I don't know. I know he was a hypocrite but really. Also, what would have happened to him after he leaves MASH in the straight jacket, especially regarding medical practice?
I think the straitjacket is an overreaction by Henry Blake, as is pointed out when one of the characters says to him "If I nail Hot Lips and punch Hawkeye, can I go home, too?" The men from the Swamp seem incredulous that he's getting to go home. They probably just saw the fight between Burns and Hawkeye as the two men blowing off steam.
For what it's worth, in the book (which is not necessarily relevant to this discussion), it's mentioned that Frank goes home and resumes a successful career in the medical profession.
Robert Duvall's Frank Burns isn't the inept boob that the Larry Linville Burns of the T.V. show is. Come to think of it, almost none of the characters in the movie are much like their television counterparts. Donald Sutherland's Hawkeye would probably pull a prank on a general or do an unnecessary surgery to keep a glory hungry officer off the battlefield but would stop well short of a lot of other stuff the Alan Alda Hawkeye does.
How was Burns a hypocrite (rather than simply inconsistent)?
shareHis treatment of Pvt. Boone is hypocritical based only on his avowed Christianity. From what Duke says, he is someone who either claims divine will or blames others for his mistakes after a patient dies.
It's not clear Frank is an adulterer. I don't think he or anyone mentions him being married, and even if he was, it's not like he preaches his belief in the institution of marriage as Larry Linville's Frank did on the TV show (ex. "Marriage is the headstone of our society.) So he's not a hypocrite that way. But he's not at all a character one is supposed to like.
<<It's not clear Frank is an adulterer. I don't think he or anyone mentions him being married...>>
Just flashed on that line of Hawkeye's in the mess tent: "Heard from your wife, Frank?" So Frank is married in the movie. It's debatable whether he's a hypocrite, though, because we don't see him present himself as a model or hold himself up as necessarily better than the "godless buffoons" around him.
Frank is a nasty piece of work. There's the snark from Hawkeye about Frank's wife, but Hawkeye also complains to Hot Lips that Frank is "a lousy surgeon." His treatment of HoJon is also...well, patronizing, at best. He definitely sees himself as better than his new roommates ("Now I have to pray for your souls, too").
The real kicker, though, is when Frank blames the death of a patient on the bespectacled orderly Boone. These people are dealing with death almost every day and are already under a huge amount of stress (hence all the wacky and bizarre behavior in the first place). That poor kid didn't do a thing wrong and probably carried that for years. You just don't do that to someone.
As I recall, the book goes into a fair bit more detail about that incident and the devastation Boone feels about it.
Hot Lips' big mistake is taking Frank's straight arrow reputation at face value and discounting the others' complaints about him (well, she does walk in on Trapper punching him and that's her first impression of them both). So, she nearly goes down with the Frank ship when he's sent home. But the fact she doesn't (and even ends up in a relationship with Duke) says a lot about why Hawkeye, Duke and Trapper hate Frank's guts.
All the anarchy aside, Our Heroes do have some strongly held beliefs. They hate institutional stupidity, but highly value skill and competence (and compassion for the weak, hurt and helpless). As much as poor Hot Lips is downgraded to a bimbo later on, she is also accepted as the skilled and dedicated professional she really is after Frank leaves when Hawkeye tells her during a surgical procedure, "Hot Lips, you may be a pain in the ass, but you're a damned fine nurse."
Nobody ever says this about Frank. In fact, note how Hawkeye and Duke are willing to put up with Frank's eccentricity initially, but after their first marathon session in surgery, their patience just evaporates. They're exhausted then and one presumes (based on later comments about his lack of competence) that they've taken his measure, professionally, and found him lacking.
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Between being vindictive, hypocritical, narcissistic, nasty, and a lousy surgeon, plus ripping on people for his mistakes, Frank certainly had to go. Maybe not in a straight jacket, but that seems like the kind of overblown reactions Hawkeye, John, and co. would get which would likely have been rectified once he was outside of their spheres of influence (ie: he wouldn't wind up committed, just going home).
Where Frank does get unfair treatment, in my opinion, is when Hawkeye and Forrest first encounter Frank and start immediately harassing him for his faith. They don't know he'll happily jump into bed with Hot Lips yet (ie: he's a hypocrite). All they know is that he prays and they're happy to start mocking him for his religion. I felt that was unfair and mean-spirited (most of their foolery isn't quite so nasty, with the possible exception of Hot Lips' revelation in the shower tent).
But it's a small moment. For the most part, Frank's a jerk and incompetent, and it was good they bugged him until he left.
Where Frank does get unfair treatment, in my opinion, is when Hawkeye and Forrest first
encounter Frank and start harassing him for his faith.
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It's not his faith that they're ridiculing. It's his ostentatious expression of that
faith. As I recall Jesus admonished the Pharisees for such displays. And bedtime
prayers is a little juvenile-the first sign of his mental problems.
They really go after him, though, right out of the gate. Sure, think he's a little weird, tease him maybe, but they're dead-set on making him miserable as soon as they see he has religious sensibilities.
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