Last week, Roy and I enjoyed a digression-filled discussion about Michael Crichton’s “Runaway” (1984), which starred Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons and was full of speculative tech we now take for granted. I guess this put Roy on the scent of “Coma” (1978), Crichton’s adaptation of the novel by Robin Cook, as it’s our topic for the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.
This post-Watergate hospital thriller scores points for reflecting the nation’s growing distrust of institutions and the observation that medical care has become big business. But oh, what a great film it would have been had it been directed by Alfred Hitchcock (with Judith Anderson in Elizabeth Ashley’s role)!
But everyone does a good job with what they’re given: Genevieve Bujold is a resourceful heroine, again reflective of the times – plucky and determined and alternately dismissed as hysterical or uppity by the men, even boyfriend Michael Douglas, who are clearly troubled by this “new woman.” She doesn’t want to be called “honey,” so everyone keeps telling her to relax or sending her to therapy. Of course, you know in the end it’s going to be Douglas who’s going to get credit for blowing the lid off the conspiracy. It’s what he does. (Think “The China Syndrome.”)
Rip Torn is reliably menacing (after all, this is the guy who hit Norman Mailer in the head with a hammer) and Richard Widmark is given a good role for an actor who broke into Hollywood playing sociopaths in the 1940s. Look fast for Lois Chiles, Tom Selleck, and Ed Harris (as Pathology Resident #2).
We’ll be raging against the machine, if we don’t go comatose, on the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.” Brace yourselves to be ripped and torn in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EST!
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Here’s a link to last week’s show. Every once in a while, we even talk about the movie!
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