Movie |
Coma | Boston, Massachusetts
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Best Actress | 1979 | Geneviève Bujold
Budget 4,500,000 USD
Two versions of all scenes of the coma patients in the coma clinic were filmed. One version had them semi-naked whilst the other, for television screenings, had them covered-up.
Producer Martin Erlichman first read the film's source novel when it was in galley form. Erlichman once said that for this movie he wanted to do for hospitals what Jaws (1975) had done to people with the ocean and sharks. He said: "People have a primal fear of the ocean and Jaws titillated that phobia. In a similar manner, Coma (1978) accents one's primal fears of hospitals. This is an even stronger phobia because a person can always refrain from going into the water, but cannot always avoid the necessity of going into hospital!".
Ed Harris's feature film debut.
In an interview with 'Millimeter' magazine, this film's director Michael Crichton said, "This is a story that contains many elements of reality: the fear people have of surgery, the fear of dying at the hands of your doctor, phobias about hospitals. Those are very real fears, and so to exaggerate them would not be much fun. My idea was to put the picture together in such a way that the fears are put in a safe prospective, and can be enjoyed as scares, without awakening deeper and more real anxieties."
No music score in the film is heard until the forty-five minute mark.
"Dr. George A. Harris: Our society faces momentous decisions. Decisions about the right to die. About abortion. About terminal illness, prolonged coma, transplantation. Decisions about life and death. But society isn't deciding. Congress isn't deciding. The courts aren't deciding. Religion isn't deciding. Why? Because society is leaving it up to us, the experts. The doctors. Dr. Susan Wheeler: You're crazy. Dr. George A. Harris: Americans spend $125 billion a year on health. More than defense. Because Americans believe in medical care. These great hospital complexes are the cathedrals of our age. Billions of dollars, thousands of beds. A whole nation of sick people turning to us for help. Dr. Susan Wheeler: You, you ought to see somebody. Dr. George A. Harris: They're children, Sue. They trust us. We can't tell them everything. Our job is to make things easier for them. I'm sure you agree. Dr. Susan Wheeler: You're killing people. Dr. George A. Harris: We must always take the long view. Not of the individual, but of society as a whole. Because medicine is now a great social force. The individual is too small."
"Dr. Cowans: Anesthesia's the easiest job in the world until something goes wrong. It's 99% boredom and 1% scared-shitless panic."
