MASH (1970)

The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Richard Hooker (from the novel by), Ring Lardner Jr. (screenplay)

Stars:

Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt

Won 1 Oscar. Another 19 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Donald Sutherland	...	Hawkeye Pierce
Elliott Gould	...	Trapper John McIntyre
Tom Skerritt	...	Duke Forrest
Sally Kellerman	...	'Hot Lips' O'Houlihan
Robert Duvall	...	Maj. Frank Burns
Roger Bowen	...	Col. Henry Blake
Rene Auberjonois	...	Father John Mulcahy
David Arkin	...	Sgt. Major Vollmer
Jo Ann Pflug	...	Lt. 'Dish'
Gary Burghoff	...	Corporal 'Radar' O'Reilly
Fred Williamson	...	Dr. Oliver 'Spearchucker' Jones
Michael Murphy	...	'Me Lai' Marston
Indus Arthur	...	Lt. Leslie
Ken Prymus	...	PFC. Seidman
Bobby Troup	...	Sgt. Gorman

Storyline

The personnel at the 4077 MASH unit deal with the horrors of the Korean War and the stresses faced in surgery by whatever means. The tone at the MASH is established by recent arrivals, surgeons Captains 'Hawkeye' Pierce, 'Duke' Forrest, and 'Trapper' John McIntyre - the latter who Hawkeye knows he's met somewhere, but Trapper who won't divulge where - whose antics can be best described as non-regulation, and in the negative words of one of their fellow MASH-ers: unmilitary. The unit's commanding officer, Colonel Henry Blake, doesn't care about this behavior as long as it doesn't affect him, and as long as they do their job and do it well, which they do. Their behavior does extremely bother fellow surgeon, Major Frank Burns, and recently arrived head nurse, Major Margaret Houlihan, who obtains the nickname 'Hot Lips' based on information they glean about her through underhanded means. Beyond their battles with Frank and Hot Lips, Hawkeye, Duke and/or Trapper help unit dentist Painless ...

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Plot Keywords:

surgeon | mobile army surgical hospital | korean war | golf | nurse | 

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Taglines:

M*A*S*H Hysteria

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Genres:

Comedy | War | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese Korean

Release Date:

March 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

M.A.S.H.

Filming Locations:

Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$81,600,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aspen Productions (I), Ingo Preminger Productions, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min 112 min (PG)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Austin Pendleton turned down the part of Radar.

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Goofs

During the talk in the office about having a football game, a light, presumably from one of the cameras, can be seen reflected in one of the men's sunglasses.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake: Radar.
Cpl. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly: Yes, sir. I'll get ahold of Major Burns...
Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake: I want you to get a hold of Major Burns...
Cpl. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly: ...Tell him to hold a couple day surgeons over into the night shift.
Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake: Tell him we're going to have hold a couple of surgeons over from the day shift out of the night shift.
Cpl. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly: I'll put in a call to General Hammond in Seoul...
Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake: Get General Hammond down there in Seoul, tell him to send us those new surgeons right away.
Cpl. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly: ...I hope he sends us those two new surgeons. We're sure gonna need'em.
[Leaves]
[...]

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Crazy Credits

Robert Altman cast so many unknowns in the movie that after one or two known actors, the cast credits all say "Introducing"

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Connections

Featured in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs: America's Funniest Movies (2000)

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Soundtracks

"Taps"
(1862) (uncredited)
Music by Daniel Butterfield
Played on the violin

User Reviews

Anti-war? Gimme a break!

I thought Altman's "Nashville" was brilliant. "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" was a solidly "different" western. MASH, on the other hand, manages to bore and rankle at the same time.

What's right with MASH: ingenious innovations in technique, like a loudspeaker within the movie helping to announce the final credits and a comic eating scene shot to resemble the layout of Da Vinci's "Last Supper." Clever! Yawn. (These bits neither advance the plot, contribute to characterization or ambiance, or do anything except exist. Some viewers will laugh at the moment of recognition, but playful directing doesn't make a good film all by itself.) Another possible innovation is the use of a Simon&Garfunkly theme ("Suicide is Painless") that has no bearing on the movie or much else in the world. If Altman thought this bit up all by himself, it's clever. Yawn.

The cast does the best they can with so little of interest to work with.

I didn't find MASH funny, for reasons that many others have mentioned. Its worst sin against humor, to my mind, is that the "fun" here is based entirely on a the antics of a few angry and arrogant narcissists. I'd have called them "psychos," but that would make them sound too interesting. The fact that they're also brilliant surgeons doesn't outweigh their mental-health issues, unless you get a lump in the throat just watching SOB's save lives.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" is anti-war. "Paths of Glory" is anti-war. You don't need to be told that because they show war itself as cruel and dehumanizing, right up on the big screen.

"MASH" is not antiwar, and would be pretty poor even it were, because most of the dehumanizing is done by the protagonists themselves. It was *marketed* as antiwar (something quite different) because being antiwar *sold* in 1970. The posters that showed a peace sign morphing into a leggy babe had nothing to do with the movie except to convince people that it was "anti-war" and therefore great, sexy, hilarious, and more than worth the price of admission. In fact, MASH is none of these things.

Hawkeye, Trapper John, and their buddies are not against war or even *the* war. They do and say nothing about any war. All they do and say is whatever they feel like, tormenting female nurses, outsmarting superior officers, taking their petty vengeance and unmotivated peevishness out on everyone around them. Sound funny? Wrong. The Marx Bros. might have been able to pull it off, but not this crew.

MASH is anti-authority, but that's a whole lot different from being anti-war. MASH is also anti-military, but in a motiveless way (unless raking in the bucks was a motive). All the army ever did to these distinguished surgeons was to replace, temporarily of course, their zillion-dollar a year civilian careers with the opportunity to play golf, football, and crude practical jokes while occasionally saving of patients whom they obviously do not give a **** about personally.

The primary "anti-war" message here is that surgical operations involve lots of blood squirting around. That's it. Why not say MASH was is "anti-surgery" or "anti-medical profession" movie? Because that would nail the picture for the fraud it really is.

(Note: I know that medical students can be krazy kut-ups, especially when it comes to spare cadavers. MASH is a lot less funny.)