Retro Film Review: Coma (1978)

(source: tmdb.org)

There are some films that resemble quality wines – they get better with each passing year and decade. But only a few of them can enjoy such a favourable fate, because they become more frightening for future generations than for their contemporaries. One such case is Coma, the 1978 thriller directed by Michael Crichton. In its time, it was branded as science fiction by most critics, even those who were very familiar with the genre. But today, nobody would dare to use such a label, because some of the future predictions in this film became chillingly accurate – which, of course, makes it even scarier.

The script, also written by Michael Crichton, was based on the best-selling novel by Robin Cook, author of many successful medical thrillers. The film’s protagonist is Doctor Susan Wheeler (played by Genevieve Bujold), a young doctor in a large Boston hospital. During her practice, she begins to notice a strange pattern of young and healthy patients falling into unexplained comas during routine surgeries. She starts to investigate, although everyone – including her boyfriend and colleague Doctor Marc Bellows (played by Michael Douglas) – doesn't believe her claims that all these cases are connected. The cause of this phenomenon becomes even more sinister after Doctor Wheeler survives an apparent attempt on her life. Finally motivated to see it through to the bitter end, she begins to uncover the shocking truth.

Coma is just another example for all those film critics of today who consider the 1970s to be the Golden Age of world cinema. That period was very fruitful for many film directors who made many great films, only to deliver disappointments in later decades. Michael Crichton – acclaimed novelist, screenwriter and director – was one of them, reaching the peak of his film career in that decade. Many, including the author of this review, would claim that Coma is his best film. One of the reasons for that is Crichton's medical background, which provided him with the opportunity to create realistic settings and characters (as with his hit TV show ER two decades later). As a result, Coma is a film with a very plausible plot and convincing characters. The realism worked very well to create an extremely frightening atmosphere: the hospital, an institution where people are supposed to be safer than anywhere else, is suddenly turned into a place of unimaginable horrors. The film is even scarier than the cult horror films that were very popular in those days; few people could imagine themselves being attacked by sharks or stalked by axe murderers and supernatural demons, but almost everyone could expect to end up in hospital, helpless and totally at the mercy of people in white coats. The scariness also sprang from the widespread feeling of post-Watergate paranoia, when every segment of the establishment – including the medical profession – caused suspicion about its good intentions or scruples.

Crichton's direction in this film is almost flawless. He presents scenes of Doctor Wheeler's boring and totally unexciting domestic and professional everyday life, shot in an almost quasi-documentary fashion, and quickly replaces them with breathtaking scenes of suspense. Doctor Wheeler's battle with the assassin in the dark corridors and autopsy room is one of those scenes that leaves a strong impact on viewers. And the truth, finally revealed in the Jefferson Institute, is one of the most memorable and frightening images in the history of cinema. The film was deliberately left without an original musical score for most of its runtime, except in the suspense scenes, when the always reliable Jerry Goldsmith provides the needed audio stimuli for suspense and horror.

The acting talent in this film is excellent. Genevieve Bujold was very well cast as the heroine. She portrays Doctor Wheeler as a liberated, professional woman of the 1970s – strong and stubborn, yet vulnerable because of her physical limitations. In many ways she resembles Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien, another feminist action hero faced with unspeakable horrors. The other actors mostly fill in the blanks – Michael Douglas is, at best, passable as her romantic interest. Richard Widmark is good as Doctor Wheeler's mentor. The film also features many future stars and respected actors such as Ed Harris and Tom Selleck in small roles, although the latter looks rather lame.

That wasn't the film's only flaw. The plot worked very well until the very end, with an unexpected plot twist that reduces Doctor Wheeler from a heroine into a typical 'damsel in distress'. And the ending was rather weak and not very cathartic. But that plot twist also gave the authors an opportunity to allow some of the characters to explain the ethical challenges – the basis for the plot's premise. That same premise looked preposterous twenty years ago, but today it is taken for granted as a sad fact of life. Perhaps that, more than anything else, makes this film so frightening and so effective after all these years.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on September 28th 1999)