The Hospital (1971)

(On Cable TV, April 2022) There’s a mordant wit at play in The Hospital’s satirical take on big medicine that still resonates fifty years later. From the opening moments, where a night tryst between hospital employees leads to an accidental death, it’s clear that legendary screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky is after a very dark kind of comedy, voluble dialogue and world-weary tone. George C. Scott is the anchor of the film, as he plays a chief of medicine progressively dismayed at the dumb medical errors claiming the lives of several doctors. At least the escalating comedy of errors offers a respite from a personal life in shambles – perhaps the funniest joke of the film being that the investigation in so many deaths is the one thing postponing his own suicide. There’s an admirable craft in the way The Hospital’s script is put together, with very credible dialogue butting head with an incredible series of unlikely events, several character moments and dark humour often given form through narration. But I’d be careful in talking about The Hospital as being all that modern – you can see many bits and pieces of irritating Hollywood conventions poking here and there, most notably the cliché of the older protagonist being given a zest for life through an affair with a significantly younger woman. There are also a few lengthy sequences as the film struggles to keep a handle on its unwieldy tone, some showy self-conscious moments and a conclusion that doesn’t quite make everything click together. Still, it’s often a joy to listen to, and the irreverent way it portrays medical professionals feels in line with more recent takes on the fallibility of Big Medicine. The Hospital is perhaps a bit too scattered to be completely compelling, but it’s distinctive even today, and it still features a few chuckles of gallows humour.