Excellent adaptation.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

At a time, when the era of so called "New Hollywood" emerged from its ruins with movies like "Jaws (1975)" by Steven Spielberg as well as "Star Wars (1977)" by George Lucas to fill auditoriums in U.S. movie houses, a movie directed by novelist Michael Crichton misses the consideration period for best picture in the year 1977 by a week, releasing on Januar 6th 1978. The single producer Martin Erlichman clearly had the hardest time to fight through MGM's bureaucracy, unable to deliver on suggested deadline December 31st 1977 to be illegible for consideration, "Coma" presented Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer fell flat to find its audience. For one of Hollywood's major studio, it rang the bell of a final round of missed endeavors to be of matter again on a steady emerging international market, just before raising more than 40,000,000 U.S. Dollars to lift Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" out of dust for a considerable release on November 19th 1980. By then it was to late, the studio must sell its library to Warner Bros. Pictures, arguable suffering from the overthrown finances to this very day. My article shines a light on devious financial practices in a system, which still is occupied by fear of losing everything, so to say the house, the car, the dining and college-education for the kids. "Coma" clearly cuts a nerve as a medical thriller, which utilizes exact medical termini to advances inside out Boston memorial hospital residents to drive through a story of social conspiracy, which challenges the specter's senses. A chef of surgery, played by Richard Widmark, who deliberately puts healthy patients in a coma by fraud anesthesia to sell their organs to the highest international bidder, is in deed an inconvenient spine for the audience a bitter pill to swallow. The character of Dr. Susan Wheeler embarks of detective-like journey to uncover conspicuous malpractice of chef resident Dr. Harris by penetrating the whole everyday apparatus of Boston Memorial Hospital, triggered by her friend's death in standard abortion procedure in notorious Operation Room (OR8), where Carbon Monoxid runs through the anesthetics pimp-line to cut oxygen from potential illegal donor patient's brain as two pathology residents, played by Richard Burton and an early Ed Harris, so explained to Dr. Wheeler. From that point, Director Michael Crichton keeps tight track of his movie's suspense frequency in the best Hitchcockean manner, which has his supremacy in a 13.5 Minutes chase sequence, pushing Bujold's character from the hospital's cellar, through corridors into an teaching amphitheater to a freeing chamber of prepped corpses. Only once the audience is allowed to take a holiday from arresting scenario, when Susan & Mark take a weekend off at upstate New England before the sequence gets broken off by Susan's continuing detective work at Jefferson Institute, where Elizabeth Ashley plays the executing manager Mrs. Emerson, who coordinates the fast-paced donor organs sell-outs in a chilling performance, which builds reminiscences towards the character of Mrs. Danvers in "Rebecca (1940)". Unfortunately, after exposing Avantgarde production design by Albert Brenner in the name- given Coma chamber under ultraviolet light sources, some shots fall flat, due to badly prepared make-up effects, for example a illegal kidney extraction, cameo character Sam Murphy, played by Pre-Magnum Tom Selleck. Jerry Goldsmith's score does its finest to keep the tension screw going until Dr. Susan Wheeler escapes on top of a ambulance car.The screenplay had been precisely-adapted by Michael Crichton from a best-seller novel written by Robin Cook. Suspense, pace and character's beat structure work well with the occasionally lack of a cinematographic vision in scene transitions, before the ending concludes sophisticated entertainment in an arresting and claustrophobic atmosphere, which might have been too specialized for an audience of the 70s, which were clearly occupied with Vietnam war aftermath in the U.S. and terror activism in Europe. For a globalized world from today, where the international relations stretch from overplayed to non-existent and the majority of occidental society wrestling with their existence in an fast- paced and fluid world. "Coma" brings up a controversial ethical topic of how to handle the individuals in prolonging life stretches and steady-growing world population.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (note: revised and edited article from June 9th 2017)

Of course the novel is better and it loses it's extraordinary level of disbelief, shock and horror if you have seen it before or read the book. It's just like an Agatha Christie "who-done-it". Once you know the killer (and why) some of the "fizz" goes out of it. I saw it on a really big screen. The haunting scene at "The Institute" was burned into my mind forever. It's so unbelievable to see a sea of almost-perfect human bodies "floating" on suspended wires inside of a benign warehouse room that looks like "Costco". It's right-up-there with that old Twilight Zone episode where everyone's face is distorted and normal looking people are considered hideous-looking. Once the method of "murder" (O.K. the victims are only just almost-dead) is discovered, the movie goes downhill quickly and ends soon afterwords, as it should. Nobody believes what is going on and Genevieve Bujold's "young doctor" character almost dies at the hand of the perpetrator, as he tries to cover it all up. How does everybody end up in a "coma" and why? If you don't already know, watch the movie and find out! Featuring a young Michael Douglas and one my favorite character actors, Rip Torn. Sensitive Viewer Warning: some of the surgeries are a bit graphic and the female coma victims are almost naked. Not for the prudish or squeamish.

A top-notch suspense thriller from Michael Crichton, the man who gave us WESTWORLD and JURASSIC PARK. Unlike those rousing crowd-pleasing adventure yarns, COMA is a film which works on subtlety, building up a level of quiet suspense unseen in all but 5% of such would-be films. Yes, this is great stuff, with tons of atmosphere and suspense, great acting from the entire cast and a large, complicated (yet easy to follow) plot with far-reaching implications. There are so many great scenes in COMA that it's hard to keep track of them. There's a wonderful stalking sequence in which Bujold finds herself being chased by a murderous mystery man, which makes the best use of a hospital I've yet to see in a movie - forget the gory, boring HALLOWEEN 2, this is the real stuff and with not a drop of blood to be seen. There's also a really nail-biting climax which had me on the edge of my seat - something which only a small handful of films are capable of doing.Following in the footsteps of other '70s conspiracy films like THE CONVERSATION, COMA lets the plot unfold at a slow pace, building up pieces of a jigsaw until it all falls into place with a horrific clarity. Genevieve Bujold is excellent as the smart and sexy young doctor who acts as the eyes and ears of the audience, as we follow her journey and never get ahead of her in her investigation. The camera-work and music is also great, with fine locations (the Jefferson building couldn't look more sinister) and some excellent visuals, like the famous shot of the comatose bodies suspended from wires in a warehouse. The action set-pieces are well handled and stick in the mind (like the murder of the janitor, for instance, which has the best on screen death by electrocution I've seen).Bujold is supported by a familiar cast of old and new faces, all of whom put in fine turns. Michael Douglas is the misunderstood boyfriend who helps Bujold in her research, while Richard Widmark has the fun role of the evil mastermind (don't worry, it doesn't take much to work that out) behind the illegal organ donation scheme. The rest of the cast includes Tom Selleck as a victim, Rip Torn as a doctor and a chilling turn from the guy playing the hired killer; it's a shame I don't know the actor as I'd keep an eye out for him. COMA takes the audience on an epic journey, is gripping at all times, and simply one of the best conspiracy-thrillers out there. 100% recommended.

Based on Robin Cook's novel, adapted and directed by author Michael Crichton, this hospital thriller has Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas as doctors and intimates who become involved in an apparent conspiracy after a series of mysterious deaths plague their hospital. Though Bujold tries to convince her boss(played by Richard Widmark) of her concerns, he just says that its all just unfortunate coincidences, though she remains unconvinced, and as it turns out, with good reason...High concept thriller about unethical surgery and the value of human life wrapped up in a vast conspiracy thriller fails to come off, though it has an interesting premise, there is little interest in Bujold's character, and the film remains an unconvincing potboiler. Too bad.