MASH Robert Altman

Box office

M*A*S*H was a box-office hit; it was the third highest-grossing film released in 1970 (behind Love Story and Airport).[23] The film opened January 25, 1970, at the Baronet Theatre in New York City and grossed $37,143 in its first week.[24] According to 20th Century-Fox records, the film required $6,550,000 in rentals to break even, and by 11 December 1970 had made $31,225,000, thus making a profit for the studio.[25] Ultimately, the film made $81.6 million[26] against a budget of $3 million.[27]

It was the sixth most popular film at the French box office in 1970.[28]

Fox re-released the film to theaters in North America in late 1973. To attract audiences to the M*A*S*H television series, which had struggled in the ratings in its first season, Fox reissued the film in a version running 112 minutes and bearing a PG rating. Some of the more explicit content from the original R-rated cut was edited out, including segments of graphic surgical operations, Hot Lips' shower scene, and the use of the word fuck during the football game. According to film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, the film's main theme song, "Suicide is Painless", was replaced with music by Ahmad Jamal.[29] The re-release earned an estimated $3.5 million at the box office.[20]

Critical response

M*A*S*H received critical acclaim from critics. The film holds an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 8.30/10. The website's consensus states, "Bold, timely, subversive, and above all, funny, M*A*S*H remains a high point in Robert Altman's distinguished filmography."[30] The film also holds a score of 80 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[31]

In a rave review, John Mahoney of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "the finest American comedy since Some Like It Hot", and "the Mister Roberts of the Korean War", as well as "The Graduate of 1970".[32] Time magazine, in a review titled "Catch-22 Caliber", wrote of the film, "though it wears a dozen manic, libidinous masks, none quite covers the face of dread ... M.A.S.H., one of America's funniest bloody films, is also one of its bloodiest funny films."[33] The New Yorker critic Pauline Kael wrote of the film, "I don't know when I’ve had such a good time at a movie. Many of the best recent American movies leave you feeling that there's nothing to do but get stoned and die, that that's your proper fate as an American. This movie heals a breach."[34] John Simon described M*A*S*H as an 'amusingly absurdist army satire'.[35]

Roger Ebert, in the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the film four (out of four) stars, writing

There is something about war that inspires practical jokes and the heroes ... are inspired and utterly heartless ... We laugh, not because "M*A*S*H" is Sgt. Bilko for adults, but because it is so true to the unadmitted sadist in all of us. There is perhaps nothing so exquisite as achieving ... sweet mental revenge against someone we hate with particular dedication. And it is the flat-out, poker-faced hatred in "M*A*S*H" that makes it work. Most comedies want us to laugh at things that aren't really funny; in this one we laugh precisely because they're not funny. We laugh, that we may not cry ... We can take the unusually high gore-level in "M*A*S*H" because it is originally part of the movie's logic. If the surgeons didn't have to face the daily list of maimed and mutilated bodies, none of the rest of their lives would make any sense ... But none of this philosophy comes close to the insane logic of "M*A*S*H," which is achieved through a peculiar marriage of cinematography, acting, directing, and writing. The movie depends upon timing and tone to be funny ... One of the reasons "M*A*S*H" is so funny is that it's so desperate.[36]

In contrast, Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote of M*A*S*H, "To my knowledge [it] is the first major American movie openly to ridicule belief in God – not phony belief; real belief. It is also one of the few (though by no means the first) American screen comedies openly to admit the cruelty of its humor. And it is at pains to blend that humor with more operating room gore than I have ever seen in any movie from any place ... Although it is impudent, bold, and often very funny, it lacks the sense of order (even in the midst of disorder) that seems the special province of successful comedy."[37]

In a retrospective review for the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum noted that "the film ... helped launch the careers of Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, and subsequent Altman regulars Rene Auberjonois and John Schuck, and won screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. an Oscar." Rosenbaum characterized the film as "a somewhat adolescent if stylish antiauthoritarian romp ... But the misogyny and cruelty behind many of the gags are as striking as the black comedy and the original use of overlapping dialogue. This is still watchable for the verve of the ensemble acting and dovetailing direction, but some of the crassness leaves a sour aftertaste."[38] Writing in The Guardian for the film's 50th anniversary, Noah Gittell also criticized it for having "a deep and unexamined misogyny", noting that the treatment of the Houlihan character in particular anticipated such later teen sex comedies as Animal House, Porky's, and Revenge of the Nerds.[39]

The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited this movie as one of his 100 favorite films.[40]

Accolades

In 1996, M*A*S*H was deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Year-end lists

The film is number 17 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and number 54 on "AFI" list of the top 100 American movies of all time.

American Film Institute

• 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #56[45]
• 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #7[46]
• 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
  • "Suicide Is Painless" – #66[47]
• 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #54[48]