In May 1954 he's laid off. At this point Hawkeye hasn't much money in the bank, is 31 years old, and has three children; Billy, Stephen and Karen.

The day he's released Trapper John comes to visit and sets in motion Hawkeye's future. Trapper John, a Lieutenant in the medical organisation of Maxie Neville in New York City arranges for further thoracic training for Hawkeye first in 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 favourably 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 re-uniting 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 Harbour General Hospital.

In the twenty year period described in Hooker's two sequel novels, Hawkeye becomes notably more conservative politically (he supported "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 games improves to an eight handicap depending on the time of year. He donates heavily to various cases, such as to needy children, to the re-education of a local clamdigger, and spends an inordinate amount of time caring for his patients.

Trivia

Both the actors who portrayed Hawkeye Pierce had a role as a Republican on a television political drama in the 2000s. Alda plays Arnold Vinick in The West Wing and Sutherland plays Nathan Templeton in Commander in Chief.
In the FOX animated series Futurama, the episode War is the H-Word includes an extended parody of M*A*S*H, including a Hawkeye-like medical robot aptly named "iHawk" which was constantly holding a Martini glass and had the ability to alternate between jocular and somber moods at the flick of a switch; the switch's moods were "maudlin" and "irreverent." An example of the switch is as follows; "This isn't a war, it's murder," flips the switch, "This isn't a war, it's a 'moider.'"

External links

Finest-Kind.net - M*A*S*H website with character profile
Best Care Anywhere - M*A*S*H website with character profile

Benjamin Franklin Pierce

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