MASH (film)

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MASH

MASH 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) Flag of the United States 25 January, 1970 (NYC only)
Running time 116 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $3,500,000
IMDb profile
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.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. On their arrival it becomes clear that they are rebellious, womanising mischief-makers and 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 Major Frank Burns (Duvall), who is both a religious zealot 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 get 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. However, he proves himself as a highly skilled surgeon, before an impromptu football game causes Hawkeye to remember a college football game he played in where 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. Doing this in front of the new chief nurse means Henry cannot yet 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 which causes Burns and Houlihan to write a report on the unmilitary goings-on. While doing this, 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 can hear them. The following day, Hawkeye 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 shipped out to a psychiatric ward.

"Suicide Is Painless"

"Dago Red" (Auberjonois), the camp's chaplain, tells Hawkeye of a problem that he has heard in confession - without divulging the actual details, Hawkeye is made aware of the severity of the problem. "Painless Pole" Waldowski (Schuck), the "best equipped dentist in the army", has suffered a "lack of performance" with a visiting nurse and now believes that he has latent homosexual tendencies, so he decides to commit suicide. Hawkeye, Trapper and Duke come up with a plan to use the "black capsule" (a fictitious, fast-acting poison); at an impromptu last supper, Painless takes the capsule and lies down 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, which Hawkeye responds to 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 showers is lifted exposing Hot Lips naked to the world.

"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, believing that he may have taken some medicine to induce these symptoms, and Hawkeye reluctantly lets him go.

Back in camp, Trapper is requested 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 get some 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, who take them to the hospital's commander, Colonel 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 that Me Lay moonlights at 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 almost stopped by Merrill. However, the three anesthetize him and then blackmail the Colonel by taking pictures of him with one of the prostitutes.

On their return from Japan, Hawkeye and Trapper immediately go into surgery for several hours. Once they have finished, and eager to get some sleep, they find that Duke has locked up the tent - 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 specialist neurosurgeon, Dr Oliver Harmon Jones, who is more commonly known as "Spearchucker" Jones, and who once played professional football 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 bringing in the ringer for the second half. The game goes down to the last play, which is described as "semi-legal", and calls for the ball to be returned from the Quarterback (Trapper) to the Center (Vollmer); while everyone runs after the phantom ball, Vollmer runs unobserved with the ball 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.

[edit] Cast

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.

[edit] 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[clarify] 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.[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.

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]

[edit] 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).

[edit] Awards and recognition

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.

In 1998, the film was recognized by the American Film Institute (AFI) as #56 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (#54 in 2007); 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".

[edit] 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.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Film Curator, (NCMA), the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina "Gould and Sutherland had rebelled on the set, convinced that Altman's unstructured directing would destroy their fledgling careers."
  2. ^ Film Curator, (NCMA), the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina. "Between 1957 and 1964 he worked on at least 20 tv shows...fired from most of them for his experimentation with non-linear narrative and overlapping sound."
  3. ^ Film Curator, (NCMA), the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina, quote attributed to Robert Altman
  4. ^ Robert Altman (director commentary). (2002, 2002-01-08). M*A*S*H [DVD]. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
  5. ^ "Enlisted: The Story of M*A*S*H" (making-of documentary), Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2001
  6. ^ Robert Altman (director commentary). (2002, 2002-01-08). M*A*S*H [DVD]. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Retrieved on 2007-05-15. Event occurs at 00:03:19.
  7. ^ Film Curator, (NCMA), the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina. "There was absolutely no mention of Korea in the movie, and Fox insisted that be fixed. An introductory title and the pa announcements were used..."
  8. ^ Film Curator, (NCMA), the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina. "An introductory title and the pa announcements were used to clarify that this was certainly -not- the current Asian war, Vietnam."
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Films directed by Robert Altman
The Delinquents (1957) • The James Dean Story (1957) • Countdown (1968) • That Cold Day in the Park (1969) • MASH (1970) • Brewster McCloud (1971) • McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)• Images (1972) • The Long Goodbye (1973) • Thieves Like Us (1974) • California Split (1974) • Nashville (1975) • Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976) • 3 Women (1977) • A Wedding (1978) • Quintet (1979) • A Perfect Couple (1979) • Health (1980) • Popeye (1980) • Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) • Streamers (1983) • Secret Honor (1984) • O.C. and Stiggs (1984) • Fool for Love (1985) • Beyond Therapy (1987) • Aria (1987) • Vincent & Theo (1990) • The Player (1992) • Short Cuts (1993) • Prêt-à-Porter (1994) • Kansas City (1996)• The Gingerbread Man (1998) • Cookie's Fortune (1999) • Dr. T & the Women (2000) • Gosford Park (2001) • The Company (2003) • A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
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If....		 Grand Prix, Cannes Film Festival
1970		 Succeeded by
The Go-Between