The actress Loretta Swit — best known for her role as Major “Hotlips” Houlihan in the popular TV show M.A.S.H. — is in Missoula. She’s here for a screening of “Never The Same” — a film about American prisoners of Imperial Japan during World War II. The screening coincides with an exhibit at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture that features pieces by Montana artist Ben Steele.
At Finn and Porter restaurant, with a front-row-seat-view of the Clark Fork River, Swit talks about how she got involved after the film’s director, Jan Thompson — winner of three Emmy awards — contacted a mutual friend to say “'I’m looking for a very strong female voice for my narrator.’ And he said, ‘There is nobody else. You have to call Loretta Swit.’”
Thompson also needed other voices for the project, and Swit jumped in to help. “Jan’s a teacher. She was going to maybe approach her students. I said ‘Whoa, wait a minute. First of all, we need older voices and we need heavy-weight competent actors. Let me go out there and talk to my buds.’”
Swit’s “buds” included Ed Asner, Alec Baldwin, Jamie Farr, Kathleen Turner, Robert Wagner, and Sam Waterston, as well as several other well-known actors who added their talents to the film.
(sound from the film trailer) Ben Steele: “We were all knees and eyeballs, you know. That’s what we used to say, all knees and eyeballs.” Alec Baldwin: “I have never experienced such a study of man reduced to the lowest common denominator.”
During their incarceration, Swit says the men obsessed about “Food. That’s all they thought about. They were starving. So they’d do recipes; make up the most outrageous things: 7 jars of peanut butter, 18 pounds of chocolate.”
And, as Jan Thompson found out, their creative imaginations helped many of the prisoners survive. “It’s interesting how each individual was able to survive their 3 ½ years as prisoners of war. Some were artists. Some wrote poetry. Many of the men collected recipes. The officers wrote elaborate cook books. A lot of the men were artists. One of the most remarkable artists I’ve come across in my research is your Montana native, Ben Steele. And what makes Ben’s art unique is he captures the humor and he captures the hell. And I use his artwork throughout my film.”
An exhibition of Ben Steele’s art is the reason Loretta Swit, Jan Thompson, and her film are in Missoula. Barbara Koostra, director of the Montana Museum of Art & Culture, explains: “The exhibition is entitled 'The Human Condition: The Art of Ben Steele’ and it, too, has this theme of the POW memory, and images that he, himself, experienced during World War II. ‘Art saved my life’ is the most wonderful quote from Ben Steele, because by exorcizing his images out of his brain, out of his mind, after the war he was able to become a monstrously wonderful person, a very important teacher in Montana. He’s still with us in Billings, at age 97. So, we celebrate him, we celebrate all veterans through the wonderful work of Loretta Swit and Jan Thompson.”
Swit believes “Never The Same” is important for many reasons — historically, culturally… and personally. “Once you see this film, you’ll have to give up the right to complain — because you’ll feel foolish. Oh I broke a fingernail. I mean, it’s like absurd! We have this extraordinary life, which by the way, they helped us have....”
The Montana Museum of Art & Culture is hosting a meet-and-greet party with Loretta Swit and Jan Thompson September 10 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., followed by a screening of “Never The Same.”
Meet & Greet Party
Thursday, September 10, 5:30-6:30pm,
Lobby of the Missoula Children's Theatre
The Montana Museum of Art & Culture presents a Meet & Greet party before the screening of the documentary “Never the Same” with director Jan Thompson and narrator and award-winning actress Loretta Swit. The party will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the Missoula Children’s Theatre. Tickets to the party are $25 each and may be reserved by calling 406-243-2019. Proceeds will benefit the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society and MMAC.
Film Screening:
Never the Same
Thursday, September 10, 7pm
UM PARTV Center - Masquer Theater
More than 20 years in the making, this innovative documentary depicts the experience of American prisoners of war held by the Japanese during World War II. Conversation after the screening with filmmaker Jan Thompson and special guest Loretta Swit.
Trailer: Never The Same: The Prisoner-of-War Experience
On View through September 12, 2015, at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture
Human Condition: The Art of Ben Steele
Paxson Gallery
This exhibition features the artwork of WWII prisoner of war and Montana artist Ben Steele. His work records the degradation and cruelty to which prisoners were subjected at the time of the Bataan Death March. Providing a record of war, survival, forgiveness and reconciliation, Steele attributes his survival to a love for Montana and early experiences on the family ranch near Roundup, Montana.
