 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Feb 11, 2017 - 4:27 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
|
My wife works long hours this time of year.
Friday is typically film night at Onya Birri's pad. My wife did not get home until after 10. I'd already had an Old Fashioned, we were tired, and we knew that we couldn't watch anything that was complex and/or with subtitles, so we decided to watch some mindless schlock.
We tape films from TCM on a weekly basis, and by the time the weekend arrives, we have no recollection of what has aired or what we have taped.
So, we're scrolling through the list, and we see "Coma." Neither of us has seen it, it is from the 70s, and the LP, as I've noted elsewhere, almost comes off like a giallo score, with its mix of dissonant orchestral music and pop.
So, my wife gets a beer, I mix another Old Fashioned, and we start to watch. We are both tired.
15 minutes: Nothing happens.
30 minutes: Nothing happens.
45 minutes: Nothing happens.
Finally, I say screw it: Let's leave on the visuals and listen to music. I hit the mute button and put on a 2-CD Scott Walker compilation that has a bunch of stuff that previously has not been reissued on CD, including a bunch of film themes. (Please see http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=118569&forumID=1&archive=0.) I mix another Old Fashioned.
60 minutes: Nothing has happened. A bunch of doctors standing around talking, like the previous 60 minutes. We are totally digging Scott Walker. "We Could be Flying" comes on, a tune written by Paul Williams, which I'd known only by the Singers Unlimited.
My wife decides to forego the beer - I think she is drinking either Bimini Twist or Lagunitas IPA - and moves onto Old Fashioneds with me.
Scott is still crooning.
75 minutes: Nothing has happened. Doctors talking. Scott is singing Henry Mancini's theme from "Sunflower." We are enjoying a pleasant evening.
I mix another round of Old Fashioneds.
90 minutes: The doctors are still standing around and talking. Scott is singing Lalo Schifrin's theme to "The Fox."
We continue listening to Scott. We are getting tipsy.
105 minutes: Scott is singing "When You Get Right Down To It," a tune that I knew, as a Philly Soul fanatic, only by the Delfonics. The evening is getting mildly blurry. The doctors are still standing around doing nothing. We see, for the first time - unless I was mixing a cocktail and I missed it - The iconic shot of the bodies suspended by the wires. Wow, that was really worth the wait!
120 minutes: The film is over. Scott is singing the theme from the Godfather. My wife suggests we go to bed, and even if we wanted to mix another round, we are out of oranges.
I clean up the bar station and drink a couple of coconut La Croixs to keep hydrated.
So, there you have it folks. Please tell me that something actually happens in the film other than the doctors standing around talking. Every time I looked at the screen, that was all I saw.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The thrill and chill of this film are conveyed through the ideas and thoughts of what is going and and what is REALLY going on, Onya, dah-link.
These things don't much transfer into dazzling visuals or giant 'splosions.
(But then, the last time I saw this I was maybe 20 years old. At my age now I might agree with you.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'd already had an Old Fashioned, we were tired,
Man, it's a good thing the post cleared up later what an "Old Fashioned" was 'cause I was startign to think ... never mind.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I've had time to think about this. I now wonder (asking only with sincerity, truly): when you saw that this is a "medical thriller", what did you think that you'd see?
Even in my balmiest days, I'd have a hard time imagining a "medical thriller" with (commenting now with more humor than sincerity  ):
a) anything that moved faster than a person (unless they tossed in a gratuitous car chase)
b) anyone that lived in a private island with a private security force and a private nuclear launch facility
c) any place more exotic than a brief visit to the tropics to find some weird antidote serum.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DavidinB has it in a nutshell.
I have fond memories of seeing this in the theater with friends when it came out. I had read the book and Michael Crichton, who did the screenplay and directed from Robin Cook's novel, tightened up the story and improved the main character's motivation considerably in the film.
The main selling point, especially in the theater in 1978, was that it felt naturalistic through the first 45 minutes - ho hum, just the story of doctors at a hospital. Then things start going wrong, slowly, seemingly coincidentally, until Genevieve Bujold notices a scary guy looking at her from across the street. Then Jerry Goldsmith's bang-up score starts and plays with a couple of notable exceptions non-stop through the rest of the film. During the climbing up the ladder scene, the audience jumped out of their seats when Jerry added a percussive stinger to his building suspense cue.
So it starts like a Pakula or Lumet 70's style thriller and then becomes something Peter Hyams could've made. Not a first rank thriller by any means, but I've always enjoyed it, and will always remember the original LP, my second Goldsmith score after The Omen.
But I certainly wouldn't recommend it for anyone who is tired and/or tipsy. Because in those circumstances, as Louis Jourdan would say, it's a bore!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Feb 17, 2017 - 9:31 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
OnyaBirri
(Member)
|
...I now wonder (asking only with sincerity, truly): when you saw that this is a "medical thriller", what did you think that you'd see?...
Honestly, I did not see this described as a "medical thriller," but even if I did, I don't go for the explosion films that routinely get discussed around here, so that description would not have scared me off, in and of itself.
If your are wondering whether I can follow subtle, slowly paced films, you may be confusing me with a different albino koala.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The thrill and chill of this film are conveyed through the ideas and thoughts of what is going and and what is REALLY going on, Onya, dah-link.
These things don't much transfer into dazzling visuals or giant 'splosions.
I've seen the movie several times and agree, it is a very effective thriller, but it's about ideas more than about "bang, boom, bang".
In any case, the movie contains also one of my favorite Jerry Goldsmith scores and is excellently spotted. The first half of the movie, there is no underscore, no killers, just routine hospital occurrences that slowly but surely seem suspicious, until then in the second half of the movie, once the rug is pulled from Dr. Wheeler, is scored almost wall-to-wall. It's one of the best conspiracy thrillers to come out of the 1970s.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Feb 18, 2017 - 6:37 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
MikeP
(Member)
|
The thrill and chill of this film are conveyed through the ideas and thoughts of what is going and and what is REALLY going on, Onya, dah-link.
These things don't much transfer into dazzling visuals or giant 'splosions.
I've seen the movie several times and agree, it is a very effective thriller, but it's about ideas more than about "bang, boom, bang".
In any casse, the movie contains also one of my favorite Jerry Goldsmith scores and is excellently spotted. The first half of the movie, there is no underscore, no killers, just routine hospital occurrences that slowly but surely seem suspicious, until then in the second half of the movie, once the rug is pulled from Dr. Wheeler, is scored almost wall-to-wall. It's one of the best conspiracy thrillers to come out of the 1970s.
Exactly. It's a smart, taut thriller.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
