In memory of the recently departed Donald Sutherland, Pálás Cinema are screening his breakthrough feature and a quintessential American classic, M*A*S*H*, this July 4th.

Though ostensibly set during the Korean War where the staff of a field hospital use humour and high jinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war, the obvious subtext was the ongoing Vietnam War. M*A*S*H* was hailed as one of the all-time great American satires, and Sutherland (himself a Canadian) became a symbol of American counter-culture, playing the iconically irreverent Hawkeye Pierce.

Not only a breakthrough role for Sutherland, M*A*S*H* helped launch the careers of Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Rene Auberjonois and director Robert Altman.