MASH (film)
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| MASH | |
|---|---|
| Image:MASH1.jpg Original movie poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Altman |
| Produced by | Ingo Preminger |
| Written by | Novel: Richard Hooker Screenplay: Ring Lardner Jr. |
| Starring | Donald Sutherland Elliot Gould Tom Skerritt Robert Duvall Sally Kellerman Roger Bowen Gary Burghoff Rene Auberjenois Fred Williamson |
| Music by | Johnny Mandel |
| Cinematography | Harold E. Stine |
| Editing by | Danford B. Greene |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | 1970 |
| Running time | 116 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,500,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
MASH is a 1970 satirical American dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman, based on the novel written by Richard Hooker. Centering upon an outfit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, the film stars Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould. Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, Tom Skerritt, Roger Bowen, Gary Burghoff, Bud Cort and Fred Williamson are also featured. MASH went on to inspire the television series M*A*S*H.
Contents |
[edit] Awards
The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for five Academy Awards and won an Oscar for its screenplay. It 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 10 funniest American films.
This film is number 17 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
[edit] Plot
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, womanising 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 Houlihan, but the friends soon discover that she is as loopy as Frank. 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 Houlihan being nicknamed "Hotlips" - "Oh Frank, my lips are hot, kiss my hot lips!" ; Radar is so called because he appears to be able to anticipate Henry Blake's every demand and request before he makes them.
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 "(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.
[edit] Style
MASH juxtaposes gory operating room procedures with rebellious humor; occasionally these two elements co-exist within the same shot. 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 emphatic use of zoom.
[edit] 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 "The 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
[edit] Trivia
- In the director's commentary on the DVD release, Altman says that this was the first major studio film to use the word "fuck" in its dialogue, the word being spoken during the football game near the end of the film.
- 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 real setting.
- 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.
- MASH was the original title of the 1953 film Battle Circus starring Humphrey Bogart, a film also about life in a MASH unit.
- During principal photography, Donald 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 apologizing. Altman used him in some of his later works. He never worked with Sutherland again.
- Sutherland has stated that he was the only member of the principal cast and crew not using drugs during the filming.
- 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.
- 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."
- Gary Burghoff was born with a club foot and two short fingers on his left hand. Burghoff uses props to deflect attention from this: in Charlie Brown he had a baseball glove on that hand most of the time, and in the M*A*S*H television series, he usually had a clipboard in it.
- 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 the DVD's audio commentary, Altman refers to the original novel as "pretty terrible" and possibly "racist" in a section where he credits Lardner's screenplay, despite his only using that screenplay as a springboard.
- Mistake: When Col. Blake 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- M*A*S*H at the Internet Movie Database
- Elliott Gould remembers M*A*S*H, from the BBC website; the same clip is directly available here in RealMedia format
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Categories: 1970 films | Best Picture Academy Award nominees | Black comedy films | Cult films | Films based on fiction books | Films directed by Robert Altman | Korean War films | M*A*S*H | Palme d'Or winners | United States National Film Registry | American football films | Best Musical or Comedy Picture Golden Globe | Films about suicide
