M*A*S*H-ish 6: MASH (1970) Scripts

When Richard Hooker published his novel, MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, in 1968, 20th Century Fox bought the rights to produce a film. At the height of the Vietnam War, anti-war sentiment was high and a movie based on wise-cracking surgeons during the Korean War was a risky bet. When the film was released in 1970, it did well with audiences world wide, despite being banned on United States Military installations and in Israel. The movie was directed by the once black listed director Robert Altman and starred Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, Robert Duvall, Sally Kellerman, and Gary Burghoff. The movie was so successful that it spawned the 11-season long, critically acclaimed series M*A*S*H. It was the Altman film that first brought the characters of “Hawkeye,” “Trapper,” “Radar,” and “Hot Lips” to life. In my collection, I have two copies of the script. One is a re-issued edition of the script from 1994, but the second is an original copy from 1969 that belonged to Andy Sidaris.

Premiere Collector’s Edition

The reprinted “Collector’s Edition” copy of the MASH script was released in 1994 by Premiere which was dubbed “The Movie Magazine.” The magazine itself was founded in France in 1976 and was published in the United States until the mid-2000s. They published a series of popular movie scripts called “The Movie Script Library.” They all had a red cover with a cut out that displayed a reprint of the movie’s poster on the first page. The script is nicely printed, and includes some photographs from the movie at the end. It is a good reading copy of the script.

The script begins with an introduction from the magazine’s senior features editor in which he describes the movie and places it in historical context. Then that is followed by the 145 pages of the script. The script pages do not match the original script since this copy has been retyped. So, for example, page 114 in the reprint does not match page 114 in the original script. Instead of being shorter as you might expect, to make printing cheaper, the number of script pages in the reprint is actually higher than the original. After the script pages, there is a filmography of the principal actors and of Altman. Of course, these are outdated since they stop at 1993. The final eight pages of the script are a series of color and black & white press photos from MASH.

The Premiere Collector’s Editions reprinted other popular movies including The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Some Like it Hot, Rocky, and Star Wars. A copy of this script has been in my collection for some time, and it is a great way to get into script collecting. It may not be an original from 1969, but it does have all of the dialogue and scene descriptions. I have seen several copies of the Premiere Collector’s Editions script available eBay, and it is a great way to get a copy of the MASH script in your collection.

Orignal MASH Script

I like collecting original scripts when I can. I knew finding an original script for the film would be a challenge since it was a fairly low budget production and it was filmed over 50 years ago. I would see copies come up for sale now and then, but they always sold for prices well out of my price range. Then, this copy came available, and I was able to get my hands on it. The script itself is very familiar having handled a lot of scripts from the M*A*S*H series. The cover and pages all checked out, and there was even a name on the cover to help determine how this script might have been used and by who. Adding this original MASH script to my collection was a major milestone for me, so let’s take a closer look.

As I mentioned, this script has a name on the cover: “Andy Sidaris.” It is very likely that this was his copy of the script. While he’s mostly famous for his B-movies, in the 1960s he directed a fair amount of ABC’s sports programming. It began with ABC’s Wide World of Sports in 1961, but it was his connection with ABC’s coverage of college football and his direction of Monday Night Football that led to him working as an uncredited football coordinator for MASH. Near the end of the film, the 4077th challenges the 8063rd to a football game. Sidaris was brought in to choreograph the game and the game calling. Sadly, there is only one handwritten note in the entire script that says “MASH Sideline,” so if Sidaris had any notes or feedback for producers, it is not in this copy.

However, this is a script dated February 26, 1969 and is the “Final Screenplay.” That makes it more likely that, if Sidaris had any script input, it would have been considered before before this draft was printed. I am not sure if Sidaris worked on the set itself, although I would not be surprised if he did. This was likely the copy of the script he was given for the days he was to be there for filming. As for the rest of the script, it does not have any production documents like we’ve seen in several M*A*S*H scripts. It does have the important title page, however. The screenplay was written by Ring Lardner, Jr. He had the task of taking Hooker’s novel and turning it into a useable script, and it worked.

I like the original MASH film. It is very different from the series M*A*S*H, and I will admit, the first time I watched the film, I was not as impressed. It is very different from the show. However, as I have learned about the production of the film, read the original novel, and watched the movie as a stand-alone product, I better appreciate it for what it is and what it was able to achieve in 1970. The movie is now 53 years old, and there are scenes from war and extremely dark humor, and this was a time when movies were largely thought of as an escape from reality. Instead, MASH brought the reality of war to the big screen. The series M*A*S*H would do the same on television screens. MASH is now an iconic film that spawned an iconic television show, and having two copies of the script in my collection is truly an honor.