COMA: SE Blu-ray re-issue (MGM, 1978) Shout! Factory
In the mid-1970’s, MGM effectively
stopped making movies. This decision was forced upon a cash-strapped, but not
altogether – as yet – beleaguered studio after a corporate takeover by Las
Vegas financier, Kirk Kerkorian who proceeded to ransack the vast empire Louis
B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg had built from nothing in the mid-1920’s, selling
off its assets to help finance Kerkorian’s plans for the MGM Grand Hotel,
affectionately to be nicknamed ‘the plywood palace, and to meet with a grim
fate in 1980. In the wake of Kerkorian’s rummage sale, MGM did the next best
thing to making home-grown product merely to stay alive. It began financing or
acquiring movies made elsewhere under a distribution agreement with indie
producers to generate profits. Of this latter ilk - Michael Crichton’s Coma
(1978), a bone-chilling suspense thriller based on Robin Cook’s bestselling
novel. Like so many suspense movies made during the ‘70s, Coma feeds off
an all-pervasive paranoia – in this case, our generalized anxieties about going
into the hospital for surgery that becomes anything but routine.
Crichton had already proven himself
as a director with Westworld (1973), a C-budget sci-fi thriller whose
singular saving grace was the casting of Yul Brynner as its robotic gunslinger,
and, without even a manageable budget, had nevertheless captivated the public’s
fancy and made a lot of money besides. Interesting, while Westworld’s fear
of the unknown lay in the futurism of man-made robots turning against their
creator, Coma’s creepy ambiguity stemmed from the more familiar. We have
all been inside a hospital at least once, either as a patient or casual
visitor. We have walked those fluorescent-lit corridors, perhaps, peeking with
curiosity into wards where the afflicted and dying await the fate of treatment
or the inevitable. As such, we know the lay of the land, our natural impulses
on high alert even before the titles appear. And Crichton and Cook – both
doctors before transitioning into their second careers - are diabolically
manipulative in exploiting our collective apprehensions.
The screenplay by Crichton begins
in earnest with a burgeoning romance between two residents at Boston General:
enterprising, cool customer, Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas, then, still
attempting to rise beyond the moniker as the mere son of Hollywood royalty) and
the more introspective, Susan Wheeler (Canuck-born, Genevieve Bujold). Sue is
high strung – or, rather feministic in her meticulous and opinionated stance on
relationships. She doesn’t feel like acquiescing to Mark’s polite query to
re-heat dinner, and usurps even his authority to be first in ‘his’ shower after
a long, hard day at work. Occasionally, this leads to friction in the couple’s burgeoning
affair. Sue wants to be considered as Mark’s equal. Frustrated, Mark challenges
Sue’s feminism as having its lesbian tendencies. At work, Sue becomes
personally invested in the case of Nancy Greenly (Lois Chiles) – a close friend
who went in for a routine DNC that resulted in irreversible coma. Sue is in
shock. But her probing is misperceived by Mark as obsessive overreacting.
Undaunted, Sue uses her charm to
bribe one of the hospital’s computer technicians (Gary Barton) into printing
off a list of patients who have fallen into unexplained coma at the hospital
during the last year. Unfortunately, the spread sheet of names is logged by the
central mainframe, alerting Chief of Staff, Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark) to
Sue’s investigation. Harris counsels Sue.
But he also encourages her to forget the whole matter. So, Sue turns next to a
pair of pathologists (Ed Harris and Robert Burton) in the hospital morgue,
‘hypothetically’ inquiring how one could artificially induce a coma. Her
inquisitiveness ruffles the feathers of Chief of Pathology, Dr. George (Rip
Torn). Again, Dr. Harris advises Sue to set aside her theories, only this time
his kindly words are tinged with a hint of sternness. Reluctantly, Sue agrees. However,
when maintenance man, Kelly (Frank Downing) whets Sue’s appetite about a secret
in the boiler room beneath the hospital she agrees to meet him downstairs to
continue her investigation. Unfortunately for both, Kelly is murdered by hired
killer, Vince (Lance LeGault) before Sue can learn the truth. Masquerading as a
delivery man, Vince douses Kelly in a bucket of water, shoving him against the
electrical panel. Moments later, Sue discovers Kelly’s body.
After the police have wrapped up
their inquiry, Sue returns to the boiler room with a flashlight. There, she
discovers a curious divergence in the fuel lines that carry oxygen to O.R. #8
and begins to suspect healthy people are deliberately being put into
comas. Energized by her discovery, Sue
is forced to flee Vince – who has been waiting for her. A chase ensues through
the abandoned teaching labs. Sue tricks her assailant by hiding in a freezer
with the cadavers used for biological dissection, then rushes home to confide in
Mark. He is comforting, but not entirely ready to believe Sue’s outlandish
story. Instead, he decided to take Sue on a weekend getaway along the coast of
Maine. The road trip does wonders for Sue’s morale. The couple unwinds, soaking
up the sun, enjoying the sights and making love. Alas, on their journey back
into town, Sue spies an anonymous sign post for the Jefferson Institute.
Remembering that Nancy was moved to Jefferson – a long term care facility –
Nancy encourages Mark to drive her there.
But Sue is dissuaded from entering by nurse, Mrs. Emerson (Elizabeth
Ashley at her most spookily austere) who instead persuades Sue to become part
of a pre-scheduled tour with other residents the following week.
Sue does just that, but then deviates
from the group to explore uncharted corridors not on the itinerary. What she
discovers is Jefferson Institute is selling its patient’s internal organs to
the highest bidder on the black market. After a harrowing chase to escape
security guards, Sue returns to Boston General where she informs Dr. Harris of
her findings. He is concerned and offers her a drink, then quietly waits as the
powerful narcotic he has slipped into Sue’s glass takes effect. Sue collapses
in his office and Dr. Harris notifies his team he must perform an emergency
appendectomy in order to save her life. In fact, he is planning to make Sue a
permanent resident of the Jefferson Institute.
Mark hurries to the boiler room where he finds the oxygen tanks for O.R.
#8 have been switched with carbon monoxide. He destroys the connection and Dr.
Harris operates on Sue under the presumption she will never wake up after the
surgery. Instead, Sue stirs. Realizing she will be able to identify him as a
conspirator, Harris sees Mark waiting for him just beyond the O.R. doors with
two policemen who are ready to arrest him. The film ends with a defeated Harris
slowly turning out the lights in O.R. #8 for the last time.
Coma is a competent
mystery yarn, its implausible plotting held together by Crichton’s nimble
screenplay. This never dwells for too long on any one point, thereby masking
its more obvious flaws. Chief among these - the ‘cause and effect’ linkage between
Dr. Harris, Dr. George and the Jefferson Institute. The picture also is scant
to probe why any well-established, uber-wealthy chief of staff would risk his
reputation and career to pedal black market body parts? The incentive – money –
is moot. These are doctors, remember?
Where the picture excels is in its casting and mood. Michael Douglas and
Genevieve Bujold make for a winning pair. The picture is more hers than his and
Bujold does her part proud. Douglas is not given much wiggle room in the
script, but delivers solid support nevertheless. And he manages a slight hint
of menace to keep audiences guessing – is he or is he not a part of this
insidious conspiracy? In addition to Richard Widmark’s stellar support, watch
for flashes of 70’s fav, Lois Chiles and Tom Selleck, as another victim of
surgery to add to the ambiance. Michael Crichton’s direction is very solid,
building Sue’s innate uncertainty into a frenzied fear to infect the audience. Crichton’s
screenplay allows us, as Sue, to second-guess the deductions being made by our
heroine. Is she on to something, or crazy and obsessed? Until the final act, we
are never quite certain.
Crichton is so clever about the way
he keeps his protagonist just a few quick steps ahead of the game throughout
most of the film. As example: during the chase involving Sue and Vince,
Crichton whets our expectations for a forced confrontation that never happens.
We anticipate Vince catching up to Sue, for there to be a struggle and then,
predictably, an escape. But none of these outcomes occur. Instead, Sue turns
the tables on her attacker and leaves him alone and trapped inside the morgue.
This unexpected resolution is much more satisfying. And Coma is filled
with such moments, clever and stylishly created on a budget, that continue to
hold up under today’s more cynical scrutiny. Good stuff, actually – and very
much worth renewed viewing on Blu-ray.
We are going to raise a curious eyebrow
on Shout! Factory’s reissue of Coma on Blu-ray. Back in 2014, Warner
Home Video gave us a Blu that looked pretty solid. Shout!’s reissue is
supposedly sourced from a ‘new’ 2023 2K scan off an interpositive. Why not a 4K
scan from an original camera negative?!? Hmmmm. That sounds like very clever marketing
on Shout!’s part, as what is here looks suspiciously similar to Warner’s
offering of yore. Flesh tones are perhaps a shay more refined this time out,
and contrast is a mere ‘tweak’ darker than before. But otherwise, there is not
much to recommend the ‘upgrade’ or double-dip. The DTS 2.0 mono is adequate but
never outstanding. Coma was released in mono theatrically so this is
faithful to that experience. A critical eye may note slightly more refined
grain. But honestly, if you own the Warner Blu, save your cash. Because Shout!
has really gone ‘bare bones’ for what they are billing as a ‘Special Edition.’
What’s so special? An audio commentary from critic/author, Lee Gambin and novelist,
Aaron Dries? Alright, it’s an interesting track with some excellent tidbits
parceled out along the way. But the only other goodies are a photo gallery,
trailer and TV spots. Was there no time, interest or cash in the kitty for a
reflective video piece with either one or both of this movie’s surviving stars?
Either way, Shout! is scraping the bottom of the barrel on this one. If you do
not own Warner’s Blu and would like this commentary track and the new ‘vintage’
cover art (Warner’s disc had an atrocious Photoshop effort), then Shout! will
do yah. Otherwise, this is NOT worth your coin. Judge and buy accordingly.
FILM RATING (out
of 5 - 5 being the best)
3.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
0
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