M*A*S*H (film)

MASH
File:MASH1.jpg Original movie poster
Directed by	Robert Altman
Written by	Novel: Richard Hooker Screenplay: Ring Lardner Jr.
Produced by	Ingo Preminger
Starring	Donald Sutherland Elliot Gould Tom Skerritt Robert Duvall Sally Kellerman Roger Bowen Gary Burghoff Rene Auberjenois Fred Williamson
Cinematography	Harold E. Stine
Edited by	Danford B. Greene
Music by	Johnny Mandel
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release dates	25 January, 1970 (NYC only)
Running time	116 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3,500,000

MASH is a 1970 satirical American dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and based on the novel M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker. It is the only feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise.

The film depicts an outfit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War and stars Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould with Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Tom Skerritt, Roger Bowen, Gary Burghoff, Bud Cort and Fred Williamson. The film went on to inspire the television series M*A*S*H.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler Hawkeye Pierce, Duke Forrest and Trapper John McIntyre are three Army surgeons who are drafted and assigned to a MASH Unit in Korea. It is evident from the beginning that they are a trio of rebellious, womanizing rule-breakers intent on causing mischief. It is also apparent they are good at their job. They clash almost straight away with the obviously insane, religious zealot Frank Burns (played by Robert Duvall). At first Duke admires Head Nurse O'Houlihan, but the friends soon discover that she is as loopy as Frank. Burns and O'Houlihan have an affair, and their passionate embraces are broadcast over the public-address system to the whole unit. This event leads to O'Houlihan being nicknamed "Hotlips" - "Oh Frank, my lips are hot, kiss my hot lips!"; it also leads to Frank being sent to a psych ward after attacking Hawkeye (who was egging on Frank about the affair). Radar is so called because he appears to be able to anticipate Henry Blake's every demand and request before he makes them as well as the impending arrival of helicopters (radar, get it?) bearing wounded.

Further events in the film include a young male orderly (Bud Cort) being reduced to tears by Burns, and Frank getting a punch from Trapper John in response to this; a mad football game in which the opposition are drugged; and a suicidal dentist "Painless Pole"(John Schuck) who is rescued by a lady named "Dish". The film's theme seems to be that of ordinary decent people trying to do a job in very trying circumstances. This brings out both the best and the worst in them. The film has a disjointed, documentary feel. Template:Endspoiler

Style

MASH juxtaposes gory operating room procedures with anti-establishment humor; occasionally these two elements co-exist within the same shot. For example, Hawkeye is amputating a patient's leg and asks a nurse to scratch his nose, all while the sound of the saw cutting the bone is audible. The plot is episodic, and is marked by Altman's trademark editing style, in which each scene contains several simultaneous or overlapping conversations, as well as his frequent use of zooms.

Music

MASH features the song "Suicide is Painless", with music by Johnny Mandel and lyrics by Mike Altman, the director's 14-year-old son. Ten years after the film's release, the song reached number one in the UK charts. The television show used an instrumental version as its theme tune. The theme tune has notably been covered by Manic Street Preachers and Marilyn Manson.

Cast

File:MASH.JPG

MASH movie title.

• Donald Sutherland as Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
• Elliott Gould as Capt. John Francis Xavier "Trapper John" McIntyre
• Tom Skerritt as Capt. Augustus Bedford "Duke" Forrest
• Sally Kellerman as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" O'Houlihan
• Robert Duvall as Major Frank Burns
• Roger Bowen as Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake
• René Auberjonois as Father John Patrick "Dago Red" Mulcahy
• John Schuck as Capt. Walter Koskiusko "Painless Pole" Waldowski, DDS
• David Arkin as SSgt. Vollmer/PA Announcer
• Jo Ann Pflug as Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider
• Gary Burghoff as Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
• Fred Williamson as Capt. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones
• Michael Murphy as Capt. Ezekiel Bradbury "Me Lay" Marston IV
• Tim Brown as Cpl. Judson
• Bud Cort as Pvt. Lorenzo Boone

Gary Burghoff was the only member of the movie cast to become a regular on the television series. But he was not the only cast member to appear in both the film and the television series. G. Wood, who played General Hammond, also appeared on the series, if only for three episodes. Timothy Brown was in both the film and the series (for a brief time) but played different roles in each: he was Cpl. Judson in the film and "Spearchucker" in the series. And Corey Fischer played Capt. Bandini in the film and played the guitar-playing dentist Cardozo in the episode of the series entitled "5 O'Clock Charlie."

Production

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The screenplay is extremely different from the original novel; in the DVD audio commentary, Altman refers to the novel as "pretty terrible" and possibly "racist"--the major black character in the movie has the nickname "Spearchucker". He adds that even Lardner's screenplay was used only as a springboard.

The filming process was difficult due to tensions between the director and his cast. Donald Sutherland has stated that he was the only member of the principal cast and crew not using drugs during the filming. During principal photography, Sutherland and Elliott Gould spent a third of their time trying to get Robert Altman fired. Altman later commented that if he had known, he would have resigned. Gould later sent a letter of apology and Altman used him in some of his later works, but he never worked with Sutherland again

In a few shots of the "speaker" at night, the moon is visible in the background. On the same night when these scenes were shot, American astronauts landed on the moon.

Controversies

Altman deliberately left out overt references to Korea in the film, in the hopes that the audience would conflate the setting with Vietnam. The studio later forced him to add a caption at the beginning mentioning the Korean setting.

In his director's commentary on the DVD release, Altman says that MASH was the first major studio film to use the word "fuck" in its dialogue. The word is spoken during the football game near the end of the film by "Painless Pole". The actor has said in various interviews that Altman encouraged ad libbing during the shoots, and that particular statement made it into the film without a second thought.

Awards and recognition

The film won the Grand Prix at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for five Academy Awards and won an Oscar for its screenplay.

The movie was the 38th film to be released to the home video market when 20th Century Fox licensed fifty motion pictures from their library to Magnetic Video.

MASH was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected in 1996 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 1998, the film was recognized by the American Film Institute (AFI) as one of the 100 greatest American films; two years later, AFI recognized it as one of the 100 funniest American films.

This film is number 17 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".

Trivia

• MASH was the original title of the 1953 film Battle Circus starring Humphrey Bogart, another film about life in a MASH unit.
• Fred Williamson, who portrays "Spearchucker" Jones--a neurosurgeon who played professional football before being drafted into the Army--actually played for the Steelers, Raiders, and Chiefs. In the film's football sequence, he appears anachronously wearing white football shoes. (Football players did not wear white shoes until Joe Namath, in his best anti-Establishment manner, began sporting them in the late 1960s.) A flamboyant self-promoter, Williamson had earned the nickname "The Hammer" during his time with the Chiefs, by using his forearm to deliver karate-style blows to opponents' heads. Prior to Super Bowl I, he boasted that he would knock Green Bay Packers' starting receivers out of the game. Ironically, after a mediocre performance, Williamson himself had to be carried off the field in the fourth quarter, after being trampled by a Packer running back--and suffering a broken leg when one of his fellow Chiefs fell on him.
• Johnny Unitas appears in one shot at the end of the football game sucking on a joint.

• There is an anachronism in the film: when Burns is taken away, a shot of an American Flag is shown with 50 stars. During the Korean War, the U.S. Flag only had 48 stars. (Also, during the football game, several later model cars are seen in the background along the road.)

See also

• List of counterculture films

External links

• M*A*S*H at IMDb
• Elliott Gould remembers M*A*S*H, from the BBC website; the same clip is directly available here in RealMedia format