The Hospital: Arthur Hiller

Trust me folks, don't go throughout life without befriending at least one cinema snob. Yes, they might annoy you with speeches about how meaningless the Oscars are. Yes, they might prattle endlessly about classic films that most people have never heard of. And, yes, occasionally they will drag you to a strange foreign film that will give you a migraine. But all of these things are insignificant. The value of befriending a cinema snob is that they will help you discover great films that will blow your mind. For example, I have a friend in graduate school who is an even bigger film geek then me! Recently, he insisted that I needed to go out and watch Arthur Hiller's The Hospital. So I miraculously obtained a copy of this film that I had never heard of before in my life. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that The Hospital was a fantastic film. Set in a teaching hospital in Manhattan, The Hospital follows Dr. Bock, the Chief of Medicine, as he desperately tries to navigate one of the worst days of his career. Somebody has been going around murdering doctors and nurses right beneath the noses of the hospital staff. Even worse, massive protests are being waged against the hospital's expansion plan which would demolish housing for desperately poor squatters. It certainly doesn't help that Dr. Bock has been suicidal for several years. The film plays like an episode of Scrubs written by a particularly morose Woody Allen. George C. Scott gives one of the great performances of his career as the exhausted, miserable, and impotent Dr. Bock. Salvation seems to come in the form of Barbara Drummond, the daughter of one of his patients. But the body count keeps getting higher and the protestors are getting ready to storm the hospital. The Hospital is one of those great films that seem to perfectly capture New York City in the midst of the 1970s. I like to imagine that it took place in the same universe as The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Hell...I like to imagine that they all took place in the span of a single week. The Hospital is a marvelous film that begs the question: Why don't more people remember it?

7/10