Britannia Hospital Review

  Britannia Hospital is the last of director Lindsay Anderson's Mick Travis trilogy.  It started with If . . .  a once extremely controversial film that updated and Anglophiled Zero for Conduct, continued with  O Lucky Man  the daring utterly off-beat, dryly cynical and satirical 70s classic that is finally  FINALLY coming to DVD in the next few months and completed it with Britannia Hospital.  What all three films have in common is the character of Mick Travis  created by and played by Malcolm McDowall.  In Britannia Hospital however, Mick is a supporting character and while an important character, not the center of the film. 

As with the other films,  Britannia Hospital is a dark anarchistic satire aimed at the British culture and particularly critical of the Thatcher government of the late 1970s.

Surprisingly, Britannia Hospital is a surrealistic over-the-top, silly, mad-cap, absurdist farce.  It tries to marry art-house satire with the Carry On movies. It's a mess.   It also has a couple of scenes so gory, they might remind you of Stuart Gordon's near classic blood bath film; Re-Animator.

I saw the film when it was first released in the U.S. in 1982, and thought its satire was not all that original and it wasn't nearly as funny as Monty Python at their best. 

   One of the best satires of health care remains 1971's THE HOSPITAL with George C. Scott and Dianne Rigg.  However,  director Lindsay Anderson and Malcolm McDowall not to mention a host of other very capable British actors put on quite a show-provided you don't mind loud, absurd films that at times don't make a lot of sense.

Britannia Hospital is celebrating it's 500th birthday.  Union workers are striking outside the institution and the staff that is still employed is more concerned with ending their shifts on time then helping patients. 

Right next door to the old hospital is the modernistic research facility.  Professor Millar ( well played by a hammy Graham Crowden)   is going to demonstrate his work which we eventually learn is assembling a man out of spare body parts AND creating a new form of life that succeed mankind.  Hospital director Vincent Potter (Leonard Rossiter) must somehow make sure things run smoothly, expecially since the Queen Mother her royal Highness herself is expected to arrive shortly. 

There's also a visiting controversial dignitary President Mgami, an African despot who is supposedly a sadistic murderous cannibal (aka Idi Amin) and gathering outside the hospital and getting more hostile by the hour are hundreds of black activists demanding that Mgami is taken into custody and tried for his human rights violations.   Malcolm McDowall's Mick Travis character is now an undercover news reporter who is trying to verify some disturbing rumors.  One of his co-workers (who is briefly seen in a few scenes that take place inside a media van) is played by Mark Hammill who was in London filming Star Wars when Lindsey tapped him to be in this film.

The craziness is sometimes funny, always loud, a bit confusing, and not boring.  It leads up to wild Grand Guignol sequence and then a too long and talky final scene that wraps things up pretty much as you might expect something like this to be wrapped up.

Appearing in small roles are Vivian Pickes, Joan Plowright, Jill Bennet, and a pair of royals played by a midget and a transvestite.  And yes, making an appearance without lines is Alan Bates !!!

Anchor BAY's  dvd looks very good and the sound is crisp and clear, though there are no subtitles and a couple of the thicker accents may be a bit tough to decipher for some.

The extras are sparce.  There's a theatrical trailed and a 12 minute interview with Malcom McDowall who talks about his mentor and friend, director Lindsay Anderson. 

Britannia Hospital  1982  Directed by Lindsay Anderson