MASH (1970)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

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

Release Date:

6 April 1970 (Brazil)

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:

Alcoholic | Immaturity | Entire Title Is Capitalized Acronym | Alcoholism | Ignorance

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 14 wins & 19 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. May 25

8:00 PM

AMC

Cast

Donald Sutherland	...	Capt. Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce
Elliott Gould	...	Capt. John Francis Xavier 'Trapper John' McIntyre
Tom Skerritt	...	Capt. Augustus Bedford 'Duke' Forrest
Sally Kellerman	...	Maj. Margaret 'Hot Lips' O'Houlihan
Robert Duvall	...	Maj. 'Frank' Burns
Roger Bowen	...	Lt. Col. Henry Barymore Adlai Blake
Rene Auberjonois	...	Father Mulcahy
David Arkin	...	SSgt. Wade Douglas Vollmer / PA Announcer
Jo Ann Pflug	...	Lt. Maria 'Dish' Schneider
Gary Burghoff	...	Cpl. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly
Fred Williamson	...	Capt. Oliver Harmon 'Spearchucker' Jones
Michael Murphy	...	Capt. Ezekiel Bradbury 'Me Lai' Marston IV
Indus Arthur	...	Lt. Leslie
Ken Prymus	...	Pvt. Seidman
Bobby Troup	...	SSgt. 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 (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:14A (video rating) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (cut US version) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | 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 | West Germany:16 | Canada:R (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Aspen Productions (I)

Trivia:

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.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the second surgery scene, you can clearly hear "Trapper John" McIntyre say "Dish, let me have a long needle holder", yet Trapper John doesn't arrive until a few minutes later in the movie.

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 "The Wire: Game Day (#1.9)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Tokyo Shoeshine Boy

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.