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 17 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

Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. That's where two young surgeons, Duke and Hawkeye end up during the Korean War. There is no plot as such, but instead a series of episodes during which they put their stamp on the camp including a football game against a larger unit with thousands riding on it, a trip to Tokyo to operate on a congressman's son and play a little golf, and finding out if the head nurse is a natural blonde.

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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

When the movie was released, the military wanted not to run the movie in their theaters because of its anti-war message. The case went to the Supreme Court which ruled the military could not withdraw the film for this reason. Instead, the military chose to run Patton in the following week feeling that film was more complimentary to the military.

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Goofs

When O'Houlihan has a discussion with Hawkeye in the mess tent shortly after her arrival, there is a shot over Hawkeye's shoulder where you can see that his glasses have appeared back on his face even though they were off in the previous shot.

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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

The end cast credits are read over the PA system, without titles.

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Connections

Spoofed in Gimme an 'F' (1984)

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Soundtracks

"The Washington Post"
(1889) (uncredited)
Written by John Philip Sousa
Played during the football game

User Reviews

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.