<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $3.025 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $81.6 million </Td> </Tr> <P> MASH (stylized as M * A * S * H on the poster art) is a 1970 American satirical black comedy war film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors . The picture is the only feature film in the M * A * S * H franchise and became one of the biggest films of the early 1970s for 20th Century Fox . </P> <P> The film depicts a unit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War; the subtext is about the Vietnam War . It stars Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, and Elliott Gould, with Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, René Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff, Roger Bowen, Michael Murphy, and in his film debut, professional football player Fred Williamson . </P>

Who directed the movie mash and what year was it released