M*A*S*H (MASH) poster & wallpaper
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Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Jo Ann Pflug ... see more see more... , Robert Duvall , Roger Bowen , Gary Burghoff , David Arkin , Fred Williamson , Michael Murphy , Kim Atwood , Indus Arthur , John Schuck , Dawne Damon , Carl Gottlieb , Tamara Horrocks , G. Wood , Corey John Fischer , Rene Auberjonois , Timothy Brown , Cathleen Cordell , Ben Davidson , Danny Goldman , Dale Ishimoto , Ted Knight , Harvey Levine , Weaver Levy , Marvin Miller , Lloyd Nelson , Ken Prymus , Fran Tarkenton , Bobby Troup , Stephen Altman , Bud Cort , Jerry Jones , Buck Buchanan

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 ... read more read more...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

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80% liked it

50,632 ratings

Critics

89% liked it

37 critics

R, 1 hr. 55 min.

Directed by: Robert Altman

Release Date: December 31, 1970

Keywords: war, funny, anti-war

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DVD Release Date: January 8, 2002

Stats: 2,302 reviews

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Donald Sutherland and Fred Williamson Hawkeye and Trapper M*A*S*H (MASH) Last Supper M*A*S*H (MASH) M*A*S*H (MASH) Radar M*A*S*H (MASH) M*A*S*H M*A*S*H (MASH) M*A*S*H The Last Supper M*A*S*H Elliot Gould & Donald Sutherland M*A*S*H Robert Duvall in MASH Sally Kellerman in MASH
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Flixster Reviews (2,302)

  • garyX
    March 15, 2012
    garyX
    The staff of a mobile army surgical hospital work and play near the front lines of the Korean war. Robert Altman's satire was released just as the tide of public opinion had began to turn against America's presence in Vietnam and is clearly an analogy for the war, but unlike most... read more other stories rooted in that particular conflict, M*A*S*H doesn't have any real moral message or even plot to get your teeth into. It's a loose collection of sketches in which double act Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland crack wise, play practical jokes, football and golf in between stints in surgery. And that's it. It's never even particularly funny; more mildly amusing than laugh out loud funny (although Roger Bowen's distinctly unmilitary camp commander did raise a few chuckles from me) but it is always entertaining. Successful enough to spawn a long running TV sitcom, M*A*S*H is a fun if slight diversion that'll amuse but never change anyone's world.
  • danperry17
    January 19, 2012
    danperry17
    I just don't get what was so great about M*A*S*H*. Maybe satire was not common at the time, and maybe subverting the army and various wars wasn't either. OK. But for a film to be so directionless - and frankly, unfunny - was disheartening. Pointless escapade after pointless escap... read moreade, and no real purpose for them revealed in the end. I'll give credit to the acting, though, and to Altman for tipping his hand early with the advertisements over the loudspeaker about the empty, fun war movies the soldiers in theatre were expected to watch. Juxtaposing the humourous situations with the hospital scenes helped the film invoke some gallows humour, except for the fact that it wasn't particularly funny: oooh, we pulled down the tarp and exposed the hot girl; wow, we played golf and scammed a trip to Tokyo. These war stories are the stuff of real life, I'm sure, but the movie itself is as boring as those stories, told by someone with no real plot in mind, to someone who wasn't there. The audience isn't really in on this joke at anytime, and as a war movie, it pretty much ignores the war. Huge letdown; this is apparently a seminal American film, but there was nothing here for me.
  • aquateen2
    November 6, 2011
    aquateen2
    A classic hilarious example of quality black comedy. M*a*s*h has so many funny quotes and characters that it'll make you laugh more and more upon multiple viewings. Some jokes of which there are very few are however hit and miss.
  • fb1664868775
    October 27, 2011
    fb1664868775
    A still hilarious black comedy that boasts hysterical performances from Gould, Sutherland, Skerritt and Duvall.
  • stevenecarrier
    March 24, 2011
    stevenecarrier
    I hate to say it, because this is an American classic, but "M*A*S*H" is now very dated. It's hard to appreciate the humor and satire in today's day and age. But thankfully Robert Altman's film is still a nice piece of filmic history. It's fun to see Altman's sensibilities coming ... read moreto life for the first time: his large ensemble, the overlapping dialogue, the use of the zoom lens to highlight specific aspects of the mise en scene and cast, the witty dialogue and human comedy. I also love that "M*A*S*H" is funniest when the situations are closest to death and despair. It's an interesting combination. I also very much enjoyed the performances by Elliot Gould, Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Sally Kellerman. I still think that by today's standards the film is very tame, but it's fun to look back on something that was very influential and risky for it's time. As a piece of film comedy history, "M*A*S*H" still works reasonably well.
  • ajv2688
    December 20, 2010
    ajv2688
    Funnier than the show in my opinion, but I hate the show, so I don't know if I'm a great judge of that. Anyway, this movie has a great cast, but the story meanders. It has some really funny moments but the story could be a lot better.
  • BEACHBUNNI
    June 28, 2010
    BEACHBUNNI
    "M*A*S*H" is now probably best known as a television series, which isn't surprising, the series lasted over a decade,i loved it and had to check out the movie...i found it wonderfully entertaining and well worth watching, a stellar anti-war comedy,i just think its as good as come... read moredy can get!!
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    February 24, 2010
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "I wonder how such a degenerated person ever reached a position of authority in the Army Medical Corps."

    The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.

    ... read moreREVIEW
    Once that now famous and haunting opening theme song, "Suicide Is Painless," has finished playing, "MASH" bursts on to the screen in a blaze of sound and movement. It's a typical Altman film, and that's a huge compliment. It may not seem like anything special now, because his style has been so influential on all manner of present-day filmmakers, but at the time, audiences had never seen a major studio film whose ordering principle was mass chaos.

    Altman films have forever spoiled for me just a tiny bit all other carefully framed, carefully constructed conventional films, because his movies feel so alive in a way that other films don't. "MASH" is gloriously crazy, with all of the actors talking over one another and no apparent thought given to the framing of scenes. Altman has said that he wants his audiences to have to work at his movies. You have to decide what you want to listen to and who you want to watch, because virtually every character in the frame at any given moment is doing or saying something that's no less important than what some other character is doing or saying. But don't be fooled. Altman may have claimed innocence in imposing any kind of directorial hand on his material, but his films are as craftily constructed as any other. "MASH" begins with a montage of wounded soldiers being delivered to the medical unit for treatment, and one of the last shots of the film shows a dead body wrapped in a bright white sheet being driven through the MASH unit while in the foreground a group of doctors play cards, pausing only momentarily to glance at the sight. The message is clear. This casual framing approach that in a sense brings the story back to where we started tells us that there is an organizing principle to the lunacy and madness, and that principle is death.
  • SirPant
    September 17, 2009
    SirPant
    The on screen relationship between Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould is classic. This is a very funny film, one of Altman's best!
  • FireStormStudios
    September 2, 2009
    FireStormStudios
    This was a funny, straightforward movie. There was very little climax, if any at all, however, it was still fun to watch and you could definitely see the potential for the makings of a wonderful TV series that was based on this film.

View All M*A*S*H (MASH) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum
June 27, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

This is still watchable for the verve of the ensemble acting and dovetailing direction, but some of the crassness leaves a sour aftertaste. Full Review

Variety Staff
June 27, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

In the end M.A.S.H. succeeds, in spite of its glaring faults. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

One of the reasons M*A*S*H is so funny is that it's so desperate. Full Review

Roger Greenspun
May 21, 2003
Roger Greenspun, New York Times

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. Full Review

Heather Boerner
December 18, 2010
Heather Boerner, Common Sense Media

Rollicking, biting, satirical classic is so 1970. Full Review

Fernando F. Croce
September 25, 2009
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

Altman chronicles the sardonic wasteland with a camera that's always in the wrong place at the right time Full Review

Eric Henderson
September 15, 2009
Eric Henderson, Slant Magazine

A good dint lower than its reputation, more so if you look at it not as one of the seminal 1970s films but instead as the first chapter from the finest filmmaking career spent examining the American m... Full Review

Joshua Rothkopf
July 31, 2008
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

It's the first real film of the 1970s. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 2, 2007
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Impudent and bold, M.A.S.H., Altman's most commercial film, satirizes the glorification of war, military bureaucracy, social hypocrisy, repressed sexuality and other norms than have lost their validity. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
April 19, 2007
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A black comedy that rings hollow today. Full Review

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    • Maj. Hot Lips: Oh, Frank, my lips are hot. Kiss my hot lips.
    • Sgt. Gorman: Goddamn army. Goddamn army. Goddamn army jeep.
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M*A*S*H (MASH) Trivia

  • In the original M*A*S*H movie and the series, what is the title of the theme song?  Answer »
  • Which actor in the origional movie MASH went on to star in the TV series playing the same part?  Answer »
  • What does M*A*S*H stand for?  Answer »
  • The actor who played Colonel Blake in MASH the movie and the actor who played Colonel Blake in MASH the tv show died within a day of each other, both of heart attacks...  Answer »
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