Britannia Hospital

1982
R
1h 56min

NOTE IMDb

6,2/10

3,1 k

MA NOTE

The chaotic workings of a hospital with staff on strike.

Lire trailer2:56

1 Video

33 photos

Dark Comedy Satire Comedy Sci-Fi

Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueThe chaotic workings of a hospital with staff on strike.The chaotic workings of a hospital with staff on strike.The chaotic workings of a hospital with staff on strike.

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

NOTE IMDb

6,2/10

3,1 k

MA NOTE

Voir les informations de production sur IMDbPro

Récompenses
- 1 victoire et 3 nominations au total

Avis des utilisateurs34

6,23K

Avis à la une

6smiths-4

Savage, Unsubtle satire with plot holes and needless characters

Firstly i must note that If.... is one of my favourite films and within that film Malcolm McDowell is Mick Travis, as good a character as Alex De Large (Clockwork Orange) and one which he makes his own. I found that film to be beautifully shot, excellently acted and the satire to be pinpoint accurate. It was a very important British film and is one of a few classics from the sixties (Saturday Night Sunday Morning, Loneliness of the long distance Runner, Billy Liar etc).

Next came O Lucky Man, with Travis out of school and working as a coffee salesman. We see his rise and fall and eventual rise again as a accidental film star. I also think this film is very important with a extremely gifted cast including Arthur Lowe in several roles and Graham Crowden as a mad experimenting doctor. The music by Alan Price greatly contributes to the film (lesser so Price's attempt to act!).

Finally, the 80's and Britannia Hospital. A great cast, an interesting premise but alas a flawed film. The major characters, bar Graham Crowden have little to do (McDowell, Rossiter, Hamill,) and i found myself feeling no empathy for anyone. The pickets and protesters were annoying but were outdone by the upper class visitors to the hospital and as for Mick Travis, an ignoble end. It is never explained why McDowell is there (why isn't he investigating the luxury treatment of the African Dictator which is causing everyone else so much grief!.....why does the nurse decide to continue his work/was she an insider who gave him info on Crowdens project??). The idea that the Queen would be allowed to visit the hospital in such inhospitable(pardon the pun) times is ludicrous etc etc.

But perhaps i am being to empirical about the film, what of the satire? About as subtle as a punch in the face! The upper classes are still treated differently to the working/middle classes be it in the workplace or in health care....wow, what a revelation!! Anyway, there is some joy in watching it unfold if you disengage from the satire element and enjoy the face spotting (John Gorden Sinclar, Robbie Coultrane, Robert Pugh, Richard Griffiths, Brian Glover, Arthur Lowe, Alan Bates, Roland Culver, Jill Bennett etc) and general mayhem of it all. I suppose Travis had to go somehow but why like this? My recommendation is to watch If.... and O Lucky Man and if you are satisfied with the ending to the latter film, leave it at that.

7sol-

My brief review of the film

After satirising Britain's education system in 'If....' and the British justice system in 'O Lucky Man!', Lindsay Anderson takes a look at the health care system in this final part of his trilogy with Malcolm McDowell. It is not as effectively dramatic as 'If....', nor is it as delightfully whimsical as 'O Lucky Man!', but even if slightly inferior, this is a good film in itself, full of fascinating ideas and colourful characters. It is quite interesting to watch throughout, although a bit excessively disgusting and over-the-top at times, and in general it is a fairly solid conclusion to perhaps the oddest trilogy that has ever been filmed.

8zetes

If not as good as if... and O Lucky Man, that doesn't mean it is worthless

This film completes the Mick Travis trilogy, of which the first two installments are if (1968) and O Lucky Man (1973). You could say either that Britannia Hospital has little to do with the other two films or a lot. It depends on how you look at it. The political viewpoints are similar, but the style is much different. The three movies remind me much of Tati's first three Hulot films in the way they differ between each other while having interconnected themes. This would be Anderson's Playtime, in that, much like Hulot in Playtime, Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) becomes just one of a million different characters. Calling Britannia Hospital Anderson's Playtime oversells the film, unfortunately. The film does not work quite as well as if and O Lucky Man, both of which are masterpieces, in my estimation. Britannia Hospital feels like it ought to be a masterpiece. There are just so many flashes of genius. You see images and scenes that Federico Fellini or Luis Buñuel would have killed to come up with, and the film's liberal politics, while definitely somewhat confusing, are far more potent than anything Godard ever put forward. It also contains one moment of gorgeous eroticism, when Malcolm McDowell is changing clothes and a nurse gently cups both of his buttocks from behind. By the end, though, instead of being moved I was rather scratching my head. The film would probably benefit if I were to watch all three installments in a row, because there are apparently a lot of characters that are shared between them (I only recognized Mick Travis and Professor Millar; it's been over two years since I've seen the other films). But, then again, seeing how this film has been completely tossed aside by so many people, I'm hardly the only one who is confused. On the other hand, a film with so much ambition and power ought never to be shoved aside. Its dismissal is more than a little unjustified.

5EdgarST

Sad ending to Mick Travis

"Britannia Hospital" was not exhibited (although advertised) in Panamá in 1982, so I didn't have a chance to see the last part of the Mick Travis trilogy, created by Lindsay Anderson and David Sherwin. In the early 1990's I found a video copy of the film, but not until now have I seated to watch the film, after enjoying two Ealing comedies ("Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "The Man In the White Suit") that surprised me one more time for the pleasant way that social and political issues are usually treated in British cinema. (MILD SPOILERS) Social issues are all over "Britannia Hospital", the most saddening conclusion I have ever seen of a character, though luckily not affecting the admiration I have for the two previous films. "if...." (1968) introduced Mick (Malcolm McDowell) as a rebel in a public school; in "O Lucky Man" (1973) he was a young man seeking a job in the capitalist world, and in this final appearance, Mick has returned from the USA and apparently works as a spy -with a mini video camera- for an American TV station (represented by Mark Hamill, completely stoned inside a mobile unit) in the coverage of the anniversary of Britannia Hospital (metaphor of the United Kingdom) and the launching of a sinister Frankenstein-type project, while the workers are on strike, militants demand the exit of an African dictator from the hospital, with his wives, children and staff, and Her Royal Highness is on her way to the festivities. The riot takes place, but what is really violent is the way Mick is dispatched. In the previous films, there were elements of fantasy handled beautifully, even in a poetic way, but this time writer David Sherwin turned the story into a Stuart Gordon fest, which Anderson relished with a scene right out of "Re-Animator". This impression is so strong, that it casts a dark shadow over the final sequence when the Genesis project (which recites Shakespeare) is presented to all. Many familiar faces were welcome (Alan Bates, Joan Plowright, Graham Crowden, Jill Bennett, Liz Smith, Vivian Pickles, Marsha A. Hunt, and Robin Askwith), but it's a pity that Anderson and Sherwin decided to end the trilogy in such an extreme and rude fashion.

10psychorobotape

Criminally underrated film!

That this movie has only achieved a rating of 5.9 out of 10 is appalling! Britannia Hospital brilliantly mixes the macabre, the comic, and the profound with beautiful imagery, wonderful production design, and Lindsay Anderson's astute sense of direction. The writing is flawless, the characters are flawless, the story is engrossing and the film is in my humble opinion the second best work of arguably the greatest director and visionary in British cinema history. I don't know who let the kindergärtners on here to vote but take my word - behind the wacky comic facade lies a powerful and intelligent film that should be ranked up there with the greatest films of British cinema.

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Anecdotes
Mark Hamill, Sir Alan Bates, and Malcolm McDowell worked for free.

Gaffes
At 02:40, the nurse puts her cape on twice.

Citations
Professor Millar: Friends! Fellow Members of the Human Race! We are gathered here for a purpose. Let us look together at Mankind. What do we see? We see Mastery. What wonders Mankind can perform. He can cross the oceans and continents today, as easily as our grandfathers crossed the street. Tomorrow he will as easily cross the vast territories of space. He can make deserts FERTILE and plant cabbages on the Moon. And what does man CHOOSE? Alone among the creatures of this world, the Human Race CHOOSES to ANNIHILATE itself. Since the last world conflict ended, there has not been one day in which Human Beings have not been SLAUGHTERING or wounding one another, in 200 and 30 different wars. And man BREEDS as recklessly as he lays waste. By the end of the century, the population of the world will have TRIPLED. 2/3rds of our plant species will have been DESTROYED. 55% of the Animal Kingdom. and 70% of our mineral resources. Out of every hundred Human Beings now living, 80 will DIE without ever KNOWING what it FEELS like to be fully nourished... While a tiny minority INDULGE themselves in ABSURD and EXTRAVAGANT luxuries. A motion picture entertainer of North America will receive as much money in a MONTH as would feed a starving South American tribe for a hundred YEARS! We WASTE! We DESTROY! AND, we cling like SAVAGES to our SUPERSTITIONS. We give POWER to LEADERS of State and Church as prejudiced and small-minded as ourselves, who SQUANDER our resources on instruments of destruction... While Millions continue to SUFFER and go hungry, condemned FOREVER to lives of IGNORANCE and DEPRIVATION. And why is this? It is because mankind has denied Intelligence, the unique glory of our species - the Human Brain. Man is entering an era of INFINITE possibility, still imprisoned in a FEEBLE, inefficient body... Still manacled by primitive notions of morality, which have NO PLACE in an Age of Science... Still powered by a brain that has HARDLY developed since the species emerged from the caves. Only a NEW intelligence can save Mankind! Only a new Human Being of PURE BRAIN can lead man forward into the new era. I do not speak of DREAMS. Such a being exists already. I have created it! It is HERE. NOW. Prepare yourselves to meet the Human of the Future. Neither Man nor Woman. Greater than either. I have given it a name. Genesis. Birth. A New Birth. A New Beginning for Mankind. People of Today, Behold Your Future!