This week’s pick is the 1970 comedy classic M*A*S*H, from acclaimed director Robert Altman. M*A*S*H (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) was adapted by screen writer Ring Lardner, Jr. and based on the hit novel from Richard Hooker about three military surgeons who are stationed three miles from the front lines during the Korean War. The film stars Donald Sutherland (Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce), Elliott Gould (Capt. John Francis Xavier “Trapper John” McIntyre), and Tom Skerritt (Capt. Augustus Bedford “Duke” Forrest).
Rounding out the supporting cast is Robert Duvall (Maj. Frank Burns), Sally Kellerman (Maj. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan), Roger Bowen (Lt. Col. Henry Blake), Rene Auberjonois (Father John Patrick “Dago Red” Mulcahy), and Gary Burghoff as (Cpl. Walter “Radar” O’Reilly) who would later reprise his role in the hit television series which ran from 1972-83.
The release of M*A*S*H came at a very critical time when America was entering a new decade and the war in Vietnam was still raging on. M*A*S*H‘s dark humor and side-splitting dialogue is an allegorical look at Korea, yet reflected the country’s attitudes about Vietnam which was igniting riots in cities and on college campuses throughout the country. The three characters of Hawkeye, Trapper, and Duke are rebellious, womanizing, rule breakers who are conscripted into the army, yet quickly prove to their commanding officer Col. Blake that they’re the best surgeons in the whole U.S. Army.
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