Robert Altman M*A*S*H (1970), 116 Min
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October 3, 2017 (XXXV:6) Robert Altman M*A*S*H (1970), 116 min. (The online version of this handout has color images.) Academy Awards, USA 1971 Won Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for Ring Lardner Jr. Nominated: Best Picture; Best Director, Robert Altman; Best Film Editing, Danford B. Greene; Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Sally Kellerman DIRECTED BY Robert Altman WRITTEN BY Richard Hooker (novel), Ring Lardner Jr. (screenplay) PRODUCED BY Leon Ericksen, Ingo Preminger MUSIC Johnny Mandel CINEMATOGRAPHY Harold E. Stine FILM EDITING Danford B. Greene 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 Rene Auberjonois…Father John Mulcahy ROBERT ALTMAN (b. February 20, 1925 in Kansas City, David Arkin…Sgt. Major Vollmer Missouri—d. November 20, 2006, age 81, in Los Angeles, Jo Ann Pflug…Lt. ‘Dish’ California) found success in Hollywood later in life. By the time Gary Burghoff…Cpl. ‘Radar’ O'Reilly he became a celebrity at 45, it seemed he had already settled into Fred Williamson…Dr. Oliver 'Spearchucker' Jones the role that suited him - the grand old man, cantankerous and Michael Murphy…'Me Lai' Marston wayward. In 1941, he attended the Wentworth military academy Indus Arthur…Lt. Leslie in Lexington, Missouri, then joined the US army air force as a B- Ken Prymus…PFC. Seidman 24 pilot. Bobby Troup…Sgt. Gorman Kim Atwood…Ho-Jon After the war, he spent some time in New York, trying his hand Timothy Brown …Cpl. Judson as an actor, a songwriter and a fiction writer; one of his stories John Schuck…Capt. 'Painless' Waldowski became the basis of Richard Fleischer's film Bodyguard (1948). Dawne Damon…Capt. Storch He also briefly set up a business tattooing dogs for identification Carl Gottlieb…'Ugly John' purposes (Harry S. Truman’s dog was tattooed by Altman.) A Tamara Wilcox-Smith…Capt. 'Knocko' long apprenticeship in cinema began when he returned to Kansas G. Wood…Brig. Gen. Hammond City and made industrial films; he made some 60 shorts, then Bud Cort…Pvt. Boone tried his hand at commercials, and in 1953 made his first venture Danny Goldman…Capt. Murrhardt into television with the series Pulse of the City. He briefly Corey Fischer…Capt. Bandini directed on the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, then spent six years in television, on series including Bonanza, The Altman—M*A*S*H—2 Millionaire and The Troubleshooters. After years working in their director. Eventually, they approached producers in an television, the rambunctious Midwesterner set out on his own as attempt to get Altman fired from the film. ‘Both Elliot and a feature film director in the late 1950s, but didn’t find his first Donald went to the producers of the film and tried to have me major success until 1970, with the antiauthoritarian war comedy fired,’ Altman said. ‘They said “This guy is ruining our careers,” M*A*S*H. Immediately afterwards, Altman initiated a pattern and they said that “He’s spending all of his time talking with all that would run throughout his career—following a successful of these extras and these bit players, and he’s not playing a lot of film with one that almost seemed calculated to deliver setbacks. attention to us.” It was kept from me. Had I known that, no Brewster McCloud (1970), mixing broad counter-culture satire question, I would have quit the picture. I couldn’t have gone on and fairytale, lost him much of the credit he’d won from knowing that there were two actors that I was dealing with that M*A*S*H. Yet the felt that way.” Gould eventually apologized to Altman, and they follow-up, McCabe and went on to make four more films together, including The Long Mrs. Miller (1970), Goodbye. According to Altman, he and Sutherland never spoke remains a masterpiece of about the dispute. the period, recasting the heroic myth of the old RICHARD HOOKER (b. Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr. on west as a somber farce of February 1, 1924 in Trenton, New Jersey—d. November 4, 1997, failure and corruption, so age 73, in Portland, Maine) is the pseudonym of H. Richard mercilessly that John Hornberger who authored the novel M*A*S*H. Hornberger had Wayne denounced it as been a U.S. Army physician who recounted his experiences corrupt. After the during the Korean War. The original manuscript was rejected by success of 1975’s thirteen different publishers. Hornberger finally enlisted help panoramic American with revision from journalist W.C. Heinz and William Morrow & satire Nashville, Altman Company, Inc accepted the book. At first, he was not all that once again delved into interested in selling the movie rights, but fellow classmates who projects that were more worked in the industry finally persuaded Hornberger. Hornberger challenging, especially wrote the sequels, M*A*S*H Goes to Maine (1972) and the astonishing, M*A*S*H Mania (1977), neither of which enjoyed the complex, Bergman- commercial success of the original. Hornberger was quoted in the influenced Three Women (1977). Thereafter, Altman was out of Boston Globe in 1977: “I thought the movie was great but the Hollywood’s good graces, though in the eighties he came television thing isn't my kind of humor. It's someone else's idea through with the inventive theater-to-film Nixon monologue of what medical humor is supposed to be.” Secret Honor and the TV miniseries political satire Tanner ’88. The double punch of The Player (1992) and the hugely RING LARDNER JR. (b. August 15, 1915 in Chicago, Illinois— influential ensemble piece Short Cuts (1993) brought him back d. October 31, 2000 in Manhattan, New York City, New York) into the spotlight, and he continued to be prolific in his output will always be known as one of the Hollywood 10, the ten film- until 2006, when his last film, A Prairie Home Companion, was makers who refused to cooperate with the House Un-American released months before his death at the age of eighty-one. His Activities Committee investigating subversion in Hollywood. movies are often large ensemble pieces containing overlapping Early in his career, Larnder Jr. became a reporter for the New dialogue, where several characters speak at once. He’s also York Daily Mirror after dropping out of Princeton. He moved known for liberal use of the zoom lens and his film’s social West and became a publicist for producer David O. Selznick, commentary. Altman, a veteran of the U.S. Army Air Force then his script doctor before finally becoming screenwriter, often during World War II, is rumored to have been radicalized by a working in collaboration. In 1943, he and Michael Kanin won the trip to Vietnam to shoot footage of the war in the 1960s. He has Oscar in 1942 for their Woman of the Year (1942) screenplay. He never talked about this episode in his life and career, however, wrote Laura (1944) for Otto Preminger and, in 1947, 20th the M*A*S*H TV series didn’t make the same anti-war point that Century Fox gave him a contract at $2,000 a week, making him he felt his film did. His son, Mike Altman, wrote the lyrics for one of the highest paid scribes in LA. Ironically, at the time of “Suicide is Painless,” the theme song for tonight’s film when he this seeming triumph, his career and life were about to unravel. was only 14 years old. (The director has joked that his son made When the HUAC asked Lardner, “Are you now or have you ever more money from the film than he did.) Altman is also the only been a member of the Communist Party of the United States?”, director to win first prize at the three major European film he responded: “I could answer the question exactly the way you festivals: he won the Palm D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for want, but if I did, I would hate myself in the morning". After the M*A*S*H (1970), the Golden Bear at the Berlin International appeals process against HUAC’s citations for contempt of Film Festival for Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's Congress played out, Lardner was sentenced to a year in prison History Lesson (1976) and Golden Lion at the Venice Film and fined. More importantly, he was blacklisted and could not Festival for Short Cuts (1993). For tonight’s film, according to find work in Hollywood except under pseudonyms. After the MetalFloss: “Altman spent a lot of time during the making of blacklist was officially broken when Preminger hired Dalton M*A*S*H cultivating his ensemble, directing background extras Trumbo, the blacklisted writers slowly returned to work under and bit players to create a kind of mural effect. It worked in the their own names. Lardner was hired by producer Martin end, but it also annoyed stars Donald Sutherland and Elliott Ransohoff to write the screenplay for The Cincinnati Kid (1965) Gould, who felt they weren’t being given enough attention by under his own name. His comeback was complete when, in 1971, Altman—M*A*S*H—3 he won his second Oscar for adapting Robert Hooker’s comic Superman (1952) with George Reeves. After that, Stine went on novel, M*A*S*H (1970). Ironically, due to director Robert to work extensively in television, notably on the popular Altman's improvisational style, little of Lardner's dialogue westerns Cheyenne and Maverick.