MASH (1970)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Robert Altman

SCREENWRITER: Richard Hooker (H. Richard Hornberger and W. C. Heinz)

FILM STARS: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Roger Bowen, René Auberjonois, Jo Ann Pflug , John Schuck, Carl Gottlieb, Tamara Horrocks, Gary Burghoff, Fred Williamson, Michael Murphy, Bud Cort, Bobby Troup, Marvin Miller, Sylvester Stallone (uncredited bit)

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Richard Hooker

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Sphere

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1980 (the 1970 edition was reprinted many, many times)

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1968

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: War, Comedy/Satire

WORDS: The basis for the hit film and for the subsequent mega hit TV series. People (film snobs usually) like to say the film is better than the TV series, and maybe it is, but they usually express their preference on the basis that the TV show deviated away from the film. Here, the film deviates away from the book.

The character and situations are there but there are some deletions (of characters), combining of others, and additions of bits and pieces of action. The book is late 60s satire, the film is 70s satire and the TV show is, TV comedy (with some satire). I like all three (the films cast is especially gold) though admittedly I grew up on the TV show (the first two seasons are magnificent … the rest so so). Author, Richard Hooker, is the pen name for former military surgeon H. Richard Hornberger and he wrote the book with W. C. Heinz. Hooker wrote two sequels. There were more sequels written credited to Richard Hooker and William E Butterworth but actually written by Butterworth alone. They were more broadly humorous, lighter, less dark, less satirical.

The film is funny though , perhaps, not as funny as the television show. Robert Altman I can take or leave as a director and his characters seem to me to be more well written than real. But, with a cast like this, it doesn’t matter.

And yes I know the title is actually M*A*S*H not MASH … but that creates all sorts of computer dramas

LINKS

TRAILER

MUSIC

Main Title Theme Song

(from an old scratchy LP which adds to the song I think)