Stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Jo Ann Pflug, Rene Auberjonois, Roger Bowen

Director: Robert Altman

Summary: With the release of Robert Altman's M.A.S.H. in 1970, a new form of comedy was born, one that would help to forever change the face of cinema. Altman's audacious film reflected the American counterculture's growing distrust of religion and government in the late 1960s and early 1970s, resulting in one of the biggest box office smashes of its time. Introducing the techniques he would employ throughout his storied career overlapping dialogue, a constantly moving camera with a heavy amount of zooming, and a bold combination of frank subject matter with cynical humour Altman immediately vaulted himself to Hollywood's upper ranks. Based on the novel by Richard Hooker, M.A.S.H. follows a group of Mobile Army Surgical Hospital officers as they perform surgery and pass the time just miles from the front lines of the Korean conflict. Led by sardonic captains Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper John McIntyre (Elliott Gould), the film has the feel of an absurd three-ring circus. Other characters include the uptight nurse Hot Lips O'Houlihan (Sally Kellerman), the confused Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), the troubled Captain Painless Waldowski (John Shuck), and the simpleminded Captain Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt). Altman's decision to present his film as a series of loosely connected vignettes rather than a traditionally unfolding narrative perfectly captures the freewheeling spirit so unique to early-'70s cinema.

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Reviewed by: davybozal24-7
Posted on March 7, 2006 5:51 PM

This is a wonderfully funny film about the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital based in Korea during the conflict in the early 50s .
Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould as the 2 anti-heroes play their parts to clinical perfection.

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Set in an emergency medical camp, the sitcom M*A*S*Hwas based on Robert Altman's 1970 movie of the same name, which notionally took place during the Korean War but was implicitly a bleak commentary on the US involvement in Vietnam. First aired in 1972, the series is broader and less edgy than the film, taking the original characters and reducing them for stock comic value. Nonetheless, the sense of hip insolence is preserved in Alan Alda's carousing, wisecracking but essentially decent Hawkeye--Groucho Marx in a surgeon's mask.

The first series shows Hawkeye and buddy Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) dealing with the bloody and messy end of the war. Though not often explicitly critical of the conflict, their attitude towards the uptight, irascible Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) and Loretta Swit's prim, buttoned-up nurse "Hotlips" Houlihan suggests a healthy contempt for military mores. Fortunately, their commander Henry Blake (McClean Stevenson) is an easy-going soul who indulges them and allows a genial atmosphere to flourish at the 4077th.

The pilot--in which Hawkeye arranges a raffle where the prize is a night with a gorgeous nurse to raise money for a Korean kid to get to college--sums up the spirit of these early episodes: soft-centred liberalism mixed with somewhat dated sexism, albeit more slickly delivered than contemporary British sitcoms such as On the Buses. The skirt-chasing and buffoonery in this first series would give way to a more earnest tone as the show continued.

On the DVD: M*A*S*His disappointingly short on special features. However, there is the option of removing the jarringly inappropriate intrusive laugh track that was used on US broadcasts of the show but not the UK version. These episodes have been comprehensively cleaned up for DVD consumption. --David Stubbs

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1969
Release Date:	October 13, 2003
Runtime:	111 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	01038 V D V D
Keywords:	Mash, Comedy, Version, General, Vanilla
Genre:	Comedy