Film

Britannia Hospital (1982)

Director: Lindsay Anderson

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

It's not merely the rather obvious and all-embracing metaphor of a chaotic and run-down hospital standing in for Britain that is the problem with Anderson's vitriolic attempt at a comedy on the state of the nation; what is perhaps more annoying, finally, is his general tone, that of a cynical old sourpuss with an enormous chip on his shoulder and little - if any - sympathy for anybody. As the caricatures of authoritarians, strikers, media hacks and so on go through the nightmarish events surrounding a royal visit to the hospital on its 500th anniversary, one can't help feeling that so much contempt on the director's part only hides a lack of commitment and focus; the result is less neo-Swiftian satire than a 'Carry On Down the Drain, Britain' with pretensions to deep significance.

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