Hospital

Leave it to Paddy Chayefsky to write a ten-minute scene where two characters each speak an expositional monologue that doesn't drag, feel out of place, or spoil the pacing. This film is the definition of a black comedy. George C. Scott and Diana Rigg give terrific performances.

The Hospital's one big flaw is lack of decision. It tries to hit too much and fails at most. At its best, The Hospital is a fantastic character study; George C. Scott is fantastic, giving one of the best performances of his celebrated career, and he creates a complex, flawed, believable character over the course of the film. The supporting cast is fine too - Barnard Hughes is hammy but terrific, and the others do well too. The film has some fantastic character establishing dialogs that are the heart of the story.

The problem is that it isn't satisfied with being a character driven drama. The Hospital also dips into black comedy, social satire, murder mystery and romance, and when it goes anywhere near any of those, it becomes disappointingly bland and predictable. Unfortunately, those scenes take up over half of the film.

On a side note, I do recommend The Hospital to anyone with an obsession for medical dramas - It's more realistic and better researched than most such movies made before ER.

A hospital chief deals with a crisis while battling his own demons. This satire exaggerates situations to drive home its points, but it's a worthwhile black comedy. As with most of his films, Cheyefsky seems more interested in hitting his targets and pontificating than in telling a good story. The Scott character is similar to the William Holden character in "Network," a man with a failing marriage and suffering from menopause who has a chance to rekindle his manhood with a younger woman. Scott is quite good in conveying the middle-aged weariness and bitterness. Rigg is also fine as a hippie, but their instant love affair is not believable.

I had never paid much attention to this flick until I learned that Paddy Chayefsky - author of the brilliant "Network" - was the scriptwriter. His work there had instructed me as to his genius, so when 'Hospital' appeared on TMC, I was anxious to see it. I was not disappointed. Looking at both this film and "Network" it would seem that his big theme is the absurdity, inanity, and sheer viciousness of large human enterprises (e.g., hospitals, networks) against the sanctity of individual experience and the human spirit, and all of it delivered with a knife-edge sense of utterly black humor. "Hospital" is as black of a comedy as "Network" is, and the excellent cast, led by the incomparable Scott, does his work full justice. This is a keeper; definitely not to miss.

Anyone who has spent time working in a hospital or medical facility has got to appreciate this film. The plot is absolutely wild but entertaining from start to finish. The acting is superb. George C. Scott is the brilliant doctor but class A failure as husband, father. Diana Riggs, a sex symbol of the 1960s and 1970s (of The Avengers), saves him from himself. The surrounding cast is superb and the dialogue quite entertaining. I think I enjoyed the film more on viewing it the 4th., 5th. or 6th. time because I caught that much more of the richness of the dialogue and the interplay of the characters. Well worth seeing again and again. You just won't want to check in to a hospital in the near future.