M*A*S*H is a 1970 American black comedy war film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner Jr., based on Richard Hooker's 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors.
The film depicts a unit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War.
It stars Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, and Elliott Gould, with Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, René Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff, Roger Bowen, Michael Murphy, and in his film debut, professional football player Fred Williamson.
[1] Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, who saw the film in college, said M*A*S*H was "perfect for the times, the cacophony of American culture was brilliantly reproduced onscreen".
In 1996, M*A*S*H was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation.
Other characters already stationed at the camp include the bungling commanding officer Henry Blake, his hyper-competent chief clerk Radar O'Reilly, dentist Walter "Painless Pole" Waldowski, the pompous and incompetent surgeon Frank Burns, and the contemplative Chaplain Father Mulcahy.
The three doctors (the "Swampmen", after the nickname for their tent) have little respect for military protocol, having been drafted into the Army, and are prone to pranks, womanizing, and heavy drinking.
With help from Radar, the Swampmen sneak a microphone into a tent where the couple are engaging in sex and broadcast their encounter over the camp's public address system, embarrassing them badly and earning Houlihan the nickname "Hot Lips".
Painless, described as "the best-equipped dentist in the Army" and "the dental Don Juan of Detroit," becomes depressed over an incident of impotence and announces his intent to commit suicide, believing that he has turned homosexual.
The Swampmen agree to help him carry out the deed, staging a feast to evoke Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, arranging for Father Mulcahy to give Painless absolution and communion, and providing him with a "black capsule" (actually a sleeping pill) to speed him on his way.
Hawkeye persuades the gorgeous Lieutenant "Dish" Schneider — who has remained faithful to her husband and is being transferred back to the United States for discharge — to spend the night with Painless and allay his concern about his "latent homosexuality".
Following their return to camp, Blake and General Hammond organize a football game between the 4077th and the 325th Evac Hospital and wager several thousand dollars on its outcome.
At Hawkeye's suggestion, Blake applies to have a specific neurosurgeon — Dr. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones, a former professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers — transferred to the 4077th as a ringer.
Jones enters the second half, which quickly devolves into a free-for-all, and the 4077th gets the 325th's second ringer thrown out of the game and wins with a final trick play.
Not long after the football game, Hawkeye and Duke get their discharge orders and begin their journey home — taking the same stolen Jeep in which they arrived.
Although a number of sources have reported that Lardner was upset with the liberties taken with his script, [5][14] he denied it in his autobiography: "[...] But the departures weren't as drastic as he [Altman] made out; much of the improvisation involved a couple of scenes between Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould in which they rephrased lines in their own words.
[citation needed] However, one of the PA announcements mentions that the camp movie will be The Glory Brigade, a 1953 Korean War film starring Victor Mature.
Also heard on the soundtrack are Japanese vocal renditions of such songs as "Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy", "My Blue Heaven", "Happy Days Are Here Again", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", and "Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo"; impromptu performances of "Onward, Christian Soldiers", "When the Lights Go On Again", and "Hail to the Chief" by cast members; and the instrumental "Washington Post March" during the climactic football game.
Columbia Masterworks issued a soundtrack album of the film in 1970 (all songs by Johnny Mandel unless otherwise noted): M*A*S*H received its first home video release in 1977 on both VHS and Betamax.
In the 1990s, Fox Video re-released a VHS version of the film as part of its "Selections" banner, which ran 116 minutes and was rated PG.
Some of the more explicit content from the original R-rated cut was edited out, including segments of graphic surgical operations, Hot Lips' shower scene, and the use of the word fuck during the football game.
The website's consensus states, "Bold, timely, subversive, and above all, funny, M*A*S*H remains a high point in Robert Altman's distinguished filmography.
[31] In a rave review, John Mahoney of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "the finest American comedy since Some Like It Hot", and "the Mister Roberts of the Korean War", as well as "The Graduate of 1970".
[32] Time magazine, in a review titled "Catch-22 Caliber", wrote of the film, "though it wears a dozen manic, libidinous masks, none quite covers the face of dread ...
"[37] In a retrospective review for the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum noted that "the film ... helped launch the careers of Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, and subsequent Altman regulars Rene Auberjonois and John Schuck, and won screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. an Oscar."
"[38] Writing in The Guardian for the film's 50th anniversary, Noah Gittell also criticized it for having "a deep and unexamined misogyny", noting that the treatment of the Houlihan character in particular anticipated such later teen sex comedies as Animal House, Porky's, and Revenge of the Nerds.