The staff of a Korean War field hospital uses humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.
The personnel at the 4077 MASH unit deal with the horrors of the Korean War and the stresses faced in surgery by whatever means. The tone at the MASH is established by recent arrivals: surgeons Captains "Hawkeye" Pierce, "Duke" Forrest, and "Trapper" John McIntyre--Hawkeye knows he's met Trapper somewhere, but Trapper won't divulge where--whose antics can best be described as non-regulation--and in the negative words of one of their fellow MASH-ers, unmilitary. The unit's commanding officer, Colonel Henry Blake, doesn't care about this behavior as long as it doesn't affect him, and as long as they do their job and do it well, which they do. Their behavior extremely bothers fellow surgeon Major Frank Burns and recently-arrived head nurse Major Margaret Houlihan, who obtains the nickname "Hot Lips" based on information they glean about her through underhanded means. Beyond their battles with Frank and Hot Lips, Hawkeye, Duke, and/or Trapper help unit dentist Painless with a personal crisis, try to figure out if Hot Lips is a true blonde, travel to Japan for a work and what they hope is a recreational trip, and hope to win big on a football bet against another unit in which they--on the surface--are the underdogs.—Huggo
Based on the novels of Richard Hooker, this Robert Altman film follows the zany surgeons and other staff of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Korea. Although the top-ranked series was initially based on this film, it was homogeneited; most of the dozens of characters, amalgamated in the series, are depicted in the film just as they were in the novels.—LA-Lawyer
During the Korean War, surgeons Captains "Hawkeye" Pierce and "Duke" Forrest join the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH), located three miles from the front lines. Both are draftees and care little for military protocols or conventions. They are soon joined by another surgeon even more anarchic and insubordinate in his attitude: Capt. John "Trapper" McIntyre. The commander is the laid-back-yet-efficient Lt. Colonel Blake. Hawkeye, Duke, and Trapper soon have the camp running to their rather non-military tune--until they run into Major Frank Burns and the new chief nurse Major Margaret Houlihan (later nicknamed "Hot Lips"), both of whom are by-the-book permanent-military types. Hawkeye, Duke, and Trapper set out to undermine the pair; hijinks ensue.—grantss/siegerrob76
Two young surgeons, Duke and Hawkeye, end up at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. There is no plot as such, but instead a series of episodes during which they put their stamp on the camp, including a football game against a larger unit with thousands riding on it, a trip to Tokyo to operate on a congressman's son and play a little golf, and finding out if the head nurse is a natural blonde.—John Vogel <[email protected]>
South Korea, Autumn 1951. The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is assigned 2 replacement surgeons: the pragmatic Captain "Hawkeye" Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and the redneck Captain "Duke" Forrest (Tom Skerritt). On their arrival, it becomes clear that they are rebellious, womanizing, mischievous rule-breakers (they arrive having "borrowed" a Jeep, and immediately begin flirting with the nursing staff), but they soon prove good at their jobs. They immediately clash with their new tent mate Major Frank Burns (Robert Duvall), who is both a religious man and an inferior surgeon. Hawkeye and Duke put pressure on Lt. Colonel Henry Blake (Roger Bowen), the unit's officious CO, to have Burns removed from "their" tent. At the same time, they ask him to apply to have a specialist thoracic surgeon assigned to the 4077th.
A few days later, the mysterious new thoracic surgeon (Elliott Gouild) arrives, and gives away little about who he is or where he's from. Hawkeye, recalls a college football game he played in which he scored the only touchdown by intercepting a pass from the opposing team's (Dartmouth) quarterback, the new thoracic surgeon, the "chest cutter", Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre.
Major Margaret Houlihan (Sally Kellerman), the newly assigned chief nurse of the camp, arrives to be greeted by Henry Blake. At the same time in the post-op ward, Trapper sees Burns unjustly blaming the dull-witted Private Boone (Bud Cort), a teenage orderly, for a patient's death. During Houlihan's tour of the camp, Trapper confronts Burns and punches him in front of Houlihan and Blake.
Major Houlihan soon proves herself to be a very competent, yet uptight, nurse and helps the doctors the best she can during surgeries. Yet, one day when Hawkeye meets with Major Houlihan in the mess hall tent for lunch and to have a friendly talk, there are quickly signs of tension as both Hawkeye and Major Houlihan take an instant dislike to each other. Houlihan sees Hawkeye as an idealist with little or no regard for U.S. Army rules, while Hawkeye sees and openly calls Houlihan "a typical, uptight, career-army clown".
A week later, while Colonel Henry Blake is away visiting General Hammond at the 325th Evac Hospital, the camp, led by Trapper, lets loose in a wild party that evening to celebrate Trapper's promotion to chief surgeon. Burns and Houlihan are appalled and write a report on the "unmilitary going-on". In the process, they give in to their own repressed passions and engage in a sexual encounter in Margaret's tent. But their tryst is broadcast over the PA system by Trapper and his group, and everyone hears Houlihan telling Burns to "Kiss my hot lips!" earning her the nickname "Hot Lips".
The next morning, after Henry arrives back at the 4077th, Hawkeye approaches Burns in the mess hall tent during breakfast where he taunts Burns about his tryst with Major "Hot Lips" the night before and asks for details. Burns gets so angry that he punches Hawkeye in the face and starts a fight with him in full view of everyone. This results in Burns being declared a 'Section 8' where he is taken away from the 4077th by military police in a straight jacket and sent home... never to be seen or mentioned again in the film.
Father Mulcahy, also called "Dago Red" (René Auberjonois), the camp's chaplain, tells Hawkeye that "Painless Pole" Waldowski (John Schuck), the unit's dentist, has consulted him about a problem. Hawkeye visits Waldowski where he confides in Hawkeye that he has suffered a "lack of performance" (impotence) with a visiting nurse after a sexual encounter and now believes he has latent homosexual tendencies. Hawkeye, Trapper and Duke suggest that he use the "black capsule" (a fictitious, fast-acting poison). At an impromptu "Last Supper", Painless takes the capsule (actually a sleeping pill) and falls asleep in a coffin to the strains of "Suicide is Painless". Hawkeye then persuades his mistress, Lt. Maria "Dish" Schneider (Jo Ann Pflug), a nurse who is returning to the U.S. the following day, to spend the night with Painless and cure him of his problems. She does, and the next morning, Lt. Dish departs for home and Painless Waldowski is a new and improved man.
During a discussion, Duke announces that he is partial to blondes, to which Hawkeye responds by claiming his friend has a thing for Hot Lips. Duke counters by suggesting she isn't even a natural blonde and bets $20 with Hawkeye to find out. Together, the boys come up with a scheme: when the nurses are going to use the showers, all are waylaid except Hot Lips. Then, on cue, the flap covering the shower tent is lifted to expose Hot Lips, naked, to the entire camp, plunging her into complete and total humiliation. Duke then tells Hawkeye that Hawkeye owes him $20 (implying that her pubic hair is not blonde).
In hysterics, Hot Lips storms off to Colonel Blake's tent and screams at him that the camp is an insane asylum and that it's his fault for letting the doctors get away with practically anything. She threatens to resign her commission if Blake doesn't turn Duke and Hawkeye over to the MPs. Blake, tells Houlihan, "Well goddamn it, Hot Lips, resign your goddamn commission!!!!!"
Ho-Jon (Kim Atwood), a local teenager who works in the camp, is drafted into the South Korean army. Hawkeye, along with fellow co-workers Boone, Bandini, and Nurse Scorch, drives him to the induction center in Seoul for his physical, where he is found to have high blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat. The examining doctor refuses to disqualify Ho-Jon, insinuating that Hawkeye may have given Ho-Jon some medicine (amphetamines) to induce these symptoms and keep him from being conscripted. Hawkeye reluctantly has to let Ho-Jon go.
Sometime later, Hawkeye, Trapper and Houlihan (having now accepted being part of the group as well as her nickname 'Hot Lips') operate on a wounded South Korean soldier... and it is Ho-Jon who has been wounded in action with a suck-in chest wound. When Trapper cannot locate the shell fragment in Ho-Jon's chest and they do not have the necessary AB negative blood for a prolonged surgery, Corporal Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff), steals a pint of blood from a sleeping Colonel Blake and offers it to help.
(Note: much later, during a card game the group is playing, a body wrapped in a white sheet, who is implied to be Ho-Jon, is driven from the infirmary... implying that the Korean teenager did not make it after all.)
Sometime later, Trapper is ordered to proceed to Kokura, Japan, to operate on the GI son of a U.S. Congressman who has been wounded in action. Seeing an opportunity to play golf, he takes Hawkeye with him to assist. Hawkeye and Trapper then spend a long, away-from-the-story, sequence of playing on a Japanese golf course, while being driven around by the wary Sgt. Gorman (Bobby Troupe). After playing golf, the two barge into the hospital and order the young man into surgery within the hour. With Hawkeye's old friend "Me Lay" Marston (Michael Murphy) as the anesthetist, they quickly finish the surgery; but on the way out of the hospital, they are cornered by the MPs and escorted to the hospital's commander, the stuffy Colonel Wallace Merrill. Reminding him that "the Pros from Dover" have bailed him out of a potential situation with the Congressman's son, any threats that Merrill could make are effectively nullified.
On their return to the 4077th from Japan, Hawkeye and Trapper (having purchased expensive golf attire from their stay on the golf course) immediately go into surgery for several hours. Done with the surgery and eager to get some sleep, they head back to their tent only to find that Duke has locked it up. They then observe him sneaking Hot Lips out, making it clear that Duke was not as averse to the chief nurse as he claimed. From this point on-wards, Duke and Hot Lips are an item (a couple) for the camp gossip.
Another few days later, General George Hammond (G. Wood) pays a visit to the 4077th after finally getting the letter that Hot Lips mailed to him about the conditions of the camp when she was with Frank Burns. While the general shares a drink with Hawkeye, Trapper and Duke, they try to convince Hammond that Hot Lips' allegations are exaggerated and when Hawkeye briefly brags about the camp's ability to play football, Hammond then goes to Blake and suggests that their two units play a "friendly" football game, with some money thrown into a pot to make bets (a large bet of $5,000 or $6,000). Seeing an opportunity to make some money, Hawkeye comes up with a plan. First, they get Blake to apply for a specific neurosurgeon: Dr. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones (Fred Williamson), a former professional football player for the San Francisco 49ers to transfer to their camp as ringer and adviser for their team to get them in shape.
On the day of the climatic football game, Hawkeye, Trapper, Duke, Painless, and others partake against Hammond's tough pro-football players, with the 325th scoring 16 points in the first 10 minutes. However, the anesthesiologist Ugly John Black (Carl Gottlieb) takes out the 325th's star player, called 'Superbug' by secretly injecting him with narcotics, and having the game on even terms. During the first half, the game gets more brutal with both players of the 4077th and the 325th tackling each other.
At half-time, Colonel Blake goes to General Hammond and suggests doubling the bet and the general agrees. At the second half, Spearchucker Jones comes in and scores a touchdown in the first minute. The third and fourth quarters begin with both teams slugging it out and players on both teams getting bruised and beaten up. Yet, Jones manages to score another touchdown.The game goes down to the last play during the final minute, described as "center-eligible" with the score at 12 to 16. Spearchucker Jones calls for a crafty final play which calls for the football to be returned from the quarterback (Trapper) to the center (Sgt. Wade Douglas Vollmer), who then hides the ball under his jersey. While everyone chases the phantom ball Trapper has, Vollmer runs unobserved to score a touchdown, winning the game at 18 to 16 and the money bets for the 4077th.
In the final scene, not long after the football game, Hawkeye and Duke get their discharge orders and can go home. Duke reluctantly has to say goodbye to Hot Lips since they will not be together anymore. Trapper, however, refuses to say goodbye or even see Hawkeye off since Trapper has to stay behind, while his best friend is going home after only five months of service at the MASH 4077th. After a short goodbye gathering, the rest of the camp (Dago Red, Painless, Ugly John, Bandini, Murhart, Spearchucker Jones, Leslie, Colonel Blake, Radar, and Vollmer) say their goodbyes and Hawkeye and Duke leave the 4077th behind and begin their journey home... driving away in the same stolen jeep they arrived in, while the PA Announcer reads the end credits for the viewers.
