This particular MASH unit has Lt. Col. Blake (Roger Bowen) as the figurehead leader. His efficient right-hand man is Cpl. Radar (Gary Burghoff). At the unit, the surgeons are given considerable slack since their skills are prized. They are Hawkeye (Donald Sutherland), Trapper John (Elliott Gould) and Duke (Tom Skeritt). Burns (Robert Duvall) is also a doctor, but he is a religious conservative, and is soon forced out by the others.
The ensemble cast also includes Sally Kellerman as a poorly treated nurse, Rene Auberjonois as an Army chaplain, John Schuck as a dentist with issues, Jo Ann Pflug as an attractive nurse, Fred Williamson as an athletic "ringer", and Kim Atwood as servant boy Ho-Jon.
MASH was based on a then-unheralded novel by Richard Hooker, a pseudonym of H. Richard Hornberger and his sportswriter collaborator W.C. Heinz. Hornberger was indeed a surgeon and Korean War veteran.
How others will see it. MASH was nominated for five Oscars, winning Best Adapted Screenplay in a big year for Patton (1970). It also won Best Comedy at the Golden Globes. Between those the two film festivals, Altman, Gould, Sutherland, and Kellerman were nominated.
More importantly for 20th Century Fox, the film has a box office smash. Today at imdb.com, the film has a fairly high 55K user votes and a respectable 7.6 user rating. Given the treatment of Hot Lips, it is surprising that the highest user rating (8.2 out of 10) comes from women over 45, who apparently enjoy seeing authority flaunted for the good cause of surgeons saving lives.
How I felt about it. MASH is highly interesting for its examination of the murky borders of right and wrong. One example of this is Hawkeye and Trapper taking the ill Japanese child to the military surgical ward though such action is forbidden. When word gets around to the commanding officer, he bursts into the operating room to stop the procedure, and is promptly gassed and blackmailed with a nurse to ensure his non-interference.
Thus, per Altman, the greater good is saving the child's life, and if it means breaking military regulation, or committing crimes that could lead to years of military prison, so be it. Our two doctor leads win because it is their movie, and their freewheeling yet lifesaving philosophy is deemed superior to that of their unpleasant would-be antagonists: Frank Burns, Margaret O'Houlihan, and Colonel Merril.
One can argue that the movie condones sexual harassment. The worst offense is the shower humiliation of O'Houlihan, ostensibly to win a wager but in fact a power play to show her who is in charge: the surgeons. It is more forgivable to compel the lieutenant nurse "Dish" to have sex with a well-endowed dentist to cure the latter's suicidal depression.
Although the movie's situations are exaggerated for comic effect, it seems believable that the surgeons at a MASH unit would believe that they are the top dogs, and would drink, gamble, and philander whenever possible. Their attitude is that they are forced to be here, so why not pass the time agreeably?
All is forgiven, presumably, if they save lives during surgery. Because it is a movie, they are as heroic in the operation room as they are rascals outside of it.
I will spare the reader any comparisons between the film and the long-running television series that it spawned. The movie is considered innovative for its overlapping and improvised dialogue and the use of the f-word. The parody of Da Vinci's famous Last Supper is merely strange, the football scene goes on too long, and Major O'Houlihan seems to have had a personality change following her "my commission" speech.
Nonetheless, it's quite a movie, and the highlight of Robert Altman's career (although Nashville and McCable & Mrs. Miller are also quite good). It helps that the cast is studded with future stars, but given that the script was largely tossed, the credit can only go to Altman, whose career up to that point was primarily television work.