Loft Screening and Discussion: "The Hospital"

Co-presented by the Care, Health & Society program in the University of Arizona School of Sociology and The Loft Cinema.

When

7:30 p.m., March 27, 2019

Where

Featuring a post-film panel discussion with Jacqueline Bloink, Health Compliance Expert and Care, Health & Society faculty; and W. Daniel Shelton, Managing Attorney, Medical Malpractice Section, Goldberg & Osborne Law Firm. 

In this deliriously dark comedy, starring George C. Scott and featuring a biting, Oscar-winning screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky, a New York City hospital teeters on the verge of complete chaos thanks to an inept staff, bureaucratic absurdity and a rash of mysterious murders. Dr. Herbert Bock (George C. Scott), the Chief Resident at a sprawling, chaotic New York City hospital, is on the verge of a crack-up. Recently divorced, estranged from his children, overworked, and impotent, he is no longer the man he used to be, namely, one who enjoyed a reputation as a medical genius. To complicate matters, members of Bock’s hospital staff are dying under mysterious circumstances, suggesting a lunatic may be on the loose. The gallows humor of The Hospital was years ahead of its time when it first appeared in 1971 and the film’s unusual mixture of black comedy and cynical outrage still appears fresh today.  Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (who later in the ‘70s went on to pen the vicious media satire, Network) was partially inspired to write this attack on institutionalized medicine after his wife’s unhappy experience in a hospital while suffering from a neurological disorder. The incompetence and hospital staff apathy she encountered there so enraged Chayefsky that he funneled his frustrations into this screenplay, which won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.  He also interviewed numerous doctors, nurses, surgeons, and administrators and poured over actual malpractice suits before his story began to take shape.  Also starring Diana Rigg, Barnard Hughes and Richard Dysart, The Hospital was directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Arthur Hiller (Love Story; Silver Streak).   (Dir. by Arthur Hiller, 1971, USA, 103 mins., Rated PG-13) 

Regular Loft admission prices.