Britannia Hospital

"Britannia Hospital" was not exhibited (although advertised) in Panamá in 1982, so I didn't have a chance to see the last part of the Mick Travis trilogy, created by Lindsay Anderson and David Sherwin. In the early 1990's I found a video copy of the film, but not until now have I seated to watch the film, after enjoying two Ealing comedies ("Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Man In the White Suit") that surprised me one more time for the pleasant way that social and political issues are usually treated in British cinema. (MILD SPOILERS) Social issues are all over "Britannia Hospital", the most saddening conclusion I have ever seen of a character, though luckily not affecting the admiration I have for the two previous films. "if...." (1968) introduced Mick (Malcolm McDowell) as a rebel in a public school; in "O Lucky Man" (1973) he was a young man seeking a job in the capitalist world, and in this final appearance, Mick has returned from the USA and apparently works as a spy -with a mini video camera- for an American TV station (represented by Mark Hamill, completely stoned inside a mobile unit) in the coverage of the anniversary of Britannia Hospital (metaphor of the United Kingdom) and the launching of a sinister Frankenstein-type project, while the workers are on strike, militants demand the exit of an African dictator from the hospital, with his wives, children and staff, and Her Royal Highness is on her way to the festivities. The riot takes place, but what is really violent is the way Mick is dispatched. In the previous films, there were elements of fantasy handled beautifully, even in a poetic way, but this time writer David Sherwin turned the story into a Stuart Gordon fest, which Anderson relished with a scene right out of "Re-Animator". This impression is so strong, that it casts a dark shadow over the final sequence when the Genesis project (which recites Shakespeare) is presented to all. Many familiar faces were welcome (Alan Bates, Joan Plowright, Graham Crowden, Jill Bennett, Liz Smith, Vivian Pickles, Marsha A. Hunt, and Robin Askwith), but it's a pity that Anderson and Sherwin decided to end the trilogy in such an extreme and rude fashion.

It's sad to see that there are no directors like Anderson these days. In fact, there never was a director like him and I doubt there ever will be one like him ever.

To start, I must warn any potential viewers that this film is a hand full. If you turn your head for more than 2 minutes you might be totally lost. To understand the humor of this film don't expect the kind of humor we find in today's comedy's or satires.

There's something genuine about this movie. Anderson has created his own little universe with his Mick Travis Trilogy and expect the unexpected when watching this film.

Overall, I say it was a good watch. It certainly intrigued and impressed with it's multiple characters. Mark Hamill has a hilarious part, and so does Malcolm McDowell. It's too bad they weren't in the movie more.

Anyone who loves weird movies will have to give this one a watch. It is simply one the best of its breed and will never fail to entertain. It gets slow in some parts but the scenes with McDowell pick the film right back up. His characterization of Travis is just brilliantly funny and odd. The ending scene is as epic and classic as any scene you'll find in cinema.

That this movie has only achieved a rating of 5.9 out of 10 is appalling! Britannia Hospital brilliantly mixes the macabre, the comic, and the profound with beautiful imagery, wonderful production design, and Lindsay Anderson's astute sense of direction. The writing is flawless, the characters are flawless, the story is engrossing and the film is in my humble opinion the second best work of arguably the greatest director and visionary in British cinema history. I don't know who let the kindergärtners on here to vote but take my word - behind the wacky comic facade lies a powerful and intelligent film that should be ranked up there with the greatest films of British cinema.

"The absurdities of human behaviour as we move into the Twenty-first Century are too extreme - and too dangerous - to permit us the luxury of sentimentalism or tears. But by looking at humanity objectively and without indulgence, we may hope to save it. Laughter can help." Lindsay Anderson

Britannia Hospital, an allegory for what was transpiring in England at the time, was released in 1982, and is the final part of Lindsay Anderson's brilliant lose trilogy of films that follow the adventures of Mick Travis as he travels through a strange and sometimes surreal Britain. From his days at boarding school in If.... (1968) to his journey from coffee salesman to film star in O Lucky Man (1972), Travis' adventures finally come to an end in Britannia Hospital which sees Mick as an investigative reporter investigating the bizarre activities of Professor Miller, played by the always interesting Graham Crowden, whom he had had a run in with in O Lucky Man. Checkout the Pig Man scene (This is well before Seinfeld.)

As is usual with an Anderson film the acting, by a top notch cast, most of whom had been in the previous two, is uniformly good. It is professionally shot by Mike Fash, although his work doesn't have the same feel to it that Miroslav Ondricek brought to the proceeding instalments, and is well produced. All three films have recurring characters from each. Some of the characters from If...., that didn't turn up in O Lucky Man, returned for Britannia Hospital. The film was lambasted by the English critics on release, although Dilys Powell listed it as one of the films of the year.

From its opening scene where an elderly patient is left to die on a gurney to its final revelatory scene of Miller unveiling his greatest scientific achievement, the film is choc full of surprises. One character is played by a dwarf and another by a man in drag. Yet one of the more pleasant surprises is the performance of Robin Askwith as Ben Keating, the school bully from If...., Askwith's film debut. Keating has organised a strike by the kitchen staff in retaliation for Potter ordering sixty-five ambassador class lunches from Furtnums. Askwith handles his role with skill, making Keating quite a likable character.

Over the years Britannia Hospital, as with the other two, has been revaluated and is now considered another classic from the Anderson stable. I, as did Dilys Powell, could have told them this when I first saw it back in '82.

If you like films that leave an impression on you - then you'll like this. I saw this for the first time when I was quite young, I think my dad wished he'd known how weird it would get, or he probably wouldn't have let me watch it with him.

Whilst there is a riotous strike going on outside the hospital there is weirdness going on inside, as an eccentric doctor performs some truly sadistic acts on his patients to fulfill his own ambitions.

Its full of faces any 30-plus British audience will recognise, and if you're an Orbital fan you'll love the speech at the end which they sampled for Snivilisation.

A cult black comedy, with some quite horrific bits in, its quintessentially British, but definitely not in the vain the Full Monty or Four Wedding (thank god!).