Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Coma Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson September 6, 2023

It is at least mild surprising to discover that those who know Michael Douglas's career well (e.g., his biographers) have uniformly viewed Coma (1978) in an unfavorable light. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that he appeared in the long-running series The Streets of San Francisco a few years earlier and had not acted in a big-screen feature in six years? Or that he was more active in Hollywood at the time as a producer? Douglas's biographers address those factors but don't criticize his performance in Coma, per say, but criticize other parts of the picture. For example, in his 1993 book on Douglas, Alan Lawson puts the on onus on writer/director Michael Crichton, who adapted Robin Cook's novel for the screen: "The screenplay curiously failed to capture the mood of quiet terror which permeates the novel....[Crichton] was unable to realize the tension of the novel....the whole the film realized far less of its promise than it could have done" (pp. 80-81). In his 2012 biography of the actor, Marc Eliot dismissed Coma as a "quickie movie." However, Eliot makes a careless mistake when he attributes the source material to Crichton: "Coma, a hospital-based horror film from the novel by Michael Crichton, co-starred Genevieve Bujold and Rip Torn. Unfortunately, it was also directed by Crichton. It is never a good idea when a powerful novelist believes he can direct his own movie better than anyone else, especially professional directors. The characters in Coma are undefined and the plot muddled." (p. 100) It is painstakingly clear that Eliot conducted scant research on Coma's production or even checked the film's official credits. In his 1994 book, Michael Douglas: Acting on Instinct, John Parker claims that Crichton's script "lacked the ability to match the description in the publicity handouts" (p. 140). Andy Dougan's 2001 book on Douglas is a littler kinder to the picture, describing it as a "satisfactory but nonetheless forgettable thriller" (p. 117).

I disagree with every one of the authors and consider Coma a first-rate medical thriller. Douglas's biographers perhaps were disappointed that the Oscar winner received second billing to main star Geneviève Bujold, who portrays Douglas's girlfriend and a surgical resident at Boston Memorial Hospital. Crichton develops his main characters well, particularly the surgeon Douglas plays. In the first domestic scene between Bujold's Dr. Susan Wheeler and Douglas's Dr. Mark Bellows, the latter is shown as selfish and lazy. He wants Susan to prepare a drink or meal for him. He also prefers that he shower first. Later in the picture, Mark cares for Susan after she's pursued by a hit man at the hospital. He also becomes a better listener and more attentive to Susan's fears that there is a medical conspiracy going on with the hospital patients induced into comas.

Arriving home from the hospital.

Crichton does a fine job of introducing his main characters in the first act and developing them throughout the picture's first half. In the second half, Coma turns into a cat-and-mouse thriller with the ever-curious Susan combing medical records and snooping around Jefferson Institute. Elizabeth Ashley gives a chilling performance as Mrs. Emerson, the head nurse at the Institute. She resembles one of the characters in Crichton's Westworld (1973). Film critic Lee Gambin is spot-on in this disc's audio commentary when he states that Ashley talks and acts like one of the The Stepford Wives (1975). That was the exact impression I had of her while watching Coma. While I haven't seen all the films Crichton either wrote or directed, I'd safely put Coma at or near the top.

Coma Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory has brought Coma to Blu-ray in what the sub-label calls a "Special Edition" of one of 1978's biggest box-office hits. Scream completed a 2K scan of the interpositive earlier this year. Coma appears in its original theatrical exhibition ratio of about 1.85:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 32.48 GB). (Shout! Factory's website contradicts the packaging somewhat with a listing of 1.89:1.) In any case, the framing looks proper. Reviewer Emeritus Michael Reuben covered the Warner Bros. BD-25 eleven years ago. While inspecting Michael's screen captures and comparing them to this transfer, it's apparent that Scream's image has greater definition to it. Scream hasn't manipulated any of the colors. It appears that this new release boasts better color delineation.

The main titles and first 5-10 minutes are overly grainy (e.g., see Screenshot #20). After that, grain fluctuates only somewhat. For instance, in the scene where Mark converses with Susan by the door frame (see Screenshot #21), the grain level is thicker. Overall, though, grain is well-balanced throughout the film. It never becomes chunky. The magenta light seen in Screenshot #s 5 and 22 was photographed by Gerald Hirschfeld. Scream has encoded the video at a very healthy bitrate of 34000 kbps. Warners' disc only averages 18972 kbps for the encode.

The 113-minute film receives the standard twelve scene selections.

Coma Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1899 kbps, 24-bit). This is an upgrade over the lone sound track on the WB disc, which is a DTS-HD Master Audio Single Mono encoded at just 1093 kbps. Spoken words are delivered and received well on the 2.0 lossless mix. I didn't notice any hiss. When Jerry Goldsmith's original score is first introduced an hour in, I could directly feel its aural presence come toward me on the sweet spot of my couch. As Jeff Bond and Lukas Kendall document in their wonderfully detailed liner notes for Film Score Monthly's 2005 multi-score album release (that includes music for three films Crichton wrote, including Coma), the cues recording engineer Aaron Rochin did for Goldsmith's Coma score were taken from three-track stereo tapes. (These, of course, were later dubbed for the film's final monaural mix.) The master is in great shape so that's why the music sounds so vibrant on the Blu-ray. Goldsmith scored Coma using strings, bass, woodwinds, keyboards, guitar, harp, drums, and percussion. Bond and Kendall astutely note that for the score's first cue, "Stranger on the Street," Goldsmith employs a cimbalom, a chordophone that's part of the dulcimer family of strings. The cimbalom's dissonant chord is a recurring leitmotif that Goldsmith incorporates as a semi-frequent ostinato. In addition, Bond and Kendall observe the presence of an Echoplex, which Goldsmith incorporates to generate ringing effects, which comment on the hospital's surgical instruments. Goldsmith was always an innovator and, like his score for Planet of the Apes (1968), Coma is a watershed in modern scoring techniques.

Optional English SDH accompany the feature presentation.

Coma Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

WB's BD only has a trailer (in SD). Scream recently recorded a commentary track and added a photo gallery to go along with a handful of TV spots.

• NEW Audio Commentary With Film Critic/Author Lee Gambin and Novelist Aaron Dries - this feature-length commentary is led by film historian Lee Gambin, who also moderates. Gambin is joined by author Aaron Dries, who's a Michael Crichton expert. Dries discusses not only the novel and film adaptation of Coma, but also Crichton's career, including several of his other novels and films he's directed. Dries recounts how Crichton first met Steven Spielberg in the 1970s and how Coma was modeled after Peter Benchley's novel, Jaws. Also, Dries delves into the changes Crichton made to Robin Cook's novel and the effects they have on the movie's characters and narrative. Gambin's part of the discussion is more shrouded in Cultural Studies. He contextualizes Coma within the second wave of feminism and also talks about the hot-button issues in the medical field at the time. Gambin also brings up a variety of relevant films that are antecedents to Coma and those that fit within the paranoid thriller sub-genre. In English, not subtitled.

• Image Gallery (6:13, 1080p) - a slide show of 113 Coma-related images. They consist of newspaper advertisements, lobby cards, posters, on-set production photos (including several of Crichton), and publicity snapshots. They appear in color and black and white. They're of pretty high quality, although several are set at a lower resolution and show fuzziness.

• Original Theatrical Trailer (2:29, 1080p) - a generally good-looking trailer for Coma. This official MGM trailer appears in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192 kbps). It displays dirt and film artifacts but is in decent condition.

• TV Spots (3:04, upconverted to 1080p) - five TV spots networks aired to promote Coma's theatrical release in 1978. They appear in 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital Dual Mono (192 kbps). They're taken from a film reel and don't look nearly as good as the trailer. Colors are washed. Still, a nice inclusion by Scream.

Coma Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Coma is a superior paranoia thriller with conspiratorial themes and ominous tones that remind me a lot of Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View (1974). Geneviève Bujold delivers a very strong performance as Susan, who stands her ground when questioned about her assertions. The large ensemble also includes Rip Torn, Richard Widmark, Tom Selleck, Ed Harris, and an uncredited cameo by Christopher Reeve (who you may not spot right away). I'd hesitate to label this Scream Factory package as a "Special Edition," but it includes a great commentary track and an extensive image gallery. Scream's transfer and encode are excellent. The uncompressed monaural mix is practically flawless. About the prospect of a future 4K UHD for Coma, Shout! responded: "Maybe someday..." STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.