My mom swears that theres this movie she saw back in the seventies where they strap somebody to a cross and hang it fron a helicopter and fly him all aroundus. Does anybody know what this movie is, or is she just completely crazy?y crazy 
) She saw it in Chicago in about 1969. We thought it might be MAS*H, but we have the DVD right now, and it doesn’t seem to be on it. Any help from my fellow dopers? Thanks heaps.
Tenebras
Sounds a little bit like La Dolce Vita. See:
http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/fellini.html
But it was a statue of Jesus.
In the book MAS*H, Trapper John was dressed like Jesus, and hung from the bottom of a helicopter as a fund-raising stunt to raise money for college for Ho-Jon. They took pictures of Trapper as Jesus and sold them to soldiers, using the helicopter stunt to promote them.
I suspect that either your mother read the book and conflated it with the movie and now has a ‘memory’ of seeing it onscreen (it’s depicted very graphically in the book), or perhaps an early print of MASH had the scene in it and your mom saw that, and later prints of the movie deleted the whole Trapper-As-Jesus thing as being offensive.
But my money is on the former. It’s a conflated memory.
Thanks Sam. I’m sure that’s it, sine she’s always saying it was to save Ho-Jon from the Korean army. (And she doesn’t watch Fellini 
) I’ll tell her in the morning. I’m sure she’ll be glad to know that senility hasn’t yet set in. Well, at least not full blown senility, since she is inventing memories…
I guess I should ask: did anyone see an early print of the movie with this scene? She did see it in Chicago, which I would imagine might get test screenings sometimes. After all, we even get them sometimes here in St. Louis. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Tenebras
You may be thinking about the movie “Air America” with Mel Gibson and Keeanu Reeves. MAYBE…I don’t remember when it came out and it wasn’t a helicopter, it was an airplane. Keeanu Reeves was the one who assumed a crucified posture while being given a ‘joy ride’ by Gibson.
Keanu Reeves wasn’t in Air America. It was Robert Downey Jr. BUt I don’t remember that scene…
My error…it was Robert Downey, Jr. and I think the scene in question happened early in the movie but it’s been a while since I saw it.
Robert Downey Jr was dressed in a bathrobe during that scene if I recall correctly. Unless Jesus had fluffy slippers I don’t think that was it.
Robert Downey Jr.'s character wouldn’t wake up, and it was time to go to work – he was still asleep, out on a lawn chair (and yes, probably still in bathrobe, if I remember right).
Mel Gibson tied a rope around him, under his arms, and then just dragged him along with the copter. Downey awakes to find himself in midair. Scared at first, then starts enjoying it.
Not crucified, though.
I’d have to agree with this. I remember when the movie came out, after having read the book I was disappointed that this scene was left out of the movie. But otherwise, the movie did such a good job of bringing the book to life, I still picture that scene in my mind with the movie’s characters faces.
The movie’s characters were so much truer to the book than the TV show’s.
I’m almost 100% sure it was done in an early episode of the TV show MAS*H. I know I saw it somewhere.
Ummmmm… No.
In the TV series, they did have an episode where they raised money to send Ho-Jon to college in the states. But in typical TV fashion, they got rid of the Jesus pictures and just had a big party where everyone donated money.