Rent Britannia Hospital (1982)

3.2 of 5 from 97 ratings
1h 52min
Rent Britannia Hospital Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
With the imminent arrival of the Queen, Britannia Hospital couldn't be any less prepared. With striking workers only allowing patients near to death into the hospital, the kitchen staff refusing to prepare food until union leaders are bought off with promises of O.B.E.'s, and the head surgeon conducting, with public funds, expensive, deranged experiments, like inventing a modern Dr. Frankenstein - there is nothing short of anarchy! With Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) hot on their heels as the undercover investigative TV reporter catching all this bedlam on film, this energetic black comedy is a very bleak insight into the wrongs of modern Westernised culture.
Actors:
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Directors:
Producers:
Davina Belling, Clive Parsons
Writers:
David Sherwin
Studio:
StudioCanal
Genres:
Classics, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Collections:
All the Twos: 1972-2012, Cinema Paradiso's 2022 Centenary Club, Cinema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 1, A Brief History of Film...
BBFC:
Release Date:
19/07/2004
Run Time:
112 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
Subtitles:
None
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.78:1 / 16:9
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • Trailer
BBFC:
Release Date:
29/06/2020
Run Time:
117 minutes
Languages:
English LPCM Mono
Subtitles:
English Hard of Hearing
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.85:1
Colour:
Colour
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • The BEHP Interview with Lindsay Anderson (1991, 117 mins): archival audio recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring the celebrated director in conversation with Alan Lawson and Norman Swallow
  • Healthy Reputation (2020, 21 mins): actor Robin Askwith fondly reflects on his films and friendship with Anderson
  • Biles Apart (2020, 9 mins): actor Brian Pettifer recalls his close working relationship with Anderson A Cut Above (2020, 11 mins): editor Michael Ellis discusses the film's production
  • Image gallery: publicity and promotional material
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Original teaser trailer
  • World premiere on Blu-ray

More like Britannia Hospital

Found in these customers lists

Reviews (1) of Britannia Hospital

It's The Scientist's Round - Britannia Hospital review by CH

Spoiler Alert
11/03/2024

Artificial Intelligence. The brain is becoming burdened by the phrase. Little noticed, though, has been the third film, Britannia Hospital (1982) in the series by Lindsay Anderson and David Sherwin about Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) up against the world.

This time, the camera turns to health, in particular a research hospital which is preparing for a Royal visit while staff are on strike and a mob gathers outside to protest about the private wing in which a dictator has fetched up with his retinue (there is a terrific scene with them and an orange in his ante-room).

And what a cast is gathered here. Anderson was able to draw upon his familiar faces, including Alan Bates who was content to be glimpsed as a corpse. Mona Washbourne, Arthur Lowe, Joan Plowright... they are all here. As is Graham Cowdon, familiar from O Lucky Man as a crazed scientist who experiments with animals. Out the back at the Hospital he has now progressed to humans, and his own sampling of”delicious” brain (made into what would later be called a smoothie) is but a starter.

Protestors and Royal alike find themselves in the audience for a lecture about the culmination of all this, a large, mechanical/electronic creature which recites an obvious enough speech from Hamlet - capped by Cowdon’s remark that, come the end of the century, all that will be contained within something the size of a matchbox.

As we know, a quarter of the way into the next next century, this Intelligence occupies even less space.

Could any machine manufacture a script to rival this one? True, it can sometimes feel as if several elements have been yoked together, even a touch of Carry On, but the same could be said of the previous two in the series. The mob - such a crowd of extras - is unleashed, and there is a controlled anarchy to the film itself.

Why is it not more widely known?

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Unlimited films sent to your door, starting at £15.99 a month.