M*A*S*H

UPC: 024543133452

Studio: 20th Century Fox

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children]

Summary: Although he was not the first choice to direct it, the hit black comedy MASH established Robert Altman as one of the leading figures of Hollywood's 1970s generation of innovative and irreverent young filmmakers. Scripted by Hollywood veteran Ring Lardner, Jr., this war comedy details the exploits of military doctors and nurses at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean War. Between exceptionally gory hospital shifts and countless rounds of martinis, wisecracking surgeons Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper John McIntyre (Elliott Gould) make it their business to undercut the smug, moralistic pretensions of Bible-thumper Maj. Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) and Army true-believer Maj. "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Sally Kellerman). Abetted by such other hedonists as Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt) and Painless Pole (John Schuck), as well as such (relative) innocents as Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff), Hawkeye and Trapper John drive Burns and Houlihan crazy while engaging in such additional blasphemies as taking a medical trip to Japan to play golf, staging a mock Last Supper to cure Painless's momentary erectile dysfunction, and using any means necessary to win an inter-MASH football game. MASH creates a casual, chaotic atmosphere emphasizing the constant noise and activity of a surgical unit near battle lines; it marked the beginning of Altman's sustained formal experiments with widescreen photography, zoom lenses, and overlapping sound and dialogue, further enhancing the atmosphere with the improvisational ensemble acting for which Altman's films quickly became known. Although the on-screen war was not Vietnam, MASH's satiric target was obvious in 1970, and Vietnam War-weary and counter-culturally hip audiences responded to Altman's nose-thumbing attitude towards all kinds of authority and embraced the film's frankly tasteless yet evocative humor and its anti-war, anti-Establishment, anti-religion stance. MASH became the third most popular film of 1970 after Love Story and Airport, and it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. As further evidence of the changes in Hollywood's politics, blacklist survivor Lardner won the Oscar for his screenplay. MASH began Altman's systematic 1970s effort to revise classic Hollywood genres in light of contemporary American values, and it gave him the financial clout to make even more experimental and critical films like McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), California Split (1974), and Nashville (1975). It also inspired the long-running TV series starring Alan Alda as Hawkeye and Burghoff as Radar. With its formal and attitudinal impudence, and its great popularity, MASH was one more confirmation in 1970 that a Hollywood "New Wave" had arrived. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Category: Comedy Drama

Awards: Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts United Nations Award – British Academy of Film and Television Arts U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Picture - Musical or Comedy – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – null Best Supporting Actress – null Best Director – null Best Screenplay – null Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – null Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Palme d'Or – Cannes Film Festival Best Picture – National Society of Film Critics Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Moti – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Musical or Comedy – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: ccCommentary by director Robert Altman
AMC backstory: "M*A*S*H"
Still gallery
Original theatrical trailer

M*A*S*H

Format: DVD

Release Date: 09/07/2004

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo, THX THX-Certified Mastering

Runtime: 116 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Main Titles [:13]
2. Then There Was... Korea [2:50]
3. The Captain's Jeep [2:02]
4. The New Cutters [2:02]
5. Major Burns [3:50]
6. Meatball Surgery [2:01]
7. Onward, Christian Soldiers [1:24]
8. The Chest Cutter [4:03]
9. Meet Trapper John [:59]
10. Trapper's TKO [3:37]
11. A Regular Army Clown [:56]
12. Hail to the Chief [:46]
13. A Good Team [:59]
14. The Big Broadcast [1:59]
15. Hello, Hot Lips [4:11]
16. Burns Goes Berserk [1:35]
17. Walt's Problem [3:19]
18. Suicide Is Painless [1:05]
19. The Last Supper [3:02]
20. An Act of Mercy [4:24]
21. The Blood Donor [1:59]
22. A Real Blonde [1:36]
23. Going to Town [2:04]
24. Drafted [4:29]
25. A Special Assignment [1:26]
26. The Pros From Dover [:46]
27. "Me Lay" Marston [5:05]
28. Waiting for the Colonel [3:48]
29. Fixing the Fistula [1:00]
30. Back to Korea [1:24]
31. Duke & Hot Lips [5:18]
32. The General's Proposition [1:24]
33. Football Practice [1:23]
34. The Big Game [2:29]
35. Pressing the Bets [2:31]
36. The Ringer [1:54]
37. Number 88's Sister [:12]
38. The Winning Play [1:51]
39. Going Home [2:25]
40. Tonight's Move... [1:21]

Mark Deming

Robert Altman's commercial breakthrough after more than 20 years of industrial films and TV work felt like an joyous shout of liberation, not just for its director but for the film industry in general. MASH was proudly, gleefully, gloriously rude as few previous Hollywood films had dared to be, not just in using four-letter words but also in a hilariously casual disrespect for religion, the military, American foreign policy, and authority as a whole. While more than a few war movies had centered on men who served despite personal misgivings, MASH put us in the middle of an Army field hospital in the Korean War, where draftee doctors openly decry the "regular Army clowns" as they try to patch up the butchered bodies of soldiers from both sides. The cynical disrespect and mordant wit of Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper John McIntyre (Elliott Gould) was a breath of enjoyably foul air, especially at a time when America was knee-deep in the ongoing Vietnam War, the obvious analogue of the movie's Korean conflict. Also, the film's willingness to set its cheerfully vulgar humor (often involving sex and nudity) against the bloody horrors of surgery and the unpleasant realities of war was both brave and appropriate; it gave the film a moral balance that allowed the comic and tragic elements to temper each other. If MASH seems more controlled than much of Altman's later work, his trademark free-floating, catch-things-on-the-sly ambience is very much in evidence, as if he'd been wanting to make this sort of film his whole life and wasn't going to blow his chance. He didn't. Also, if you know MASH as a TV series and not as a film, prepare yourself for a shock; there is nothing warm and fuzzy about this movie, which makes its bitter humor all the more effective. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Lloyd Nelson  Actor 
Stephen Altman  Actor 
Buck Buchanan  Actor 
Weaver Levy  Actor 
Fran Tarkenton  Actor 
Dale Ishimoto  Actor 
Ken Prymus  Actor 
René Auberjonois  Actor 
Ted Knight  Actor 
Jerry Jones  Actor 
Danny Goldman  Actor 
Marvin Miller  Actor 
Bobby Troup  Actor 
Timothy Brown  Actor 
Bud Cort  Actor 
Ben Davidson  Actor 
Harvey Levine  Actor 
Cathleen Cordell  Actor 
Robert Altman  Director 
Ring Lardner, Jr.  Screenwriter 
Johnny Mandel  Composer (Music Score) 
Ingo Preminger  Producer 
Elliott Gould  Actor 
Donald Sutherland  Actor 
Tom Skerritt  Actor 
Sally Kellerman  Actor 
Jo Ann Pflug  Actor 
Robert Duvall  Actor 
Roger Bowen  Actor 
Gary Burghoff  Actor 
David Arkin  Actor 
Fred Williamson  Actor 
Michael Murphy  Actor 
Kim Atwood  Actor 
Indus Arthur  Actor 
John Schuck  Actor 
Dawne Damon  Actor 
Carl Gottlieb  Actor 
Tamara Horrocks  Actor 
G. Wood  Actor 
Corey John Fischer  Actor 

Country: USA