Article 99
Dr. Richard Sturgess leads a team of compassionate doctors at a veteran's hospital. Along with Drs. Morgan, Handleman and Van Dorn, he fights to deliver adequate care to needy veterans in the face of funding cuts and a corrupt administration. To succeed, the staff may have to bend the rules and circumvent the villainous "Article 99," a bureaucratic loophole that prevents veterans from receiving the benefits they deserve.
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- Cast：
- Ray Liotta , Kiefer Sutherland , Forest Whitaker , Lea Thompson , John C. McGinley , John Mahoney , Keith David
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Reviews
Sorry, this movie sucks
Overrated
Did you people see the same film I saw?
A Masterpiece!
Once upon a time in the Reagan administration, a cog in the cabinet discovered to his amazement that with all the US veterans floating out there from the abysmal failure in Vietnam, the sheer cost of treating them as they aged would skyrocket.Thus it was decided to abolish their problems. See in Bushist America we ignore any problem that we don't want to face.The movie brings up a valid point. The VA has failed in its mission. And the situation from the time the movie was released has worsened. With 80,000 in treatment from the latest war the issues raised by this movie are ones that need to be addressed.Regrettably by reading some hijinx from M * A * S * H into the civil service bureaucracy of the VA and creating a feel good ending the scriptwriters muted the very point they'd like to have made. I gave this a ******* 3 ******** for all its comic but unfunny unrealism. The movie compares with John Q for the unrealistic expectations foisted upon the viewer.It's betterto Tell it like it is than to pretend a social problem is getting better!
I wish that I could agree with the above poster, but unfortunately I can't. First of all Article 99 was a great movie, great cast, and an overall great attempt to put a face on the plight of all our veterans that are in need of medical care. The only flaw in the movie is that there is usually no one that will take a stand and fight for our veterans. From overcrowded hospitals, to canceled benefits, fraud and abuse from a system that is flawed and useless. I watched my grandfather go through the agonies of slowly dying from lack of care, without any dignity, my friends and now myself. I wish that I could say that it is an isolated case, and/or an isolated hospital, but since I have been to 4 VA Hospitals in three different states, it is not an isolated case and/or an isolate hospital. I know we hear it all the time, another veteran crying that he is not being taken care of my only question is when is someone going to listen and change the system that created the word "red tape."
the greatest casualty may be due to Red Tape. Not only does this film benefit from some true TALENT in the acting department, but Howard Deutch does a great job of portraying the sad state of Veteran's Care in the US. No, this does not appear to be "based on a true story," but it is typical of what goes on in the VA Hospitals; as a former Army Medic (now a Service Connected Disabled Vet) I know whereof I speak. I highly recommend this film!
Set in a VA hospital, this movie illustrates what happens when "red tape" gets in the way of helping people. An enjoyable mixture of comedy and drama, it is reminiscent of the Altman classic M*A*S*H, staring Sutherland's father Donald. In fact, there's a nice salute to the elder Sutherland, during a scene between Keifer and an older hospital patient.Those who didn't "get" this movie were perhaps looking for the wrong things. I won't say this movie was meant to inform, though perhaps it was. But it definitely makes you think. Is a medical system where doctors have to steal supplies and schedule proxy operations really what our country's heroes deserve? Moving and entertaining, I would definitely recommend this movie.
