Devils, The (1971)

Ken Russell's controversial film is brooding and powerful. The Devils depicts the downfall of charming priest, Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed). At the beginning, he is concerned with earthly pleasures--sex, power, vanity--but as the film progresses and the Church and government tighten their grip on Grandier, he reveals despite his faults, he was not completely bad. The film is famous for having graphic scenes depicting violence and nudity, including scenes of torture and hysterical "possessed" nuns masturbating and having an orgy. These scenes were certainly shocking, but they were often overly self-indulgent. Really, the film is the most interesting whenever Reed is on screen. The other performances were fantastic all around, with Vanessa Redgrave as the neurotic Sister Jeanne and Michael Gothard as the over-the-top "rockstar" witchhunter/exorcist. The art direction and sets are gorgeous, and curiously, completely removed from 17th century setting. The film punches hard showing the extent that man is willing to go to corrupt political and religious institutions to his will, and comes highly recommended if you've got the stomach for it.

9/10

Hospital, The (1971)

Paddy Chayefsky's scathing satire on the medical industry has all of the bite of a good satire but lacks the focus. George C. Scott plays a troubled doctor who faces personal problems amidst a slew of mysterious malpractice deaths of his own staff-members. Chayefsky's dialogue is snappy as usual, occasionally drifting too far into medical gobbledygook for its own good. Diana Rigg is a wonderful actress (and very beautiful), but the development between her character and George C. Scott's character is rushed and unrealistic. The reasoning behind the deaths felt unsatisfactory as well, although after the initial shock I admit I was intrigued, no matter how screwy. The point the film was making about the health care industry was illustrated well in many moments of the film, but I felt like the film was too distracted for it to work. The Hospital has some good things it's trying to say but just doesn't manage to get out quite right. Five years later, Chayefsky fixed the problems that marred The Hospital and wrote one of the most prophetic, pointed, and witty satires of our time: Network.

6/10

PS: For several of the tracking master shots, the framing on the DVD chops the heads off the characters. The film was still watchable, but those shots did appear to be framed for a fullscreen shot (possibly an open matte?) then cropped incorrectly to 1.85:1.