MASH (film)

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

MASH is a 1970 American satirical 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.

Overview

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.

Synopsis

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. The film's episodic nature means that there is no single plot beyond it featuring the lives of those assigned to the 4077th. It can be subdivided into a number of significant episodes:

Some Really Sharp Surgeons

The 4077th is in need of replacements, and are assigned two - Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce (Sutherland) and Captain "Duke" Forrest (Skerritt). On their arrival it becomes clear that they are rebellious, womanising, mischievous rule-breakers (they arrive having "borrowed" a Jeep, and immediately begin flirting with the nursing staff), but are also good at their jobs. They immediately clash with their new tentmate Major Frank Burns (Duvall), who is both a religious man and an inferior surgeon. Hawkeye and Duke put pressure on Lt Colonel Henry Blake (Bowen), the unit's CO, to have Burns removed from "their" tent. At the same time, they ask him to apply to have a specialist thoracic surgeon assigned to the 4077th.

The New Chest Cutter

The mysterious new thoracic surgeon arrives, and gives away little about who he is or where he's from. Hawkeye, though, is convinced he has seen the new man somewhere before. It is only after an impromptu football game that Hawkeye recalls a college football game he played in which he scored the only touchdown by intercepting a pass from the opposing quarterback, the new thoracic surgeon, Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre (Gould).

The New Chief Nurse

Major Margaret Houlihan (Kellerman), the newly assigned chief nurse of the camp, arrives to be greeted by Henry Blake (who mistakenly refers to her as "O'Houlihan" several times). At the same time, in the post-op ward, Trapper observes Frank Burns blaming Private Boone, the orderly, for a patient's death when he doesn't get to Burns in time with a cardiac needle. During Houlihan's tour of the camp, Trapper confronts Burns and punches him. Since Houlihan witnesses this outburst, Henry must wait before he can appoint Trapper as the new chief surgeon.

"Kiss My Hot Lips"

While Henry is away visiting General Hammond at the 325th Evac Hospital, the camp, led by Trapper, lets loose. Burns and Houlihan are appalled and together write a report on the unmilitary goings-on. In the process, they give in to their passions and engage in a sexual encounter. However, unbeknownst to them, this is broadcast over the PA system and leads to Houlihan gaining her nickname "Hot Lips". They are forced to end this when they realize the whole camp is listening to them. The following day, Hawkeye quietly taunts Burns about the encounter, so much so, to the point that Burns leaps across the mess table to attack him. This leads to Burns' being sedated and shipped home.

"Suicide Is Painless"

"Dago Red" (Auberjonois), the camp's chaplain, tells Hawkeye that "Painless Pole" Waldowski (Schuck), the unit's dentist, has come to him with a problem. Though Mulcahy feels unable to divulge any details, as Waldowski came to him in confession, he makes clear the severity of the problem. Waldowski, the "best equipped dentist in the army", tells Hawkeye that he has suffered a "lack of performance" with a visiting nurse and now believes that he has latent homosexual tendencies. Soon after, he reveals his desire to commit suicide and seeks advice on which method to use. Hawkeye, Trapper, and Duke suggest that he use the "black capsule" (a fictitious, fast-acting poison). At an impromptu last supper, Painless takes the capsule and falls deep asleep in a coffin to the strains of "Suicide Is Painless." Hawkeye then persuades Lt "Dish" Schneider (Pflug), one of the nurses who is returning to the US the following day, to spend the night with Painless, thus curing him of his problems.

A Natural Blonde

During a discussion, Duke announces that he is partial to blondes, to which Hawkeye responds by claiming his friend has a thing for Hot Lips. Duke counters by suggesting she isn't even a natural blonde and bets $20 with Hawkeye to find out. Together, the boys come up with a scheme - when the nurses are all going to use the showers, each of them is waylaid except Hot Lips. Then, on cue, the flap covering the shower tent is lifted to expose Hot Lips naked to the camp.

"The Pros from Dover"

Ho-Jon, a local teenager who works in the camp, is drafted into the South Korean army. Hawkeye drives him to the induction center in Seoul for his physical, where he is found to have high blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat. The examining doctor refuses to disqualify Ho-Jon, insinuating that Hawkeye may have given Ho-Jon some medicine to induce these symptoms and keep him from being conscripted. Hawkeye reluctantly has to let him go.

Back in camp, Trapper is ordered to proceed to Kokura, Japan to operate on the GI son of a US Congressman who has been injured in training. Seeing an opportunity to golf on the quality courses, he takes Hawkeye to assist. The two barge into the hospital and order the young man into surgery within the hour. With Hawkeye's old friend "Me Lay" Marston as the anaesthetist, they quickly finish the surgery, but on the way out of the hospital they are cornered by the MPs and are escorted to the hospital's commander, Colonel Wallace Merrill. Reminding the Colonel that "the Pros from Dover" have bailed him out of a potential situation with the Congressman's son, any threats that Merrill could make are effectively nullified.

While recuperating at the hospital/whorehouse where Me Lay moonlights as a doctor, Hawkeye and Trapper come across a Japanese-American baby with a serious medical problem. Taking advantage of their status as "the Pros from Dover", they go to the military hospital to operate, but are stopped by Merrill. However, the three anesthetize him and then blackmail by taking nude pictures of him in bed with one of the prostitutes.

On their return from Japan, Hawkeye and Trapper immediately go into surgery for several hours. Done with the surgery and eager to get some sleep, they head back to their tent only to find that Duke has locked it up. They then observe him sneaking Hot Lips out, making it clear that Duke was not as averse to the chief nurse as he claimed.

The Football Game

On a visit to the 4077th, General Hammond shares a drink with Hawkeye, Trapper and Duke and suggests that their two units play a "friendly" football game, with some money thrown into a pot to make bets ($5,000 or $6,000). Seeing an opportunity to make some money, Hawkeye comes up with a plan. First, they get Henry to apply for a specific neurosurgeon, Dr Oliver Harmon Jones, who is more commonly known as "Spearchucker" Jones, a former professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers. Then, Hawkeye's plan calls for them to bet half their money up front and for Spearchucker to be left out of the first half, allowing the opposition to rack up some points and get confident enough to offer good odds to bet the rest of the money, then bring in the ringer for the second half. The game goes down to the last play, described as "semi-legal," which calls for the ball to be returned from the Quarterback (Trapper) to the Center (Vollmer), who then hides the ball under his jersey; while everyone chases the phantom ball, Vollmer runs unobserved to score the winning touchdown, making the 4077th $5,000 in the process.

Not long after the football game, Hawkeye and Duke receive their discharge orders and begin their journey home in the same Jeep they arrived in.

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" 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. Murrhardt
• 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 Prymus as Pvt. Seidman
• Fred Williamson as Capt. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones
• Michael Murphy as Capt. Ezekiel Bradbury "Me Lay" Marston IV
• Timothy 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. However, other actors did appear in both. G. Wood, who played General Hammond, also appeared in three episodes of the series. Timothy Brown had different roles in the film (Cpl. Judson) and, for a brief time, the series ("Spearchucker" Jones). Corey Fischer played Capt. Bandini in the film and played the guitar-playing dentist Cardozo in the television episode "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 anachronistically wearing white football shoes. (Football players did not wear white shoes until Joe Namath sported them in the late 1960s.) Johnny Unitas appears in one shot at the end of the football game taking a hit off of a joint. Likewise, Timothy Brown had a real-life career with the Packers, Eagles, and Colts.

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 claims that even Lardner's screenplay was used only as a springboard. However the screenplay itself reveals that while there is some ad-libbing in the film, and although Altman moved major sequences around, most sequences are in the screenplay. The main deletion is a subplot of Ho-Jon's return to the 4077th - as a casualty. When Radar steals blood from Henry, it is for Ho-Jon's operation under Trapper & Hawkeye's scalpels. When the surgeons are playing poker after the football game, they are resolutely ignoring a dead body being driven away - Ho-Jon's body. The main deviation from the script is trimming much of the dialogue.

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;^[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 turning down work rather than creating a poor quality product.^[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.

There were only a few uses of the speaker and announcements in the original cut. When Altman realized he needed more structure to his largely episodic film, editor Danford Greene suggested using more speaker/announcements to frame different episodes of the story. Greene took a 2nd unit crew and filmed additional shots of the speakers. On the same night when these scenes were shot, American astronauts landed on the moon.^[5]

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 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).

Awards and honors

The film won the Grand Prix at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Sally Kellerman) and Best Film Editing, and won an Oscar for its screenplay.

The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) in 1971.

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.

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

American Film Institute recognition

• 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #56
• 2000 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs #7
• 2004 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs:
  • "Suicide is Painless," #66
• 2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #54

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.

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.

Notes

External links

• MASH at the Internet Movie Database
• MASH at the TCM Movie Database
• MASH at Allmovie
• Elliott Gould remembers M*A*S*H, from the BBC website; in RealMedia

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