Trivia
The opening title sequence has a text that identifies the place as Korea. This was added at the insistence of the studio after director Robert Altman had removed every reference to Korea, intending it to be mistaken for Vietnam, which would reinforce the anti-war statement.
Share this
G. Wood (General Hammond) played the same character in the movie and first three episodes of the TV series (M*A*S*H.)
Share this
The 14-year-old son of Robert Altman, Mike Altman, wrote the lyrics to the theme song "Suicide is Painless". Because of its inclusion in the subsequent TV series, he continued to get residuals throughout its run and syndication. His father was paid $75,000 for directing but his son eventually made about $2,000,000 in song royalties.
Share this
This and Catch-22, two films satirizing recent American wars, were released in the same year. "Catch-22," based on a best-selling novel, featuring a huge cast, and boasting director Mike Nichols fresh from his success with The Graduate, was expected to be the more successful film. When the reverse proved true, Robert Altman hung a banner in his office reading, "Caught-22."
Share this
Although set on the front lines of the Korean War, the only gunshots heard throughout the movie are from the referee's pistol during the inter-camp football game.
Share this
This film was among the first to be released on home video. In 1977 20th Century Fox licensed 50 of its titles to a fledgling video duplication company called Magnetic Video Corp. Fox purchased the company in 1978, laying the groundwork for its current successful video operation.
Share this
Robert Altman cast so many unknowns that after the few known actors (Tom Skerritt, Elliott Gould, etc.), the opening credits are entirely "Introducing...".
Share this
Robert Altman says that during filming, Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland together went to the studio and complained that Altman was filming too much of the secondary characters. They requested that he be removed from the film, but the studio refused. After the film was completed and received its accolades, only Gould confessed the matter to Altman. As a result, he received parts in other Altman pictures, whereas the director never again used Sutherland.
Share this
Speaking about the troubles he had with the studio, Robert Altman now says, "This film wasn't released - it escaped."
Share this
Robert Altman originally wanted Elliott Gould to play Duke Forrest. It was only at Gould's request that he got the role of Trapper John.
Share this
In the opening titles, when a soldier carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher and when when the soldier trips and falls down, it wasn't scripted. It was actually an accident by the actor who tripped over something. Robert Altman decided that instead of editing it out, to use it to foreshadow the dark humor theme as the movie's first small, but real, laugh.
Share this
Writer Ring Lardner Jr. was the only Academy Award winner out of the movie's five nominations. Lardner practically disowned the movie when he saw that very little of his original script made it into the final cut.
Share this
The first take of the shot where Hot Lips is revealed in the shower didn't work because Sally Kellerman anticipated the reveal and was already lying on the floor when the tent flap went up. To distract her, Robert Altman and Gary Burghoff entered the shower tent and dropped their trousers while the shot was rolling outside. While Kellerman was staring at them, the tent flap was raised, resulting in her genuine surprise and shock when she realized what had happened. In the special double disc dvd they say that Radar is standing naked beside the camera and that that's the reason why Sally Kellerman looks so surprised when the flap was raised.
Share this
The accounting department claimed shooting was 4 days behind schedule on only the second day.
Share this
Tom Skerritt recalled that the dialogue was about 80% improvised. In order to create a different kind of atmosphere, Altman cast some of the parts from improvizational clubs who had no previous movie experience.
Share this
Robert Altman didn't want Sally Kellerman initially because "she was too attractive" and he wanted unattractive actors.
Share this
This was John Schuck's film debut, and he was cast as Capt. Walter Kosciusko 'Painless Pole' Waldowski, the MASH dentist, because of his very pronounced under bite.
Share this
The operating scenes were almost cut out due to their graphic nature. However, two women who were visiting the set told the producers that the operating scenes were what made the movie, and should be kept in.
Share this
Robert Altman was originally promised five "points" (a percentage) of the film's profits. After a disagreement between Altman and one of the Fox executives, the offer of points was taken back before production began. When the film became a big hit, Altman's agent asked for the points back; the studio was considering it when Altman was quoted in the press saying how much he hated working for Fox. He was never given the points back.
Share this
All of the characters, based on the characters from Richard Hooker's novel, are composites of people Hooker knew, met casually, worked with, or heard about.
Share this
The loudspeaker shots and announcements were added after the editing process had begun and the filmmakers realized that they needed more transitions. Some of the loudspeaker shots have the Moon visible and were shot while the Apollo 11 astronauts were on the Moon.
Share this
The scene where Father Mulcahy is blessing the jeep was improvised. Actor Rene Auberjonois found the blessing in a copy of the Army Chaplain's Handbook, and thought it would be a good addition to both the story and to his character. The director agreed, and the scene was shot in one take.
Share this
The story goes that Robert Altman was editing the movie with his editor, Danford B. Greene; they had nude pinups on the walls of the editing room. The head of postproduction came by and tried to stop Altman from using the editing machine, as he wasn't a designated editor, and Altman threw him out of the editing room. The next day a memo came down from the Fox front office, stating a new policy that there were to be no pinups on the walls of editing rooms. Altman took the memo to the sound recording studio and added it as one of the loudspeaker announcements during the film.
Share this
This was not the first Korean War-based movie to carry the title "MASH." In 1953, Humphrey Bogart starred in a film also about a MASH unit by the same title. But the studio thought the title might make audiences think it was about potatoes, so the title was changed to Battle Circus.
Share this
Elliott Gould and Donald Sutherland kept calling each other "Shirley" on the set. Gould did it in one shot, cracking Sutherland up, and Robert Altman decided to keep it in the film. "Shirley" was a reference to Donald Sutherland's second wife, Shirley Douglas.
Share this
Robert Altman felt that he was able to get away with so much during shooting because the officials at 20th Century Fox were keeping a closer watch on their two massively expensive projects, also war films, Patton and Tora! Tora! Tora!.
Share this
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.
Share this
When studio execs first saw the dailies, they complained to Robert Altman that the soldiers looked dirty compared to the soldiers in Tora! Tora! Tora! and Patton. Altman, a veteran of WWII, replied that soldiers in war are dirty. The next day the execs told the producers of those two films to make their soldiers look dirtier.
Share this
The initial scene of the suicide of "Painless" is a mimic of "The Last Supper" by 'Leonardo Da Vinci'.
Share this
With its initial box-office take of $41 million, "M*A*S*H" at the time was the second biggest grossing comedy, coming in just below The Graduate.
Share this
When Donald Sutherland's parents went to see the film, his father stood up and said "Hi, Donny!" after the scene where Hawkeye says "Hi, Dad" to the camerawoman in the Jeep.
Share this
Rene Auberjonois and John Schuck later worked together again on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Share this
When Hawkeye arrives at the first camp, we hear the PA call several men to the departure area. Of these men one of them is named "Robert A", a homage to the film's director Robert Altman.
Share this
In 1971, 20th Century Fox somewhat perversely reissued this film on a double bill with a very different kind of war film, Patton starring George C. Scott.
Share this
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.
Share this
Robert Altman was initially considering James Garner for the part of Hawkeye until Donald Sutherland lobbied hard for the role.
Share this
The character of Major Frank Burns in the film is actually a combination of two characters from the original novel, Captain Frank Burns and Major Jonathan Hobson.
Share this
One innovation of Robert Altman was the almost constant overlaying of dialogue: as many as four conversations could be happening at once in a given shot. While this was considered unorthodox and revolutionary at the time, Altman's instinct was vindicated when audiences agreed that the technique contributed to the feeling that war was "messy and confusing". The technique has been emulated on several occasions since.
Share this
Gary Burghoff is the only actor to play the role of Radar in four out of five incarnations of the M*A*S*H franchise, in MASH, M*A*S*H, After MASH and the failed pilot W*A*L*T*E*R. He does not appear in Trapper John, M.D.. The next most frequently returning characters are Trapper John McIntyre (MASH (1970), M*A*S*H (1972) and Trapper John, M.D. (1979)) and Father John Francis Mulcahy (MASH (1970), M*A*S*H (1972) and AfterM*A*S*H (1983)), although they were each played by three different actors.
Share this
