Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

The Hospital Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 17, 2023

Arthur Hiller's "The Hospital" (1971) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sandpiper Pictures. The only supplemental feature on the release is a vintage theatrical trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The hospital is somewhere in New York, but it could have been in any metropolitan American city. It is very busy, most of the time very hectic, dirty, and understaffed. Traffic inside it slows down only during the wee hours of the night.

It is during the wee hours of the night that some of the doctors and nurses working in the hospital like to engage in romantic activities, but because all beds are taken, they are forced to improvise. While the extra work is annoying, they are willing to do it to maintain a proper balance between business and pleasure.

But a careless cheater inadvertently ruins the most enjoyable activity in the hospital. After a night of intense sexual fireworks, a young doctor falls asleep on a borrowed bed and a clueless nurse injects him with a strong medication that instantly sends him to his creator. Several hours after the cold body is discovered, the hospital’s medical director, Dr. Herbert Bock (George C. Scott), is informed that there has been a tragic ‘accident’ and asked to figure out how to cover it up. However, while working on a strategy to avoid massive public embarrassment, Dr. Bock confesses to one of the hospital’s top psychiatrists that for months he has been on the verge of ending his life, and as more details about the ‘accident’ are leaked, a deranged killer goes after other doctors who have either considered or already become cheaters.

It is strange to see the names of so many talented people attached to The Hospital and flat-out bizarre that members of the Academy saw it as deserving of two Oscar nominations. The material that was used to make the film is so poor, it is instantly obvious that at the very least it needed a serious reworking.

Arthur Hiller received an original screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky, who had already won an Oscar award for his contribution to Marty, which is likely the real reason the former became involved with The Hospital. Unfortunately, either the screenplay was mediocre or Hiller badly mismanaged it and delivered a different film. These are the only two scenarios that logically explain why The Hospital exists.

The narrative is structured as a mosaic of uneven scenes in which Scott and several other actors deliver pseudo-intellectual monologues that attack the grand status quo -- the point of origin is the drama in the hospital and the final target is society at large. The most memorable of these scenes is also the most embarrassing one. After confessing that he is suicidal, Scott meets the progressive, very beautiful daughter (Diana Rigg) of an elderly patient who has been misdiagnosed, mistreated, and nearly killed by his colleagues. While claiming to be impotent, Scott then rapes her, but instead of being condemned and exposed as an abusive animal, the film/screenplay exonerates him as a man who desperately needs true love in his life. While the pseudo-intellectual pontificating is underway, the deranged killer creates even more problems for Scott that are supposed to provide some cover for his irrational and dangerous behavior.

Virtually all archival publicity materials for The Hospital attempt to sell it as a witty and illuminating black comedy. It is a tragic film that deservedly crashed and burned at the box office.

Hiller collaborated with cinematographer Victor Kemper, who lensed such vastly superior and now considered cult or classic films as The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Gambler, Dog Day Afternoon, The Final Countdown, and National Lampoon's Vacation.

The Hospital Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Hospital arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sandpiper Pictures.

The release is sourced from an older but good master that was supplied by MGM. Excluding a couple of darker sequences where grain becomes a tad noisy, but never creates any serious anomalies, the visuals are quite pleasing. Admittedly, it does help that virtually the entire film takes places inside the hospital and as a result there hardly any notable density fluctuations, but the master is free of any problematic digital adjustments, so despite its age it produces good organic visuals. Color balance is convincing. Saturation levels can be improved, but not by much. More meaningful improvements can be made with darker nuances, which tend to struggle a bit in the darkest visuals. Image stability is very good. A few dirt spots can be seen, but there are no large cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to report. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Hospital Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is surprisingly strong. I viewed the film during the day and had the volume or my system turned up quite a bit. I did not encounter any distracting unevenness or signs of aging in the upper register. Clarity, sharpness, and stability are very good. It is possible that there might be some room for cosmetic improvements, but I cannot see how they can introduce any substantial improvements that would impact the overall quality of the audio.

The Hospital Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - presented here is a U.S. trailer for The Hospital. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

The Hospital Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Asking the audience to develop sympathy for a veteran doctor who wants to overdose on potassium, pretends to be impotent, and rapes a young girl in the hospital he runs is not just a very tall order. It is a seriously bizarre one, too. While enduring seemingly endless pseudo-intellectual monologues, the audience is supposed to be laughing hard as well. Paddy Chayefsky won an Oscar Award for handing Arthur Hiller the screenplay for The Hospital, but box office receipts were incredibly disappointing. I do not think that this was an unexpected development. This recent release from Sandpiper Pictures is sourced from an old yet quite nice organic master that was supplied by MGM.