COMA

US, 1978, 113 minutes, Colour.
Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn, Richard Widmark, Lois Chiles, Tom Selleck.
Directed by Michael Crichton.

Coma is a very good thriller which has excellent credentials. The film was directed by novelist Michael Crichton who had directed a number of films including Westworld as well as The First Great Train Robbery. However, Crichton has made his mark in writing with novels from Jurassic Park onwards. He was also a producer of the successful television series, ER. Crichton also wrote the screenplay, adapting a novel by Robin Cook, the celebrated writer of many medical novels (a number of which were made into telemovies).

While the material may be rather familiar from films and novels, it is well paced and offers suspense. Genevieve Bujold stars as a doctor whose friend dies, her investigations leading her to the Jefferson Institute where young deceased are being taken for experiments. Michael Douglas plays her boyfriend, a fellow doctor, who is loath to believe her suspicions. Richard Widmark enjoys himself as the villain.

This is an excellent example of what the bestseller novel can become when filmed by experts.

1. How interesting and enjoyable a thriller? The hospital genre, romance, murder mystery, science fiction? How well did the conventions blend for successful entertainment?

2. The basic appeal of the film? Suspense, fear? Aspects of horror, gruesome overtones from the hospital?

3. How well did the film create the hospital atmosphere? How real did it seem? Authentic, the attention to detail, the filming of the various rooms of the hospital, the surgery, the continued jargon and scientific explanations?

4. The background of hospital politics and administrative power? The linking of hospital politics with government? The revelation of the international economics and exploitation? (An image of American politics in the seventies?)

5. The portrayal of the hospital personnel, their skill in their work, the problems of administration, surgery, diagnosis, patient visitation, abortion?

6. The theme of coma? The medical presentation and visual presentation of coma? The ease with which coma could be induced? Speculation about life and bio-ethical questions? The transferring of the comatose patients to the Jefferson Institute? The computer control for the life functions of the comatose people? Files? The presentation of the transferring of organs and their sale? The transplanting of organs as an industry and an abuse?

7. The visual presentation of the comatose people? The bizarre aspects, for example, in the freezer and the chase and Susan hiding there? The visual presentation of the suspected comatose figures in the Jefferson Institute? The whole atmosphere, impersonal procedures at the Institute?

8. The quality of the film as a murder mystery, sufficient clues, sufficient red herrings, appropriate resolution?

9. Susan Wheeler as heroine? Genevieve Bujold as an intrepid and courageous heroine? Personality, figure, style? The introduction to her and her work in the hospital, her relationship with Mark? Her competence in her work? Living with Mark and their clashes? Friendship with Nancy especially at the recreation with the dancing? Her help with the abortion, her reaction to Nancy going into coma? Her calm controlled reaction contrasted with her emotional response? Her relentless pursuit of information, the lengths she went to, getting files computer information, Dr. George's files, the interviews with Dr. Harris and his rebuke, her being referred to the psychiatrist?

10. How well did the film portray her obsession about Nancy? The various steps that she took? The murder mystery aspects with the man following her, the chase throughout the hospital for example the lecture room, the freezer? Her contact with the maintenance man and the violence of his being electrocuted? Her examination of the subterranean passages and machinery,. her climbing up the well, and her discovery of the truth? How well did the film make the audience identify with her?

11. Her tour of the Jefferson Institute, her being caught and the adventurous aspects of her hiding, eluding pursuit, the escape on the ambulance?

12. The build-up to the encounter with Dr. Harris, her going into the operation and her knowledge of what could happen, her helplessness in the face of danger?

13. Mark as the conventional doctor hero? As a person in the intimate scenes with Susan, his work? Their clashes and making up? His role at the hospital? When was he a suspect? When was he vindicated? His heroism especially in saving Susan during the operation?

14. The presentation of Dr. George, his social background, his wife, his suspicions with the files, the focus of suspicion on him, the danger and menace in going up in the lift? The revelation that he was not the villain?

15. The Jefferson Institute people especially the nurse with her robot-like manner? Her guided tour, her pursuit of Susan, seeing her at work on the phone with her calm control of business enterprise? Their personnel and their work with the organs?

16. Dr. Harris as continually in the background? His administration of the hospital, his care and concern for Susan, his seeming a pleasant person, and the revelation of his madness? His long speeches explaining the role of the doctors, their power, the arrogance of their control over other people? His operation and his being thwarted?

17. The bioethical questions? The background of medical malpractice in the seventies? A more ominous tone of science fiction and its relationship to ordinary audiences who have to go to hospital?