The Hospital
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Movie Reviews of The Hospital
Movie Review: Black comedy with the great George C. Scott
Summary: 4 Stars
A really black comedy of mad happenings in a big city hospital. Scott is the angry depressed suicidal chief of medicine, and he is magnificent. I got to see him and his wife onstage a few years before his death. Even then, tho he was obviously in poor health, he could grab the audience with a glance or a growl.Movie Review: Important Film -- bad DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a must-see for 1970s film buffs in particular. Consider it a kind of companion piece to "Network," another Paddy Chayefsky-scripted masterwork that deals with similar themes.
In both, a madman claiming to be on a mission from God takes it upon himself to "cleanse" a corrupted society. Meanwhile, our hero -- a cynical middle-aged man (here played by the amazing George C. Scott) -- struggles to find a purpose in the world as the relationships and institutions he's spent a lifetime building crumble around him.
"The Hospital" works best when it's in black comedy mode. A series of horrible and hilarious hospital mishaps form the backbone of the plot, and rise, by the end of the film, to a crazy crescendo.
For a long spot in the middle, though, Chayefsky and director Arthur Hiller focus on the Scott character's cynical rage, mostly in the form of several long monologues. Brilliant, eloquent writing, yes, but at some point it gets repetitive and, to my mind, indulgent.
Even those spots are worth viewing for Scott's mesmerizing performance though. And as he did with "Network," Chayefsky has created, here, a visionary piece of social commentary. Despite all mankind's medical breakthroughs, Scott screams at one point, "We're sicker than ever!" Given the current health care crisis, "The Hospital" is nothing short of prophetic.
That said, I have to agree with the reviewer, above, that this important film could have been better presented on DVD. The framing is indeed awful -- in one early scene, the characters' heads disappear entirely offscreen. Squeezing the film into wide-screen format also results in the actors appearing "stretched" and elongated. C'mon, MGM. You can do better than this.
Movie Review: Big disappointment from the writer of "Network"
Summary: 2 Stars
I had not seen this movie for at least 15 years, maybe more, so I was interested in reviewing it. I was originally very impressed with this story of a brilliant, troubled physician trying to keep his sanity and stay responsible to those around him. George C. Scott is one of my favorite actors. Moreover, "Network" was one of my favorite films, and I've heard nothing but good things about Paddy Chayevsky.
In the intervening years when I first saw the film, I have since gone to medical school and am a practicing otolaryngologist - not the type of doctor (or doctors) portrayed in the film. I find it surprising to hear other MDs give reviews here where they say how realistic the movie is; I was not so convinced. The initial patient who is misdiagnosed and incorrectly treated, ends up in the the ICU - you see him intubated - and the narrator states that he did better and was transferred back to the floor. I don't think I've ever seen a patient who was in respiratory distress and was then intubated, ever end up being magically extubated later that night and sent to the floor (where he later dies) This does not make any sense: they could have made the plot simpler by having the guy having morphine administered and then they could have had him die.
So the intern and his friend use the bed right next to a patient? Even the most inspired Don Juan, MD would probably never use a bed next to a patient - with the nurse coming in to check on that patient periodically? Very implausible.
George C. Scott is a great actor, but I watched him reciting fascinatingly improbable lines to his staff, a psychiatrist and Diana Rigg. I just felt as though I was listening to someone reading a play instead of watching actors in a movie.
What about the protests? What were they protesting about? Why were the doctors/residents there? Weren't they busy working? So they were protesting against the hospital that was employing them?
The first doctor killed: no work to do? I was always working when I was on call as an intern, and I certainly would not go sleep in a patient's bed. That was what call rooms were for. He certainly could have gotten busy with the tech in the call room - if his fellow docs cooperated. The next doc simply got put in a corner . . . really? One of your own docs gets forgotten? They had ECGs back in the 70's,chest x-rays, etc. Any time I've seen a doctor get sick, most of the staff does everything they can.
Wrong patient gets operated on? So the surgeon never looked at the patient beforehand? The anesthesiologist said the patient wasn't responsive before the surgery? Since when would anyone proceed with an elective surgery if both the surgeon and anesthesiologist had talked to the patient beforehand?
And when George C. Scott finds out who has murdered all of the doctors, his only concern is what's going to happen to the murderer? It doesn't matter that someone has murdered several doctors he has been training?
I agree with what someone has written about this film: it doesn't seem to know what it is. Is it a black comedy? A serious commentary on the late 60s and the world of medicine? Bottom line: a big disappointment from the writer of the brilliant "Network."
Movie Review: Definitely not what I was hoping for...
Summary: 2 Stars
I have not seen `Network', but as much as I really want to (I'm in love with Faye Dunaway) it may be a while, especially after my `less that satisfactory' encounter with `The Hospital'. I've read a lot of people compare the two, and if they really are all that similar I have a feeling that `Network' will leave me just as cold.
I want to start by saying that I've been seeing a lot of George C. Scott as of late, and I've been really liking what I've been seeing. He was a major highlight in both `The Hustler' and `Anatomy of a Murder' (for which he received Oscar nominations) and so I was excited about seeing him strut his stuff in a leading role (I have yet to see `Paton'). I know I'm in the minority here, but I could not stand his performance in `The Hospital'. Instead of showing depth of character I felt like he delivered to the audience one never ending cliché that rode on the tail of a very generic and calculated character. I was unimpressed, almost bored, and slightly agitated.
But that's just my take.
I also didn't find the film all that humorous. It was borderline ridiculous, as if it wasn't sure what kind of comedy it wanted to be. At a glance it's a black comedy, but then it's campy and almost slapstick, and then it tries to play the `intellectual comedy' card but, in my opinion, falls flat on its face.
Thank the heavens above for the glorious Diana Rigg who manages to save this film from itself in her wonderfully constructed scenes.
The film takes place in the Manhattan Hospital Center where the staff is being killed off one by one, where the administrator is going somewhat insane with pressure and where a beautiful yet someone insane woman is protesting for her father's dying wishes. Director Arthur Hiller tries to make his way through Chayefsky's choppy script only to succeed in small quantities (some of the conversational dialog, mostly in regards to Rigg's character, works nicely). The film seems to be missing a point at times and in my opinion suffers from `too much going on that ultimately translates into very little'.
Simply put; this film was very hard for me to care about.
I know that a lot of people have found this to be an engaging and interesting film, so please take this review with a grain of salt and indulge in others opinions before you right this one off. I was shocked that I disliked it as much as I did. I wanted to like it, and I expected myself to like it. Maybe I need to give it another shot, but I'm not jumping at the bit to do so, that's for sure.
Movie Review: Quack,Quack!
Summary: 2 Stars
"The Hospital" as well-crafted as it is is a wholly unpleasant viewing experience. It is not so much a dark comedy but a mean-spirited one. I was a fan of Paddy Chayefsky's "Network" and at least that film had a little bit of light to compensate for the darkness. I'm led to believe that Chayefsky must have had a bad experience with the medical profession and this resulted in him skewering it as a whole. If George C.Scott's character is supposed to be the voice of reason why is it that when he's not brooding, drinking, or contemplating suicide he's off on some rant? Diana Rigg is completely wasted in this film. Her whole purpose here seems to be to sport a short mini-skirt and be ravaged by Scott's character. The film is also not helped by the lead-footed direction of Arthur Hiller. The medical profession can be lampooned but don't look for it in this uneven tirade of a film.