When Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" was released in 1970 it was a critical and boxoffice sensation. Audiences immediately recognized that, although the film was set in the Korean War, it was very obviously an analogy to the current controversial conflict in Vietnam. The film thrust Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould into the top tier of leading actors and the movie spawned the classic TV series that was a phenomenon in its own right. The film's success, along with the simultaneous triumph of the more traditional war film "Patton", helped stem the red ink that was plaguing 20th Century Fox and played a key role in making the studio solvent once again.