MAS*H

"M*A*S*H gives a D*A*M*N."

1970 1h 56m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

★6.9TMDB · 1,207

ComedyDramaWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

One of the world's most acclaimed comedies, M*A*S*H focuses on three Korean War Army surgeons brilliantly brought to life by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, they adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff and Sally Kellerman co-star as a sanctimonious Major, an other-worldly Corporal, and a self-righteous yet lusty nurse.

“M*A*S*H gives a D*A*M*N.”

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Cast

Donald Sutherland
Hawkeye Pierce
Elliott Gould
Trapper John McIntyre
Tom Skerritt
Duke Forrest
Sally Kellerman
Maj. Margaret 'Hot Lips' O'Houlihan
Robert Duvall
Maj. Frank Burns
Roger Bowen
Lt. Col. Henry Blake
René Auberjonois
Father John Mulcahy
David Arkin
St. Major Wade Vollmer

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Robert Altman
Writers: Ring Lardner Jr.
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $82M — a 23.3× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

56 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Japanese, Korean.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Directed by Robert Altman, shot by Harold E. Stine. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Johnny Mandel. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Danford B. Greene shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould and Tom Skerritt carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Robert Altman directs. Harold E. Stine behind the camera. Johnny Mandel scores. Danford B. Greene cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Japanese, Korean.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $82M — a 23.3× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
356 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Japanese, Korean.
5Directed by Robert Altman, shot by Harold E. Stine. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Johnny Mandel. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Danford B. Greene shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould and Tom Skerritt carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "M*A*S*H gives a D*A*M*N.".
10IMDB entry: tt0066026 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 14 themes, including "based on novel or book", "dark comedy", "surgeon", "american way of life".

The technical file

Cinematography: Harold E. Stine
Original score: Johnny Mandel
Editing: Danford B. Greene
Makeup / hair: Daniel C. Striepeke
Sound: David Dockendorf
Runtime: 116 min · 1h 56m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,500,000
Box office: $81,600,000
Return: 2331% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: M*A*S*H (1970)

Awards

Palme d'Or
Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Robert Altman

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Filipe Manuel Neto2024-03-16
★ 4/10
Without ever becoming a classic, this is a film that had its own space and time. There are certain films that, despite being forty or fifty years old, seem to maintain all their relevance and pertinence. These films generally surpass the test of time and continue to win new audiences, generation after generation. On the other hand, there are films that are a portrait of the time in which they were made, and belong to that specific time and need to be understood in the light of that particular moment. The plot unfolds during the Korean War, which occurred shortly after the Second World War and divided two countries that are still at war, although it is a frozen conflict. The action focuses on a mobile medical unit near the front line, where a group of doctors and nurses seek, through humor and sarcasm, to lighten the tense environment and forget the surrounding danger, ignoring and mocking their superiors. As you can see, we cannot understand the film without delving into the mentality of the 70s. At a time when American youth were shouting for peace and against the war in Vietnam, what film would make more sense than a comic parody of the army? Korea had been recent and did not have the almost sacred nature of participation in the Second World War, it was acceptable to play with that and have bearded doctors, 100% hippie style, drunk or semi-drugged, doing antics that, in real circumstances, would lead them to court-martial. If this film had been released just ten years earlier, we would have had something totally different, but this is the decade of Flower Power, of peace and love. Robert Altman provides reasonably effective direction. The recreation of the time, and the environments of the military field, is done with technical care. There was a lot of authentic war material that could be used in the design of sets and costumes, and it is quite likely that some witness told what those mobile health units were like, and what was done there. However, the script lacks unity and cohesion, and resembles a collage of comic or sarcastic episodes without much relationship between them. It was a bad script, and I can't understand how it won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The type of humor is another additional problem: our sense of humor has changed a lot in just a few decades and our sensitivity does not let jokes in such bad taste escape like those that occasionally happen here, particularly those aimed at female characters. What saves the film ends up being the enormous capacity for improvisation and creativity that the cast used in the project. With less than competent screenwriters and insufficient material to build characters, the director seems to have had the intelligence to give the actors enough margin to fill in the gaps, molding the characters in their own way. This is what Donald Sutherland did, ensuring a very strong and charismatic lead. It's not even close to the actor's best, but he managed to pull it off with flying colors. Elliott Gould and Tom Skerritt follow him closely, and form a consistent core cast, with characters good enough to sustain the action. Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman and Roger Bowen provide indispensable support. At the time, the film was a success, as expected, and even led to a TV series. And today? Almost no one remembers anything, and to say that this is a classic seems to be a huge exaggeration. At that time, the film had a guaranteed audience. Today, with world peace declining at the expense of growing conflict between the USA, Iran, China, Russia and other powers, we can no longer call for peace without calling for the rearmament of our countries and their allies. At a time when we already live in a “pre-world war” environment, a film that ridicules the army has no room to flourish.

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