Sci-Fi Classic Review: COMA (1978)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- This medical thriller collaboration between two doctors-turned-writers, Coma is the best performing film directed by Michael Crichton and the most famous film adapted from a novel by Robin Cook. It's not a completely forgotten classic, but it doesn't get the attention it deserves.
If you're looking for a "review" in the traditional sense, then let me just say I love this movie. This video, however, is a "review" in the literal sense (using the Miriam-Webster definition "a retrospective view or survey"), in that I'm going over the history of the film and its place in sci-fi cinema history.
In other words, please stop commenting on how my videos aren't what you consider "reviews."
#Coma #MichaelCrichton #RobinCook #MedicalThriller
00:00 Intro
02:07 Synopsis
02:59 Production Background
04:55 Casting & Filming
07:29 Jerry Goldsmith
08:21 Release & Legacy
08:46 Opinion & Analysis
11:54 Outro
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This is the perfect film. Sadly, it's very underrated. It should be more popular than it is.
Unfortunately, it was a letdown, Compared with the novel, as was The Poseidon Adventure.
organ transplantion is big business. So it's suppression is little wonder.
Terrific review of an underrated classic. I have been hooked on this movie (and the book) since I was a kid. It fits in perfectly with other '70s conspiracy thrillers like the Parallax View and Marathon Man. And Jerry Goldsmith's score is bone-chilling.
Jerry Goldsmith doesn't get discussed nearly enough everywhere!!! I loved Coma back when it came out. It is on our list to watch now.
I remember the movie posters as a kid. I’ve never seen it, but it brings me back to that time.
I remember seeing this film in my early teens. The image of the hanging bodies absolutely terrified me.
Thank you for lending your considerable talents to raising the profile of this fine film. Oddly, during the 1990's it was a mainstay of the Christmas TV schedules on BBC and Ireland's RTE, usually shown to end the day's programming on Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day. While it's quality justifies a high profile time/calendar slot, it does seem to be an atypical choice. I read the book as well and apparently it was the first mainstream novel to promote awareness of the organ trade. Goldsmith's cue for Wheeler being chased by security guards through the Jefferson Institute is among his finest action writing.
Nothing says the spirit of Christmas like the black market for human organs! 😂
@@TheUnapologeticGeek Lol. Exactly!
Still have never seen this film. I remember as kid looking at a cable guide (remember those?) In the late 70s and wondering what this film was about...
Now I really want to see it.
This was a big critical success. Having a woman as the main protagonist worked well for the movie. The punch line to the tag line, "...imagine you can't imagine." is great. You're right about the medical fears. The audience could identify with the victims and see a young woman as their only chance of survival. Thanks for another retrispective.
This is a movie I know for more than 30 years and sometimes it is hard for me to believe that not everybody knows it ...
because, as NET 7 already wrote, this is a perfect movie with a very believable woman hero.
I can hardly think of a film that conveys suspense better.
One of my favorite movies. You nailed it perfectly. Great analysis.
Excellent movie. It’s all so compelling and I just love the camera angles and imagery used for the film.
another great episode, UG. The book cover of Coma always scared the crap out of me as a kid.
Elizabeth Ashley's perfomance as Nurse Emerson was bone chilling...
Love this movie, book and your posts! This movie has chilled me from the first time I saw it. The buildings and settings are as meanacing as any of the characters. Keep up the good work!
Man I had to subscribe to your channel. You review the type of movies I love. I’ve learned things I never knew about these movies that I’ve seen so many times. You truly review it not trash it, elevating it to artful elegance.
Glad to see you covering more recent fare, and I agree that Jerry Goldsmith is brilliant. Only one criticism: using footage from contemporary films is jarring and takes one out of the mood your video review establishes.
It's genuinely amazing how many classic films are based on Michael Crichton's work, or at least in some way related to his work! At this point most people probably associate him mostly with some rather famous Dinosaur franchise, but his reach goes so much farther than that, and it doesn't seem like he gets the posthumous credit he probably deserves.
Never watched Coma before; it's going on the watch list for sure 😊
I will admit I only know micheal Crichton because of Jurassic park but Im quickly falling in love with his other works
@@AndreNitroX Keep watching The Unapologetic Geek and you'll hear his name come up time and again :-)
Check out The Andromeda Strain if you're into that sort of sci-fi to get your Crichton fix on!
@@NoMarketMedia will do
This was one of the first adult books I read after first watching the movie. It was quite a tome for a thirteen-year-old! But I actually finished it and I was proud, lol!
I just explained to my co workers last night that taking care of intubated covid patients is like this movie! All in drug induced comas on vents with drips to keep them alive. Smh. I am ready to retire from nursing!
Thank you very much! Even now I can recall seeing this in the theater and people cheering as Michael Douglas cuts off the wrong gas being given to Genevieve Bujold in the nick of time, while Richard Widmark looks crestfallen as she coughs her way back to consciousness. (About my only criticism is that I've always heard Lois Chiles's name to rhyme with Isles, as in Rizzoli.) I'm stunned that Julie Christie didn't get the role -- she's Lara from Dr. Zhivago, for crying out loud -- but I'm glad Bujold got it. In fact, I think the role typecast her weirdly, giving a false impression to people who may have heard of Coma yet never actually seen it. As you say, it is the mix of fragility and vulnerability along with conviction and determination that sells her, but she's not really what one might call "commanding." Years later she would get blamed for an evidently disastrous screen test playing a captain of the starship Enterprise as Star Trek: The Next Generation was coming together, but I would not have made that decision in the first place. I would still have liked for them to keep her around, perhaps in the role of chief science officer. Finally, I agree on Jerry Goldsmith, his body of work is astonishing. Thanks again.
The hit man that Susan locks in the body freezer played Buck Greene in Magnum. P.I. ,with Tom Selleck.
I always thought of this movie when I had to have surgery! Truly terrifying! I enjoy Robin Cooke's novels!
I didn't even know this movie existed! But now I wanna watch it. The cast seems pretty stellar, and I love weird creepy 70s films!
If your a fan of conspiracy films this is for you
Excellent film. Sometimes TCM has it in rotation. If that helps.
Another great little film. And she almost captained the starship Voyager, but thats another story! Great review as usual.
This is a movie I always loved especially since I graduated from Nurse Anesthesia School in 1977 becoming an Advanced Practice Nurse. I have to say that the OR scenes were pretty accurate especially when the Anesthesia provider becomes frantic trying to understand why the patient suddenly becomes unstable for unknown reasons especially since the patients are young and healthy.
Thank you. I appreciate this review. Glad I watched this film.
Brilliant review, always found this movie creepy as a kid.
It’s the hanging bodies wasn’t it
This has been a favorite for decades. Elizabeth Ashley is stunningly sinister.
Great Review.
The last time I watched this movie it was on VHS.
Will give it a re watch.
Thank you😀
Brilliant job! After all these years, this movie is one of the best.
A good & creepy movie that I haven’t seen since the early 80s. Thanks U.G. I’ll have to rewatch asap.
It's interesting how all through the film the filmmakers make us think that the Rip Torn character is the villain-the way he keeps making weird looks at the Geneieve Bujold character, we learn that hes a very rich and powerful doctor so we think for sure he's the bad guy-then we learn that Richard Widmark and Elizabeth Ashley are the villains.
Colonel Decker & Magnum in the same flick!
IF this film had played up the hospital paranoia angle like the producer wanted, this film would no doubt be on constant play like Jaws.
Its a real classic....saw it in the cinema in 1978
There is a german thriller "fleisch/flesh" from 1979 by Rainer erler ...it Deals with an equal Theme.....In a different way but also brillant ....thanks for your brillant Review
Other great medical thrillers:
"Extreme Measures" (1996) "Anatomie" (2000)
Coma, THE Jacket, THE Terminal Man-hospital horror films.
Send this movie at the theatre I was young scared the crap out of me but great movie I don’t know how it’s going to hold up in 2022
Great movie. Genevieve Bujold was great in this. Michael Douglas was really handsome in the seventies and early 80’s. It’s a great suspense film. That creepy brutalist building and the brain dead bodies hung on wires….the art direction left an indelible mark on me. PS - how creepy is Elizabeth Ashley in this? Also your pronunciation of some of these actors’ names is mistaken - it’s Lois Ch-EYE-ls, not chilies 🌶. And it’s Elizabeth Ashley, not Astley.
That's Elizabeth ASHley, not ASTley.
Yep, my bad. Sorry about that.
th-cam.com/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ/w-d-xo.html
The Seventies were all about paranoia and conspiracies (All The President's Men, Three Days of The Condor, The China Syndrome). The paranoid climate and distrust of authorities of that decade are also reflected in this movie and the 1978 version of Invasion of The Body Snatchers.
Havent seen this one for a while read the book though very good. would love to see a review of a missed movie "demon seed" havent seen it for ages.
Memory is shifty - this came out when I was a little kid and I always thought it was released as a made for tv movie.
It definitely has that style
Andromeda Strain is my favorite, but this is a close second.
Let's face facts.
If they could do this to Tom Selleck, they could do this to anyone...
The reason Crichton wanted to keep the female lead for this story is that it would have been a lot shorter and harder to write with a male protagonist. For sure, the big middle chunk where everyone is claiming he's "hysterical" would have disappeared.
They relied a lot on female hysteria story angles back then.
It was the 70s. What can you do?
I love this movie!!!
I've always liked this film. I like to think of what this film might have looked like if Hitchcock had directed it.
Was Genevieve Bujold once under consideration for the part of Captain Kathryn Janeway in “Star Trek: Voyager?”
Yes, she was!
Hi from YNAO🙌
-Seconds_ Rock Hudson, filmed in the late sixties, A quest for youth.
Have you reviewed the original Stepford Wives? Also a classic I return to often.
I have! You can find it here: th-cam.com/video/IafNbPdhMfw/w-d-xo.html
The full Armor
Great review and is relevant in today's world where that does happen, the black market and especially in China, horrendous. I have a suggestion for a review, not sci-fi, and the opposite of Genevieve Bujold's Dr. Susan Wheeler, a thriller with haunting music, the movie is Klute, with Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. I'll check to see if you have already done a review of it but it's a great movie, something that has always bothered me and made me think because it was creepy. Take care
Yes! I read about some doctors tricking people out of their organs in China
8:20 ...everytime i hear Bach's Suite No.3 in D-major, i feel the need to visit a public library at night...
PROBLEMS WITH COMA: 1. No way would a psychiatrist listen to a person tell their private thoughts and opinions during a session, then repeat all the stuff to a second party! 2. How did the villains know that the hospital janitor knew about the conspiracy? 3. The doctor couple hear about a mysterious Jefferson Institute at the hospital, then by coincidence when they're out driving in remote countryside over hundreds of miles, they just happen to drive right past the same institute! 4. Rip Torn is completely wasted! Michael Douglas is also kind of wasted. 5. Why didn't the Michael Douglas character quickly whisk his girlfriend away when she's drugged on the table, and call the cops right away as soon as he realized that the chief surgeon was about to murder his girlfriend? It's interesting though how the skeptical one-the Michael Douglas character-is the one at the end who foils the big conspiracy and arrests the mad doctor. Hmmmmmm there must be something wrong with Boston hospitals as another horror film Altered States also featured weird/bad going on at a Boston hospital as well as another mad doctor.
The first time you see the outside of the Jefferson institute and then it's creepy nurse, it's not horror it's just a creepy movie at times, the first half of the movie there's no music at all until they show the Hitman
To this day I refuse to be operated on in any O.R. number 8.
Never understood Dr Harris talk to Dr Wheeler while she is being drugged. What is the long view he keeps babbling about? In the end it’s not about some higher purpose but just to make lots of money.
Rip Torn, Hari Rhodes, Tom Selleck, Ed Harris-great actors completely wasted.
It was okay but could have been better.
good not great movie I have few issues with this movie
1. Geneviève Bujold can't act for sht in this movie
2. So movie gives no explanation what happened to Vince , that creepy supply guy killer ? Let's pretend nothing happened ? If he's dead (which most likely should be ) why there's no investigation by a detective.
3. Movie ends way too abruptly , which makes no sense why would Dr. Harris get's arrested . Like where's the evidence .