MASH (film)

See also: M*A*S*H (TV series) and M*A*S*H

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

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.

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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), who is medically incompetent and a religious zealot, and Major Margaret O' Houlihan (Kellerman), the unit's self-righteous new head nurse. Shortly after she arrives Burns and O'Houlihan have an affair, and their first (and only) sexual encounter gets broadcast over the public-address system to the whole camp. 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) is reduced to tears by Burns; he blames the orderly for a patient's death when he doesn't get to Burns in time with a cardiac needle. Trapper decks Frank in response.
• Hawkeye and Trapper making a trip to Tokyo to operate on a Congressman's son.
• A crazy football game against an EVAC hospital.
• Exposing Houlihan while she is showering
• A dentist, nicknamed "Painless Pole" (John Schuck), who after a single incident in which he can't perform sexually, decides to commit suicide. He's rescued by sexy nurse Lt. Schneider, who is nicknamed "Dish" (Jo Ann Pflug) by Duke early in the film.

The film's overall theme seems to be that of ordinary decent people trying to do a job under very trying circumstances. This brings out both the best and the worst in them.

The film has a disjointed, episodic feel; much of the dialogue was improvised during shooting.

Memorable Lines

O'Houlihan: I wonder how a degenerated person like that could have reached a position of responsibility in the Army Medical Corps.

Father Mulcahy (Dago Red): He was drafted.

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 Sgt. Gorman

Because of the number of unknown actors Altman had cast, after the established stars, the opening credits are entirely "Introducing..."

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^[clarify] 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.^{[citation needed]} During principal photography, Sutherland and Elliott Gould spent a third of their time trying to get Robert Altman fired;^[1] Altman, relatively new to the filmmaking establishment, at that time lacked the credentials to justify his unorthodox filmmaking process, and had a history of preferring to lack employment than to create a product lacking in quality.^[2] Altman: "I had practice working for people who don't care about quality, and I learned how to sneak it in." ^[3] Altman later commented that if he had known about Gould and Sutherland, he would have resigned.^[4] 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 camp public address 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.^[5]

Controversies

A caption that mentions the Korean setting was added, during production, to the beginning of the film,^[6] at the request of 20th Century Fox studios.^[7] The Korean War is explicitly referenced in announcements on the camp Public Address system^[8] and during a radio announcement that plays while Hawkeye and Trapper are putting in Col. Merrill's office.^{[citation needed]}

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 film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) in 1975.

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 (#54 in 2007), 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.

References