MASH (1970)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Richard Hooker (novel)
Ring Lardner Jr. (screenplay)

Release Date:

March 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | War | Drama

Tagline:

M*A*S*H Hysteria

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Surgeon | Mobile Army Surgical Hospital | Korean War | Golf | Dentist

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 14 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

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

Also Known As:

M*A*S*H (USA) (alternative spelling)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content. (edited version)

Runtime:

116 min | USA:112 min (PG version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese | Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (cut US version) | Iceland:L | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Canada:14A (video rating) | Portugal:M/12 | Italy:VM14 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:18 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Peru:18 | Singapore:PG | UK:15 (video rating) (1987) | UK:X (original rating) (cut) | USA:PG (cut) | USA:R (PCA #22275) | West Germany:16 | Canada:R (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Aspen Productions (I)

Trivia:

M.A.S.H. stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. They remained in US Army service until 2006 when the last one was donated to Pakistan.

Goofs:

Continuity: Cars on a freeway in the background of the football game.

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]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Darktown Strutters' Ball

Outrageous, in-your-face black humor

M*A*S*H is a groundbreaking film. Along with Catch 22, M*A*S*H had the audacity to ridicule two of the pillars of American society: war and religion. Whether you find this appalling, subversive, treasonous, outrageous or funny depends on your political and religious orientation. Surely the religious right will find the film blasphemous and the political right will find it treasonous. No matter what your point of view, M*A*S*H is certainly an in-your-face film.

The irony of the film is that for the time it was considered gruesomely bloody. Yet there are no battlefield scenes; all the blood is in the surgical unit. The CSI TV series shows more carnage than M*A*S*H, but M*A*S*H was filmed over 30 years ago.

M*A*S*H is loaded with bizarro characters. Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Robert Duvall, Tom Skerrit, Loretta Swit, Radar are all insane in their own way. In "M*A*S*H," everyone is cruel, playing mean practical jokes and the anti-heroes Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould are just plain heartless. They absolutely torment Major "Hot Lips" Hoolihan and Robert Duvall. None of the characters in the film tries to be funny. There are no jokes. The humor just grows from the situation which is the grim reality of a mobile surgical unit whose doctors and nurses try their best to repair the horribly mutilated bodies from an insane war. Having worked in a hospital setting, outrageous and black humor is commonplace, especially in the ER, but in M*A*S*H it's taken to a new level.