M*A*S*H (film)
M*A*S*H | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Altman |
Screenplay by | Ring Lardner Jr. |
Based on | MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors 1968 novel by Richard Hooker |
Produced by | Ingo Preminger |
Starring | |
Cinematography | 20th Century-Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 116 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3 million |
Box office | $81.6 million |
M*A*S*H (stylized on-screen as MASH) 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 picture is the only theatrically released feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise.
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. Although the Korean War is the film's storyline setting, the subtext is the Vietnam War – a current event at the time the film was made.[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".[2]
M*A*S*H became one of the biggest films of the early 1970s for
The film inspired the television series M*A*S*H, which ran from 1972 to 1983. Gary Burghoff, who played Radar O'Reilly, was the only actor playing a major character who appeared in both the movie and the TV series. Altman despised the TV series, calling it "the antithesis of what we were trying to do" with the movie.[5]
Plot
In 1951, the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in South Korea is assigned two new surgeons,
The main characters in the camp divide into two factions. Irritated by Frank's religious fervor, Hawkeye and Duke get Blake to move him to another tent so newly arrived chest surgeon
Painless, described as "the best-equipped dentist in the Army" and "the dental Don Juan of Detroit," becomes depressed over an incident of
Hawkeye and Trapper are sent to Japan on temporary duty to operate on a Congressman's son and, hopefully, play some golf. When they later perform an unauthorized operation on a local infant, they face disciplinary action from the hospital commander for misusing Army resources. Trapper uses anesthetic gas to sedate the commander. Using staged photographs of him as he awakens in bed with a prostitute, they blackmail him into keeping his mouth shut.
Following their return to camp, Blake and General Hammond organize a
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.[6]
Cast
- Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce Jr.
- Capt. John Francis "Trapper John" McIntyre
- Capt. Augustus "Duke" Forrest
- Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan
- Major Frank Burns
- Roger Bowen as Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake
- Father John Patrick Francis "Dago Red" Mulcahy
- David Arkin as Sergeant First Class Wade Douglas Vollmer (incorrectly identified as "Staff Sergeant" in the credits.)
- Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider
- John Schuck as Capt. Walter "The Painless Pole" Waldowski, DDS
- Capt. John "Ugly John" Black
- Danny Goldman as Capt. Dennis Murrhardt
- Corey Fischer as Capt. Patrick "Band-Aid" Bandini
- Indus Arthur as Lt. Leslie
- Dawne Damon as Lt. Wilma "Scorch" Storch
- Tamara Horrocks as Capt. Bridget "Knocko" McCarthy
- Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
- Ken Prymus as Pfc. Seidman
- Capt. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones
- Michael Murphy as Capt. Ezekiel Bradbury "Me Lay" Marston V
- Timothy Brown as Cpl. Judson
- Bud Cort as Pvt. Warren Boone
- G. Wood as Brig. Gen. Charlie Hammond
- Kim Atwood as Ho-Jon
- Dale Ishimoto as Korean doctor
- Bobby Troup as Sgt. Gorman
- Marvin Miller as PA announcer
- Ben Davidson as Football opponent #88
Production
Development and writing
The screenplay, by Ring Lardner Jr., is different from Hooker's original novel. In the DVD audio commentary, Altman describes the novel as "pretty terrible" and somewhat "racist" (the only major black character has the nickname "Spearchucker"; however, he's a highly-trained neurosurgeon, and in the book, treated as an equal to the main white characters). He claims that the screenplay was used only as a springboard.[7] Despite this assertion by Altman, however, while some improvisation occurs in the film and Altman changed the order of major sequence, most sequences are in the novel. 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 and Hawkeye's scalpels; when the surgeons are playing poker after the football game, they are resolutely ignoring Ho-Jon's corpse being driven away).[citation needed] The main deviation from the script is the trimming of much of the dialogue.
In his director's commentary, Altman says that M*A*S*H was the first major studio film to use the word "fuck" in its dialogue.[7][a] The word is spoken during the football game near the end of the film by Walt "Painless Pole" Waldowski when he says to an opposing football player, "All right, Bud, your fucking head is coming right off!" The actor, John Schuck, said in an interview that Andy Sidaris, who was handling the football sequences, encouraged Schuck to "say something that'll annoy him." Schuck did so, and that particular statement made it into the film without a second thought.[13] Previously confined to cult and "underground" films, its use in a film as conventionally screened and professionally distributed as M*A*S*H marked the dawn of a new era of social acceptability for profanity on the big screen, which had until a short time before this film's release been forbidden outright for any major studio picture in the United States under the Production Code, in effect until November 1, 1968, when the Motion Picture Association film rating system replaced it. M*A*S*H was rated R in the U.S. by this system.
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. [...] For all of Bob's interpolations and improvisations, however, the basic structure of the movie is the one laid out in my script, and each scene has the beginning, middle, end that I gave it."[15]
Filming and production
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.
The filming process was difficult because of tensions between the director and his cast. During principal photography, Sutherland and Gould allegedly spent a third of their time trying to get Altman fired,[16] although this has been disputed.[14] Altman later commented that if he had known about Gould and Sutherland's protests, he would have resigned.[7] Gould later sent a letter of apology, and Altman used him in a number of his later works – including The Long Goodbye, California Split, Nashville, and The Player – but Altman never worked with Sutherland again.
Because of the context of the film being made – during the height of America's involvement in the
Music
Soundtrack music
M*A*S*H features the song "
Soundtrack album
Columbia Masterworks issued a soundtrack album of the film in 1970 (all songs by Johnny Mandel unless otherwise noted):
- "Suicide Is Painless (Michael Altman, lyrics and Johnny Mandel, music)"[19]
- "Duke and Hawkeye Arrive at M.A.S.H."
- "The Operating Theater" / "Happy Days Are Here Again"
- "Major Houlihan and Major Burns"
- "Painless Suicide, Funeral, and Resurrection"
- "'Hot Lips' Shows Her True Colors" / "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
- "Moments to Remember" / "Happy Days Are Here Again"
- "The Football Game"
- "Going Home" / "Happy Days Are Here Again"
- "M.A.S.H. Theme (Instrumental)" by Ahmad Jamal
- "Dedication Scroll" / "Jeep Ride"
- "The Jig’s Up"
- "To Japan"
- "Japanese Children's Hospital"
- "Tent Scene"
- "Kill ’Em, Galop"
Release
Home media
M*A*S*H received its first home video release in 1977 on both VHS and Betamax. This 1977 release of the film was the original, unedited version and was one of the first 50 titles released to home video by Magnetic Video Corporation (M*A*S*H was number #38).
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. However, this is not the alternate PG version that was released in 1973. It has the same run-time as the theatrical release; none of the aforementioned scenes or theme music was removed. The actual 1973 PG-edited version has never been issued on home video in the United States.[20] The original cut was released on DVD on January 8, 2002,[21], and on Blu-ray on September 1, 2009.[22]
Reception
Box office
M*A*S*H was a box-office hit; it was the third highest-grossing film released in
It was the sixth most popular film at the French box office in 1970.[28]
Fox re-released the film to theaters in North America in late 1973. To attract audiences to the
Critical response
M*A*S*H received critical acclaim from critics. The film holds an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30/10. 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."[30] The film also holds a score of 80 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[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 ... M.A.S.H., one of America's funniest bloody films, is also one of its bloodiest funny films."[33] The New Yorker critic Pauline Kael wrote of the film, "I don't know when I’ve had such a good time at a movie. Many of the best recent American movies leave you feeling that there's nothing to do but get stoned and die, that that's your proper fate as an American. This movie heals a breach."[34] John Simon described M*A*S*H as an 'amusingly absurdist army satire'.[35]
Roger Ebert, in the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film four (out of four) stars, writing
There is something about war that inspires practical jokes and the heroes ... are inspired and utterly heartless ... We laugh, not because "M*A*S*H" is Sgt. Bilko for adults, but because it is so true to the unadmitted sadist in all of us. There is perhaps nothing so exquisite as achieving ... sweet mental revenge against someone we hate with particular dedication. And it is the flat-out, poker-faced hatred in "M*A*S*H" that makes it work. Most comedies want us to laugh at things that aren't really funny; in this one we laugh precisely because they're not funny. We laugh, that we may not cry ... We can take the unusually high gore-level in "M*A*S*H" because it is originally part of the movie's logic. If the surgeons didn't have to face the daily list of maimed and mutilated bodies, none of the rest of their lives would make any sense ... But none of this philosophy comes close to the insane logic of "M*A*S*H," which is achieved through a peculiar marriage of cinematography, acting, directing, and writing. The movie depends upon timing and tone to be funny ... One of the reasons "M*A*S*H" is so funny is that it's so desperate.[36]
In contrast, Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote of M*A*S*H, "To my knowledge [it] is the first major American movie openly to ridicule belief in God – not phony belief; real belief. It is also one of the few (though by no means the first) American screen comedies openly to admit the cruelty of its humor. And it is at pains to blend that humor with more operating room gore than I have ever seen in any movie from any place ... Although it is impudent, bold, and often very funny, it lacks the sense of order (even in the midst of disorder) that seems the special province of successful comedy."[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." Rosenbaum characterized the film as "a somewhat adolescent if stylish antiauthoritarian romp ... But the misogyny and cruelty behind many of the gags are as striking as the black comedy and the original use of overlapping dialogue. This is still watchable for the verve of the ensemble acting and dovetailing direction, but some of the crassness leaves a sour aftertaste."[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.[39]
The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited this movie as one of his 100 favorite films.[40]
Accolades
In 1996, M*A*S*H was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Year-end lists
The film is number 17 on
- 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #56[45]
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #7[46]
- 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- "Suicide Is Painless" – #66[47]
- 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #54[48]
See also
- List of American films of 1970
- Battle Circus, a 1953 Humphrey Bogart film, also set in a Korean War MASH unit
References
Informational notes
- ^ However, while it is the earliest film released by a mainstream studio to use the word, it had been used earlier in a number of "underground" and/or "independent" films through the 1960s, including Andy Milligan's Vapors,[8] Andy Warhol's Poor Little Rich Girl and My Hustler (all 1965),[9] Joseph Strick's Ulysses, Michael Winner's I'll Never Forget What's'isname,[10] Lenny Bruce's Lenny Bruce in Lenny Bruce (all 1967),[11] and Barney Platts-Mills' Bronco Bullfrog (1969).[12]
Citations
- ^ The Entertainment Weekly Guide to the Greatest Movies Ever Made. New York: Warner Books. 1996. p. 49.
- ^ "The Movie that Spoke the Truth to War". The Attic. 11 February 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
- ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive. Archived from the original on 2016-08-13. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
- ^ a b Fishman, Howard (2018-07-24). "What 'M*A*S*H' Taught Us". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
- ^ MASH (1970), archived from the original on 2017-03-07, retrieved 2019-01-14
- ^ a b c d Altman, Robert M*A*S*H Collector's Edition (Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment), "Director's Commentary" track. ASIN No. B000BZISTE. Released February 7, 2006.
- ^ "Vapors at the BFI player (paywalled)". Archived from the original on 2021-02-01. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
- ISBN 9780226347776.
- ^ Byrnes, Paul (September 7, 2014). "Well, I Swear! A Brief F***ing History of Profanity in the Movies". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
- ^ Benedictus, Leo (July 21, 2013). "Lenny Bruce Performance Comedy Gold". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 6, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
- ^ "Bronco Bullfrog at the BBFC (Infrequent strong language ('f**k') occurs, as well as a single written use of very strong language ('c**t') which appears as graffiti on a wall.)". Archived from the original on 2021-02-07. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
- ^ Vatnsdal, Caelum (January 10, 2012). "John Schuck". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
- ^ a b Prigge, Matt. "Elliott Gould talks Robert Altman and says he never tried to get him fired," Metro: Entertainment (August 4, 2014). Archived October 20, 2014, at the Wayback Machine.
- ISBN 9781560252962.
- ^ a b c d e Film Curator, North Carolina Museum of Art. "M*A*S*H (1970)" Archived 2007-10-20 at the Wayback Machine (Raleigh, North Carolina, 2001). Retrieved Jan. 12, 2020.
- ^ "The Movie that Spoke the Truth to War". The Attic. 11 February 2020. Archived from the original on 3 March 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
- ^ "Enlisted: The Story of M*A*S*H" (making-of documentary), Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2001.
- ^ a b MASH series, every intro!, archived from the original on 2020-04-27, retrieved 2020-03-26
- ^ a b "Big Rental Films of 1973", Variety, January 9, 1974 p. 19.
- ^ Jimenez, John (September 21, 2001). "Fox Gives 'M*A*S*H' Five-Star Treatment". hive4media.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2001. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
- ^ https://www.amazon.com/M-S-Blu-ray-Donald-Sutherland/dp/B0024HH32A/ Retrieved 27 March 2024.
- ISBN 9780061778896.
- M*A*S*H: p.527. $67.3 million (Initial Release Domestic Box office)
- ^ "Strength at Some N.Y. Situations; 'Patton' Spanky 51G; 'Zabriskie' OK Kickoff; 'Looking Glass,' In 2, Big". Variety. February 11, 1970. p. 9.
- ISBN 9780818404856.
- ^ "M*A*S*H, Box Office Information". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on January 28, 2012. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p. 256.
- ^ "1970 Box Office in France". Box Office Story. Archived from the original on 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
- ^ Maltin, Leonard. Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide (NAL).
- ^ "M*A*S*H (1970)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
- ^ "MASH Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
- ^ Mahoney, John. M*A*S*H review, The Hollywood Reporter (1970). Archived on THR website Archived 2019-04-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved Sept. 18, 2019.
- ^ "Cinema: Catch-22 Caliber" (Archived 2019-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Time (Jan. 26, 1970).
- ^ Kael, Pauline. "Blessed Profanity" (Archived 2019-09-20 at the Wayback Machine), The New Yorker (January 24, 1970), p. 74.
- ^ Simon, John (2005). John Simon on Film: Criticism 1982-2001. Applause Books. p. 321.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. "M*A*S*H" (Archived 2019-09-24 at the Wayback Machine), Chicago Sun-Times (Jan. 1, 1970).
- ^ Greenspun, Roger. 'M*A*S*H' Film Blends Atheism, Gore, Humor" (Archived 2019-09-20 at the Wayback Machine), The New York Times (Jan. 26, 1970).
- ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan. "M*A*S*H" (Archived 2019-04-30 at the Wayback Machine), Chicago Reader. Retrieved Sept. 20, 2019.
- ^ Gittell, Noah (22 January 2020). "M*A*S*H at 50: the Robert Altman comedy that revels in cruel misogyny". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
- ^ Thomas-Mason, Lee (12 January 2021). "From Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese: Akira Kurosawa once named his top 100 favourite films of all time". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
- ^ "The 43rd Academy Awards (1971) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on July 2, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2015.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: M*A*S*H". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on January 18, 2012. Retrieved April 10, 2009.
- ^ "1970 Grammy Award Winners". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 7 November 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
- ^ "Awards Winners". wga.org. Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-03-16. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-03-13. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2013-06-06. Retrieved 2016-07-17.
Further reading
- Eagan, Daniel (2010) America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 659–660. ISBN 0826429777
External links
- M*A*S*H at the American Film Institute Catalog
- M*A*S*H at IMDb
- M*A*S*H at the TCM Movie Database
- M*A*S*H at AllMovie
- M*A*S*H at Box Office Mojo
- M*A*S*H at Rotten Tomatoes
- M*A*S*H at Metacritic
- Elliott Gould remembers M*A*S*H, from the BBC website; in RealMedia