Who directed the 1970 film M*A*S*H?

Robert Altman directed the 1970 film M*A*S*H.

The film was adapted from Richard Hooker’s 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, with a screenplay by Ring Lardner Jr. It portrayed irreverent surgeons and medical staff working at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, while its anti-authoritarian tone also reflected the Vietnam War era in which it was made.

Altman’s direction became famous for overlapping dialogue, ensemble staging, sudden tonal shifts, and a loose, improvisational feel. Those choices helped distinguish the film from more conventional Hollywood war dramas. The movie starred Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye Pierce and Elliott Gould as Trapper John McIntyre.

M*A*S*H was a major commercial and critical success. It won the Grand Prix at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, later known as the Palme d’Or, and earned five Academy Award nominations. Lardner won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film also inspired the long-running television series that premiered in 1972, although Altman disliked the show’s approach.