Movie review: ‘Coma’ (1978)

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A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

As I started re-watching the medical mystery-thriller “Coma” from 1978, it became apparent very quickly that this wasn’t just some flick thrown together for some quick box office bucks. I’ve written before how it appears that back-in-the-day films were much more solid with plot and acting than the shovel full of superhero crap that comes our way every year and appears to have been filmed in a lumberyard with all the wooden acting. “Coma” is an intricate thriller with solid acting throughout the cast.

‘Coma’
(1978; 113 minutes; rated PG; directed by Michael Crichton and starring Michael Douglas, Geneviève Bujold, Rip Torn and Richard Widmark)

MEDICAL ETHICS VIEWED THROUGH MURDER

The film “Coma” was adapted from a creative best-seller of the same name, but, while the novel was layered and creative, those attributes don’t always translate to the big screen. With “Coma,” director Michael Crichton wrote a screenplay worthy of the source material and managed to imprint his own creative competence in making the movie a wonderfully solid drama.

“Coma” introduces Genevieve Bujold as “Dr. Susan Wheeler” and she’s an up-and-coming surgeon at the fictional “Boston Memorial Hospital.” She’s in a somewhat rocky relationship with Michael Douglas, who plays an even hotter rising star as “Dr. Mark Bellows.” The novel explored women in medicine in in the 1970s in greater depth, but “Coma” manages to touch on it, too.

Bujold’s best friend, played by Lois Chiles in a small role as “Nancy Greenly,” goes in for what should have been a routine procedure, but she never wakes up from the anesthesia and is left in a vegetative state and later dies. Of course, Bujold is distraught by what happened to her friend and wants to find out what happened.

A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

“Coma” delves into several medical philosophies throughout the film, but the care of patients in an unrecoverable coma takes front-and-center. “Coma” does an excellent job on the medial philosophy issue, without being preachy. Crichton was quoted as saying he wanted “Coma” to do for hospital patients what “Jaws” did to people considering swimming at any beach.

As Bujold continues to ask questions about her friend, enemies begin to spring up against her. You’ll find several great red herrings tossed at you, but the ultimate answer shouldn’t be any surprise.

I hate to write a spoiler alert so early, but I cannot review the main actors without a specific explanation of the plot. So, if you haven’t seen “Coma,” then stop reading; watch the film; and then come back to finish my review.

** SPOILER ALERT **

Bujold uncovers a conspiracy whereby young(er) patients receive a tissue biopsy order via computer (the big, bad computer in 1978!). Then, some of them wind up in an irreversible coma and shipped off to the “Jefferson Institute,” which is a government-funded (yes, the big bad government).

The fictional institute has a cold, ominous architecture and an even colder chief administrator played to superb perfection by Elizabeth Ashley as “Mrs. Emerson.” The scariest part is how coma patients are “housed:” suspended by wires and not in a traditional bed.  The scenes with the dozens of suspended coma patients in a warehouse-like room is even creepier than the one Bujold finds in a morgue’s body-storage room (watch and you’ll see both).

The mystery is deep because a variety of surgeons and anesthesiologists worked on the patients, but there’s another link (watch the film, you’ll find out). Through a roundabout fashion, the story winds up that these patients’ organs are sold to the highest bidders; the patient dies as the organs are harvested; and the who thing is a murder-for-profit plot that ultimately links back to the hospital.

** SPOILER ALERTS CONTINUE **

Now, here’s my look at some of the main cast …

  • A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

    An Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner for “Anne of a Thousand Days” with Richard Burton, Bujold turns in one of her career-best performances with this one. From her earnestness and compassion to her analytical evaluations of situations, she gave the performance needed with the spotlight on her in just about every scene. Bujold was also in the crime drama “Tightrope” with Clint Eastwood and director Louis Malle’s “The Thief of Paris” with Richard Burton. For having a career spanning six decades since the first in 1963 and the last in 2018, Bujold has only notched 77 acting credits and just six since 2009. As of the original posting date of this review, Bujold is 83 (and her birthday is this coming July 1).

  • A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

    A two-time Oscar winner and a four-time winner of Golden Globes and seven-time nominee (not for this one), Douglas at 33 was young(ish) and energetic. Better yet, Douglas conveyed his character perfectly as the cool, confident surgeon on track to be the next chief resident. His interactions with Bujold don’t bring the intimacy you’d like to see, but that’s more a fault of streamlining the novel’s plot than anything else. Douglas picks up the pace late as he, too, uncovers the truth, but that part is a little contrived. Douglas’ Oscars are for “Wall Street” (acting) and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (best film co-producer). He also won a Primetime Emmy and was an Emmy nominee nine times. His early signature role was for tee-vee’s “The Streets of San Francisco.” I liked him, too, in the little-remembered crime-thriller “The Star Chamber,” but even better with Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito in “Romancing the Stone” and its sequel “The Jewel of the Nile” (click here to read my review of both films).

  • A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

    An Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner (not for this one), Richard Widmark is in a familiar kind of role here: He is the figure of authority and, at least in “Coma,” he initially receives less attention than his ultimate guilt deserves. Widmark does his usual solid job as “Dr. George Harris,” who is the chief of surgery at the hospital. He did similar work in “Rollercoaster” (click here to read my review), but was an ethical FBI agent. Widmark did his best work in “The Bedford Incident” (click here to read my review) and “Judgment at Nuremberg.” He was nominated for “Kiss of Death” from 1947 and also got a Golden Globe win for it, too. Widmark died at 93 in 2008 from complications of injuries suffered in a fall.

  • A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

    A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one) and a Primetime Emmy nominee, Ashley gives a frosty performance and, after taking just a glance at her, you wouldn’t challenge her authority. Heck, you’d probably jump off a bridge if she ordered it! Ashley does more with a small performance than anyone else in the cast and this was a superb effort. She was nominated for a Globe for “The Carpetbaggers” and received the Emmy nomination for the 1990-1994 run of the underrated tee-vee series “Evening Shade” with Burt Reynolds. Thankfully, Ashley did a two-part episode on my favorite tee-vee series “The Love Boat” (click here for my look at the kitschy, iconic series).

  • A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

    An Oscar nominee (not for this one), Torn has only a few lines, but it is his expression that carries the day as his “Dr. George” looks upon Bujold with controlled rage. Torn’s character is meant to appear sinister, but … well, you’ll have to see for yourself. Torn was stolid in “Men in Black” and was a very underappreciated actor. Torn was nominated for “Cross Creek” and was another prolific actor with 190 acting credits in film and on TV. I liked him in a small role in “Down Periscope” with Kelsey Grammer (click here to read my review). He was also in the critically acclaimed “The Cincinnati Kid” poker movie with Steve McQueen and Ann-Margaret. He was a winner and eight-time nominee for Primetime Emmys, with his win and five nominations for “The Larry Sanders Show.” Torn died in 2019 at 88 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

  • A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

    Chiles does a solid job in the small role of Bujold’s best friend. Her few lines are delivered smoothly and with confidence. A year after “Coma,” Chiles was “Holly Goodhead” as an ally of “James Bond” in the 007 thriller “Moonraker” (click here to read my review). She was in the 1974 version of “The Great Gatsby” with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow and was in the critically acclaimed “Broadcast News” with William Hurt and Holly Hunter. also did 25 episodes on TV’s iconic “Dallas” and did an episode of the legal drama “L.A. Law.” She stepped back from acting after “Kettle of Fish” in 2006 as she battled cancer and her next acting credit was in 2024.

  • A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

    A Golden Globe winner and six-time nominee (all for tee-vee’s “Magnum P.I.”), Tom Selleck briefly appears as a young, healthy(ish) patient needing minor surgery and winds up first in a coma and then dead after having some of his organs removed. It’s a small character to play, and, after a solid resume of mostly tee-vee work before 1978, Selleck would vault into the stratosphere starting in 1980 with the iconic series that made him a big-time star. He also won a Primetime Emmy and had six other nominations, with the win and four nominations for his signature series and another nomination for an episode of the even more legendary series “Friends.”

A few other actors give a very solid effort, from Frank Downing as the doomed maintenance man who knows details of the murderous plot; to Lance LeGault as the silent enforcer who tries to kill Bujold; to Richard Doyle as a hospital pathologist who gives Bujold the idea of how the comas were being inflicted on patients.

A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

My only criticism about “Coma” is the ending. Everything follows in context (although a bit frayed and hurried), but the ending is too pat and too quick with the authorities already on hand after the climactic surgery. Still, it’s a minor flaw in an overall excellent film.

Crichton has been very creative in his work both as an author and director: From writing the novel “Jurassic Park” to writing and directing the sci-fi/techno thriller and cult fav “Looker” (click here to read my review). While “Looker” wasn’t a big winner, it’s underlying principle about the coming technology that you see today with computerized “fake” video was quite visionary.

However, technology skipped a generation and much of the threat of the future in “Coma” didn’t come as true as what was forecast with “Looker.” Crichton died at 68 of lymphatic cancer in 2008.

“Coma” was the 19th ranked film at the U.S. box office for 1978 with ticket sales of $14.4 million, according to filmtalk.org. The No. 1 film was “Grease,” which had $159.9 million in ticket sales, with “Superman” at No. 2 and the absolutely legendary comedy “National Lampoon’s Animal House” at No. 3, according to Wiki. Here are the films from 1978 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Douglas’ middle name is Kirk (after his father, the late screen legend Kirk Douglas); Torn’s full birth name was Elmore Rual Torn Jr.; Ashley’s birth name is Elizabeth Ann Cole and she was born in Florida in Ocala; Widmark’s middle name was Weedt; and Chiles’ middle name is Cleveland.
  • A promotional photograph from the 1978 movie “Coma.”

    Usually, height is discussed among movie stars (who’s short to who’s not as tall as they’d like you to believe), but let’s look at some legendary directors compared to Crichton: Martin Scorsese, 5-foot-3; Alfred Hitchcock, 5-foot-7; Billy Wilder, 5-foot-9½; Ingmar Bergman, 5-foot-10½; Akira Kurosawa, 5-foot-11½; Federico Fellini, 5-foot-11¾; and Orson Welles, at an even 6 feet. So, where did Crichton stand? At 6-foot-9! Literally, he was head-and-shoulders taller than the others.

  • Directly from IMDb.com: “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.”
  • The site of the “Jefferson Institute” and its ominous architecture was the former headquarters of the Xerox company in Lexington, Mass.
  • Julie Christie was reportedly the original choice to play the character ultimately given to Bujold and then Farrah Fawcett, but she was unable to do the film because of her commitment to work on the megahit tee-vee series “Charlie’s Angels.” My note: I’d say no matter how it happened, the best actor for the character ultimately found her way in front of the camera.
  • The location for filming the hospital scenes was Boston City Hospital and the fictional “Boston Memorial” in the film was patterned after the real-life Massachusetts General Hospital.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “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 perspective, and can be enjoyed as scares, without awakening deeper and more real anxieties.’”

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