The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is shaken up by the arrival of Captains Hawkeye Pierce and Duke Forrest...crack surgeons but lousy soldiers. Joined by renowned chest-cutter Trapper John McIntyre, the surgeons set about dealing with the daily carnage of the war by raising hell. From getting rid of the idiotic Major Burns, to helping the camp dentist commit "suicide", there's no lengths the Swampmen won't go to distract themselves from the horrors of war.

Donald Sutherland - Capt. Benjamin Franklin 'Hawkeye' Pierce

Elliott Gould - Capt. John Francis Xavier 'Trapper' John McIntyre

Tom Skerritt - Capt. Augustus Bedford 'Duke' Forrest

Sally Kellerman - Maj. Margaret 'Hot Lips' O'Houlihan

Robert Duvall - Maj. Frank Burns

Roger Bowen - Lt. Col. Henry Braymore Blake

Rene Auberjonois - Father John Patrick 'Dago Red' Mulcahy

David Arkin - SSgt. Vollmer/PA Announcr

Jo Ann Pflug - Lt. Maria 'Dish' Schneider

Gary Burghoff - Cpl. Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly

Fred Williamson - Capt. Oliver Harmon 'Spearchucker' Jones

Michael Murphy - Capt. Ezekiel Bradbury 'Me Lay' Marston IV

Indus Arthur - Lt. Leslie

Ken Prymus - Pvt. Seidman

Bobby Troup - SSgt. Gorman

Kim Atwood - Ho-Jon

Timothy Brown - Cpl. Judson (as Tim Brown)

John Schuck - Capt. Walter Kosciusko 'Painless Pole' Waldowski

Dawne Damon - Lt. Storch

Carl Gottlieb - Capt. 'Ugly John' Black

Tamara Wilcox-Smith - Capt. Bridget 'Knocko' McCarthy

G. Wood - Brig. Gen. Charlie Hammond

Bud Cort - Pvt. Lorenzo Boone

Danny Goldman - Capt. Murrhardt

Corey Fischer - Capt. Bandini

rest of cast listed alphabetically

Stephen Altman - Duke's 5-Year-Old Son

Tommy Brown - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Buck Buchanan - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Jack Concannon - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Michael Consoldane - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Cathleen Cordell - Capt. Peterson, Nurse Corps

Ben Davidson - Football Player, 325th Evac.

James B. Douglas - Col. Wallace C. Merril

Tom Falk - Corporal

John Fujioka - Japanese Golf Pro

Sumi Haru - Japanese Nurse

Susan Ikeda - Japanese Caddie

Dale Ishimoto - Korean Doctor

Jerry Jones - Motor Pool Sergeant

Joe Kapp - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Ted Knight - Offstage Dialog (voice)

Harvey Levine - 2nd Lieutenant

Weaver Levy - Korean Doctor

Marvin Miller - Offstage Dialog (voice)

John Myers - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Lloyd Nelson - Offstage Voice

Monica Peterson - Pretty W.A.C. Receptionist

Masami Saito - Japanese Caddie

Samantha Scott - Nurse/Pin-up Model

Noland Smith - Football Player, 325th Evac. 'Superbug'

Fran Tarkenton - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Rick Teal - Hammond's Aide

Dianne Turley Travis - Correspondent

Sal Viscuso - P.A. Announcer (voice)

Hiroko Watanabe - Japanese Prostitute

Howard Williams - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Tom Woodeschick - Football Player, 325th Evac.

Yoko Young - Japanese Servant

The opening title sequence has a text that identifies the place as Korea. This was added at the insistence of the studio after director Robert Altman had removed every reference to Korea, intending it to be mistaken for Vietnam, which would reinforce the anti-war statement.

Gary Burghoff played the same character ("Radar" O'Reilly) in both the film and television series

G. Wood (General Hammond) played the same character in the movie and first three episodes of the TV series.

The 14-year-old son of Robert Altman, Mike Altman, wrote the lyrics to the theme song (and reportedly made more money from the movie than his father did as a result).

This and Catch-22 (1970), two films satirizing recent American wars, were released in the same year. "Catch-22," based on a best-selling novel, featuring a huge cast, and boasting director Mike Nichols fresh from his success with The Graduate (1967), was expected to be the more successful film. When the reverse proved true, Robert Altman hung a banner in his office reading, "Caught-22."

Although set on the front lines of the Korean War, the only gunshot heard is the referee's pistol during the inter-camp football game.

This film was among the first to be released on home video. In 1977 20th Century Fox licensed 50 of its titles to a fledgling video duplication company called Magnetic Video Corp. Fox purchased the company in 1978, laying the groundwork for its current successful video operation.

Robert Altman cast so many unknowns that after the few known actors (Tom Skerritt, Elliot Gould , etc.), the opening credits are entirely "Introducing...".

Robert Altman says that during filming, 'Elliot Gould' and Donald Sutherland together went to the studio and complained that Altman was filming too much of the secondary characters. They requested that he be removed from the film, but the studio refused. After the film was completed and received its accolades, only Gould confessed the matter to Altman. As a result, he received parts in other Altman pictures, whereas the director never again used Sutherland.

Speaking about the troubles he had with the studio, Robert Altman now says, "This film wasn't released - it escaped."

Burt Reynolds turned down the role of Trapper John.

Robert Altman originally wanted Elliott Gould to play Duke Forrest. It was only at Gould's request that he got the role of Trapper John.

In the opening titles when a soldier is dropped on a stretcher and hits the ground it wasn't scripted It was actually an accident by the actor who tripped over something.

Writer Ring Lardner Jr. was the only Academy Award winner out of the movie's five nominations. Lardner practically disowned the movie when he saw that very little of his original script made it into the final cut.

The first take of the shot where Hot Lips is revealed in the shower didn't work because Sally Kellerman anticipated the reveal and was already lying on the floor when the tent flap went up. To distract her, Robert Altman and Gary Burghoff entered the shower tent and dropped their trousers while the shot was rolling outside. While Kellerman was staring at them, the tent flap was raised, resulting in her genuine surprise and shock when she realized what had happened.

Reportedly the first major studio release to use the word "f**k" in its dialogue.

The operating scenes were almost cut out do to their graphic nature. However, two women who were visiting the set told the producers that the operating scenes were what made the movie, and should be kept in.

Robert Altman was originally promised five "points" (a percentage) of the film's profits. After a disagreement between Altman and one of the Fox executives, the offer of points was taken back before production began. When the film became a big hit, Altman's agent asked for the points back; the studio was considering it when Altman was quoted in the press saying how much he hated working for Fox. He was never given the points back.

All of the characters, based on the characters from Richard Hooker's novel, are composites of people Hooker knew, met casually, worked with, or heard about. In Hooker's novel, Frank Burns was only a Captain

The loudspeaker shots and announcements were added after the editing process had begun and the filmmakers realized that they needed more transitions. Some of the loudspeaker shots have the Moon visible and were shot while the Apollo 11 astronauts were on the Moon.

The scene where Father Mulcahy is blessing the jeep was improvised. Actor Rene Auberjonois found the blessing in a copy of the Army Chaplain's Handbook, and thought it would be a good addition to both the story and to his character. The director agreed, and the scene was shot in one take.

The story goes that Robert Altman was editing the movie with his editor, Danford B. Greene; they had nude pinups on the walls of the editing room. The head of postproduction came by and tried to stop Altman from using the editing machine, as he wasn't a designated editor, and Altman threw him out of the editing room. The next day a memo came down from the Fox front office, stating a new policy that there were to be no pinups on the walls of editing rooms. Altman took the memo to the sound recording studio and added it as one of the loudspeaker announcements during the film.

This was not the first Korean War-based movie to carry the title "MASH." In 1953, Humphrey Bogart starred in a film also about a MASH unit by the same title. But the studio thought the title might make audiences think it was about potatoes, so the title was changed to Battle Circus

Elliot Gould and Donald Sutherland kept calling each other "Shirley" on the set. Gould did it in one shot, cracking Sutherland up, and Altman decided to keep it in the film.

Robert Altman felt that he was able to get away with so much during shooting because the officials at 20th Century Fox were keeping a closer watch on their two massively expensive projects, also war films, Patton and Tora! Tora! Tora!

The beer the surgeons are drinking throughout the movie is Pabst Blue Ribbon.

M.A.S.H. stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

When studio execs first saw the dailies, they complained to Robert Altman that the soldiers looked dirty compared to the soldiers in Tora! Tora! Tora! and Patton.  Altman replied that soldiers in war are dirty. The next day the execs told the producers of those two films to make their soldiers look dirtier.

Continuity error: Cars on a freeway in the background of the football game.

Anachronism: During the football game, when the men in the wheelchairs get tackled there are high tension power lines in the background.

Anachronism: Though the film is set in the '50s, the football helmets, uniforms, shoes and cheerleader uniforms all date from the '70s.

Factual error: There were no African American surgeons in the Korean war.

Anachronism: The film is set in 1952. The PA system voice announces "Tonight's Movie is The Glory Brigade", which was released in 1953.

Anachronism: The model helicopter on Col. Blake's desk is from the Vietnam era.

Factual error: When Hawkeye and Trapper John are in Japan, a "Japanese" nurse speaks in heavily American accented, awkward, and mispronounced "Japanese".

Continuity error: In the shower, the dog joins the group and sits down between Trapper John and Hawkeye just before Trapper cues the drum roll. In the group shots after Hot Lips is down on the shower floor, the dog is gone.

Continuity error: During the first operating scene, before Trapper John arrives, he is seen at the back operating table and can be heard sayng, "Dish, let me have a long needle holder."

Error in geography: When Ho-Jon is drafted, the Korean civilians in the street are wearing conical straw hats that are typically found in southeast Asia, but not Korea.

The end cast credits are read over the PA system, without titles.

Robert Altman cast so many unknowns in the movie that after one or two known actors, the cast credits all say "Introducing"

An alternate cut of this film (first used in 1973 for a theatrical re-issue) runs 112 minutes, four minutes less than the original. This version tones down some of the gore, and the raunchy nature of the movie. It gets a "PG" rating, instead of the original "R" rating. The 1982, and 1998 video releases are the "PG" cut. The 1977, and 1994 videos are rated "R". Every other release is the "PG" cut. The one currently available is the "PG" version.

Re-released on DVD and VHS unedited and with an MPAA rating of "R" in January 2002.

Colonel Blake: I'm tired of you guys trying to run this outfit. This time there's going to be disciplinary action.

Duke Forrest: What're you gonna do, Henry?

Colonel Blake: Well, I had planned to name Trapper Chief Surgeon, to consult on your shift and Frank's.

Duke Forrest: That's damn good thinking.

Colonel Blake: Yeah, but now I can't do it for at least a week.

Colonel Blake: Football game?

Gen. Hammond: Yeah, yeah, we put up a few bets, five thousand maybe, and have a little fun. Special services in Tokyo says it's one of the best gimmicks we've got to keep the American way of life going here in Asia.

Colonel Blake: Betting?

Gen. Hammond: No, football.