The Hospital
| The Hospital | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Arthur Hiller |
| Produced by | Howard Gottfried |
| Written by | Paddy Chayefsky |
| Narrated by | Paddy Chayefsky |
| Starring | George C. Scott Diana Rigg |
| Music by | Morris Surdin |
| Cinematography | Victor J. Kemper |
| Editing by | Eric Albertson |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | December 14, 1971 (United States) |
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Hospital is a 1971 black comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller and starring George C. Scott as Dr. Herbert Bock. The script was written by Paddy Chayefsky, who was awarded the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The film is set in a teaching hospital in Manhattan and centers around Dr. Bock (George C Scott), the Chief of Medicine, whose life is in disarray: his wife has left him, his children don't talk to him, and his once-beloved teaching hospital is falling apart.
The hospital suffers from the sudden deaths of two doctors and a nurse. These are attributed to coincidental or unavoidable failures to provide treatment.
At the same time, administrators must deal with a protest against the hospital's annexation of an adjacent apartment building. The annexation is to be used for a drug rehabilitation center; the building's current occupants demand that the hospital find them replacement housing before the building is demolished.
As Dr. Bock complains of impotence and has thoughts of suicide, he falls for Barbara Drummond (Diana Rigg), a patient's daughter. This temporarily gives Dr. Bock something to live for.
The deaths are discovered to have initiated by Barbara's father, as retribution for the "inhumanity" of modern medical treatment. Drummond's victims would have been saved if they'd received prompt, appropriate treatment -- but they didn't. Dr. Bock and Barbara use a final, accidental death of a doctor at the hospital to cover Drummond's tracks, and Barbara and Drummond head to the airport.
[edit] Cast
- George C. Scott as Dr. Herbert "Herb" Bock
- Diana Rigg as Miss Barbara Drummond
- Robert Walden as Dr. Brubaker
- Barnard Hughes as Edmund Drummond (credited) and Dr. Mallory (uncredited)
- Richard A. Dysart as Dr. Welbeck
- Stephen Elliott as Dr. John Sundstrom
- Andrew Duncan as William "Willie" Mead
- Donald Harron as Dr. Milton Mead
- Nancy Marchand as Mrs. Christie, Head of Nurses
- Jordan Charney as Hitchcock, Hospital Administration
- Roberts Blossom as Guernsey
- Lenny Baker as Dr. Howard Schaefer
- Richard Hamilton as Dr. Ronald Casey
- Arthur Junaluska as Mr. Blacktree
- Kate Harrington as Nurse Dunne
- Katherine Helmond as Mrs. Marilyn Mead
- David Hooks as Dr. Joe Einhorn
- Frances Sternhagen as Mrs. Sally Cushing
- Stockard Channing as E.R. Nurse
[edit] Reception
[edit] Critical response
When the film was released, film critic Roger Ebert lauded the film, writing, "The Hospital is a better movie than you may have been led to believe. It has been criticized for switching tone in midstream, but maybe it's only heading for deeper, swifter waters."[2]
More recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz gave the film a mixed review, writing, "The gallows humor was the melodramatic farce's saving grace; the film uses its razor-sharp instruments to cut into the hides of the insensitive institutionalized health care providers like Michael Moore's Sicko does in 2007 to the fat-cat HMOs. My major gripe was that it could have been better, as Chayefsky delivered his part of the bargain and so did Scott; nevertheless the pic flattens out as the director increasingly loses his way in all the bitterness and invented horror stories and leaves us dangling over how to get out of such an irredeemable world (where modern man is perceived as forgotten in death)."[3]
[edit] Awards
The film won the Oscar, the Golden Globe, the WGA, and the BAFTA for Best Screenplay for Chayefsky's script. Despite having rejected the Oscar the previous year for his work in Patton, Scott was nominated for Best Actor, but the gold statuette went instead to Gene Hackman for The French Connection.
At the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival in 1972, the film won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Jury Prize.[4]
In 1995, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
[edit] Legacy
Chayevsky, after winning the Oscar, turned his attention to television news. This interest led ultimately, in an investigation well documented by Chayevsky's voluminous notes, to the 1976 film Network.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ The Hospital at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Ebert, Roger Chicago Sun-Times, film review, February 7, 1972. Last accessed: February 23, 2011.
- ^ Schwartz, Dennis. Ozus' World Movie Reviews, film review, July 13, 2007. Last accessed: February 23, 2011.
- ^ "Berlinale: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1972/03_preistr_ger_1972/03_Preistraeger_1972.html. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave, "Notes of a Screenwriter, Mad as Hell", The New York Times, May 19, 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-24.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Hospital |
- The Hospital at the Internet Movie Database
- The Hospital at the TCM Movie Database
- The Hospital film clip at Turner Classic Movies Media Room (Paddy Chayefsky narration & titles)
- The Hospital film clip at Turner Classic Movies Media Room
|
||||||||||||||||||||
