M*A*S*H: The Movie

Based on the novel M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker, M*A*S*H was released in 1970.

An anti-war, dark comedy, it focuses on life at a M*A*S*H unit during the Korean War, although all overt references to the Korean War were deliberately left out in order to encourage parallels between the war in Korea and the war in Vietnam.

A low-budget film, M*A*S*H was released to critical acclaim, going on to be nominated for five Oscars. It is available in two formats on DVD - the one-disc edition, and the special edition two-disc edition.

The 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" O'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
• David Arkin as SSgt. Vollmer/PA Announcer
• Jo Ann Pflug as Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider
• Gary Burghoff as Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly
• Fred Williamson as Capt. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones
• Michael Murphy as Capt. Ezekiel Bradbury "Me Lay" Marston IV
• Tim Brown as Cpl. Judson
• Bud Cort as Pvt. Lorenzo Boone
• Corey Fischer as Capt. Dennis Patrick Bandini

Trivia

• The movie was nominated for Oscars in five categories - Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Sally Kellerman), Best Director (Robert Altman), Best Film Editing (Danford B. Greene), Best Picture (Ingo Preminger), Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Ring Lardner Jr.)
• It also won the Grand Prix at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival
• Much of the dialogue in the movie is ad-libbed
• Suicide is Painless, the theme music from the movie, uses lyrics written by Robert Altman's son, who was 14 at the time
• Gary Burghoff (Radar O'Reilly) and G. Wood (General Hammond) went on to reprise their roles in the TV version of M*A*S*H
• Timothy Brown and Corey Fischer also appeared in both the movie and the TV series, but played different characters in each
• In several shots of the camp loud speaker, the moon can be seen clearly in the background. On the night these were shot, American astronauts landed on the moon
• M*A*S*H is the first major studio film to feature the word 'fuck'
• In 1996, M*A*S*H was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry due to its cultural significance
• Trapper John, M.D. is seen as a direct spin-off of the movie, unlike AfterMASH and W*A*L*T*E*R, which are seen as spin-offs of the TV programme