The Hospital (1971)

Black, Black, Black and hilarious

I go through 99.9 percent of today's comedies without cracking as much as a smile. That's why I've long ago given up on the comedies section of the movie rentals store. Yet there may be a dozen or so sequences from a few comedies that crack me up, despite the many times I've seen them. This movie has at least three or four or them. While Catch 22 holds my all-time favorite comedy sequence: The exchange between Art Garfunkel and the old guy in the brothel, The Hospital is more subtle, and as black as it gets. Watch for Scott's line: "Release him . . . before we kill him."
P.S. I just now talked myself into slipping it in my vcr again. September 23, 2007

Black comedy with the great George C. Scott

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. June 27, 2007

Shattering commentary on modern medicine

George C. Scott plays Dr Herbert Bock chief of surgery at a big city hospital whose life is falling apart and whose commitment to the job is the only thing that keeps him going - but even this flame is flickering. Along comes hippie Diana Rigg to literally save his life and restore his passion for the fight.

This scenario gives master screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky ample opportunity to make shattering comments on modern medicine that are as pertinent now as they were then - if not more so.

Bock is a man of utmost decency whose been ground down by the insanity of the world around him and Scott communicates this brilliantly.
Diana Rigg's character is a male fantasy but she turns the character and a their relationship into something plausible.

The film loses steam somewhat after Scott literally and metaphorically has his manhood restored by Rigg but is still a fine achievement. May 21, 2007

A Scott masterpiece

If you enjoy watching George c. Scott act, then you'll love this movie. It deserves a lot more recognition than it got. January 5, 2007

"WE CURE NOTHING, WE HEAL NOTHING!"

When you talk about the one motion picture that fully encapsulated all the angst and nihilism of the `70's generation you're talking about Paddy Chayefsky's brilliantly written black comedy, `The Hospital' which was released in `70.

A contemporary, dysfunctional, urban hospital serves as the microcosm of America's failure to deal with not only the physical maladies of the twentieth century, but the mental and emotional illnesses as well. George C. Scott stars in the role of Dr. Herbert Bock, hospital administrator. Dr. Bock is already tittering on the edge of insanity. His wife has left him, he's estranged from his children and he's in the grips of a mid-life crisis causing him to call everything he once held dear into question. When a bizarre series of unexplained deaths begin to occur within the ranks of the hospital staff Dr. Bock is left to ponder the nature of sanity and whether he can continue to function in a world gone mad.

With great performances by George C. Scott and the lovely Brit Diana Rigg, `The Hospital' is a thought-provoking film that will elicit discussion and debate. Watch it with a friend. July 6, 2006

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