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'''MASH''' is a 1970 satirical American dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and based on the novel '' 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, Rene Auberjonois, David Arkin and Fred Williamson. The film went on to inspire the television series ''M
★ A
★ S
★ H''.

Contents

Synopsis

Style

Music

Cast

Production

Controversies

Awards and recognition

Trivia

Quotes

References

See also

External links

Synopsis

Captains Hawkeye Pierce (Sutherland), Duke Forrest (Skerritt) and Trapper John McIntyre (Gould) are three draftee Army surgeons who are assigned to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (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, which fosters an indulgent attitude on the part of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (Roger Bowen), the unit's commanding officer. Assisting Blake in the administration of the hospital are Staff Sergeant Vollmer (Arkin) and Corporal Radar O'Reilly (Burghoff), the latter 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 bearing wounded.
The three captains clash almost immediately with Major Frank Burns (Duvall), a medically incompetent religious zealot, and Major Margaret O' Houlihan (Kellerman), the unit's chilly head nurse. Burns and 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 "Hot Lips" — "Oh Frank, my lips are hot, kiss my hot lips!"; it also leads to Burns being sent to a psych ward after Hawkeye's taunts goad him into a physical attack. After further humiliations from the captains, a defeated O'Houlihan eventually enters into an affair with Duke.
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; Hawkeye and Trapper making a trip to Tokyo to operate on a Congressman's son; a mad football game in which the opposition are drugged; pulling down a shower while Houlihan is showering: and a suicidal dentist, "Painless Pole" (John Schuck), who is rescued by a sexy nurse nicknamed "Dish" (Jo Ann Pflug). 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, episodic feel; much of the cast's dialogue was improvised during shooting.

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. "Suicide is Painless" also became a standard of jazz music with versions by talented musicians such as Bill Evans on "You Must Believe in Spring" (recorded in 1977 but only released after his death in 1980) and Ahmad Jamal on "Digital Works" (1985).

Cast

★ 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

★ Carl Gottlieb as Capt. John "Ugly John" Black

★ Danny Goldman as Capt. Murhart

★ Corey Fischer as Capt. Dennis Patrick Bandini

★ Jo Ann Pflug as Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider

★ Indus Arthur as Lt. Leslie

★ Dawn Damon as Lt. Storch

★ Tamara Horrocks as Capt. Bridget "Knocko" McCarthy

★ David Arkin as SSgt. Wade Douglas Vollmer/PA Announcer. (Note: In the movie Duke called him "Lee".)

★ Gary Burghoff as Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly

★ Ken Primus as Pvt. Seidman

★ 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

★ G.Wood as Brig. General Charlie Hammond

★ Kim Atwood as Ho-Jon

★ Dale Ishimoto as Korean doctor

★ Bobby Troup as SSgt. Gorman
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."
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.

Production

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.^[1] 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.^[2]
In addition, there is mention of the Korean war during a radio announcement that plays while Hawkeye and Trapper are putting in Col Merrill's office.
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" when he says to the opposing football player, "All right bud, your fucking head is coming right off!" The actor (John Schuck) 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. Interestingly, the offending word was not bleeped out during a late-night broadcast of the film on ABC in 1985; subsequent broadcasts of the film on network television have the word removed altogether.

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.
In 1996, ''MASH'' was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
In 1998, the film was recognized by the American Film Institute (AFI) as #56 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies; two years later, AFI recognized it as #7 on their 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.

★ 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.)

★ The inclusion of Spearchucker in the movie and subsequently the TV series is historically incorrect since at the time of the Korean War the Army had no commissioned African American surgeons.

★ The film's title is often rendered as '''M
★ A
★ S
★ H'''. Although asterisks were included in the original poster art, and in the subsequent TV series, the title as depicted onscreen in the film omits them.

Quotes

★ 'Trapper:' ''[to the head nurse in a hospital]'' Look, mother, I want to go to work in one hour. We are the Pros from Dover and we figure to crack this kid's chest and get out to the golf course before it gets dark. So you go find the gas-passer and you have him pre-medicate this patient. Then bring me the latest pictures on him. The ones we saw must be 48 hours old by now. Then call the kitchen and have them rustle us up some lunch. Ham and eggs will be all right, steak would be even better. And then give me at least ONE nurse who knows how to work in close without getting her tits in my way.
'Assistant nurse:' How do you want your steak cooked?

★ 'Hot Lips:' ''[about Hawkeye]'' I wonder how such a degenerated person ever reached a position of authority in the Army Medical Corps.
'Father Mulcahy:' He was drafted.

★ 'Hot Lips:' ''[to Frank, during their sex romp]'' Oh, Frank, my lips are hot! Kiss my hot lips!

★ 'Waldowski:' ''[during football game]'' All right bud, your fucking head is coming right off!

★ 'Duke:' ''[to Henry, as Frank is sent stateside]'' Fair is fair, Henry. If I nail Hot Lips and punch Hawkeye, can I go home?

★ 'Henry:' ''[to Radar, regarding Hawkeye and Duke leaving the 4077th just as they arrived, via unauthorized use of a jeep]'' Did Hawkeye just steal that jeep?
'Radar:' No sir, it's the one he came in.

★ 'Henry:' ''[to Trapper, upon hearing that he had just punched Frank]'' What's the matter with you?
'Trapper: 'I don't know, I must have lost my punch, I never expected the son of a bitch to get up.

★ 'Duke:' ''[to Henry, regarding Frank's refusal to accept responsibility when a patient dies]'' Dammit Henry, Frank Burns is a menace. Every time a patient croaks on him he says its either ''God's will'', or it's somebody else's fault!

★ 'Hot Lips:' ''[to Henry (who's in bed with a nurse) after being exposed naked in the shower]'' This isn't a hospital, it's an insane asylum! And it's your fault! Because you don't do anything to discourage them!
'Henry:' What do you want me to do?
'Hot Lips:' Put them under arrest! See what a court-martial thinks of their drunken hooliganism! First they all call me "Hot Lips", and you let them get away with it! You let them get away with everything! If you don't turn them over to the MPs this minute, I'm—I'm gonna resign my commission!
'Henry:' God dammit, Hot Lips, resign your goddamn commission!

★ 'Trapper:' ''[to Hotlips, during surgery]'' Hot Lips, you may be a pain in the ass, but you're a damn good nurse.
'Hot Lips:' ''[smiling under her surgical mask]'' Thanks, Trapper.

★ 'Hot Lips:' ''[During football game]'' Look, A red flag! We got a red flag!
'Henry:' Hot Lips, it's a penalty you blithering idiot.'

References

1.
2.

See also

★ List of counterculture films

External links

★

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