UnowPriceless hyped garbage

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

vrgerometta This film truly caught my attention, I just watched on TV, and was really impressed. Why? well, we could say that there probably are a lot of these films (almost a sub-genre within drama movies) when regarding to the tone, characters, existential conflicts and ideal-moral messages but I think this one stands aside. The story is very simple, the acting is great but realistic, the film is shot in a very classical style, the conflicts are there, my point is that despite we (as an audience) have all the elements at the surface, this film runs more deep and has more layers than it seems at first sight. The true power or engine here is the script, which hides beneath the great cast and wonderful directing, it allows us to think a predictable-known story in a symbolic (and political) way, opening a lot of cognitive doors that can take us apart from the plain meaning to different new levels of thinking these very same elements.For instance, we have a "doctor" who is actually tortured by the burocratics politics of the very same hospital he works for, and finds himself becoming, first a patient, afterwards something less than human (although not like Kafka's Gregor) because of the medical protocol doctors tend to follow. Also, he meets a woman who was sentenced to die by her medical insurance company (another Kafka theme, the destiny or conviction taken upon ourselves). So he ends up discovering the truth of his reality and himself, waking from his dream-death (as an institutionalized being) reforging his identity and humanity. It's interesting to find here two important's elements such as the mythological way of understanding living as a dream and death as life, like a new state of mind only perceived after dying; and second, the battle the hero in modern days fights for, his self-independency. This is obviously a political allegory against the powers that rules our lives and fates, and can-must be thought in any other line of work, but got to admit that gains another dimension by being themselves DOCTORS, and not caring at all about us, just only money motivated like a sales man would. The Doctor is much more complex and I hope people would give this film a chance, it's the exact opposite and in my opinion a future reference to what any medical(TV or film) story should aim for.p.s.: Mike Nichol's Regarding Henry it's in a similar level than this one.

vm_postitnotes As a person born with a genetic disorder that suffers from a variety of maladies, I have a very hard time being sympathetic towards people in the medical profession. Many times, it seems like being a doctor requires you to turn off your heart (so to speak) and treat everything like a problem that needs to be solved, forgetting about human things like emotion and fear.This movie is very useful for people like me in that it makes doctors human again.I admit that in the past, I have often vacillated in my opinion on this movie. The main character (William Hurt) does not appear to have learned anything by this movie's conclusion. While he is more sympathetic to the fears and woes that patients suffer, much of the underlying pathology present in the medical profession in general is downplayed. For example, the variety of cancer patients that have to suffer either painful or humiliating deaths (or both) because their cases were mishandled seem to simply be put aside as mistakes that happen because doctors are human.That may be the point, though.Without spoiling excessively, the final scene of the movie involves Hurt's character getting a message from a friend of his, a terminal cancer patient played by Elizabeth Perkins that had died recently. She tells a story about a farmer who is feared by crows because he chases them violently off his farm. One day, he changes his heart and comes outside, raising his arms to welcome the crows. But no crows come - because they are terrified of the farmer's new scarecrow. Doctors have a path to follow. When they find what they are looking for, they must use their knowledge and compassion together to create a new path for themselves. They cannot expect the world to forget their distrust in a heartbeat. It takes demonstrated work.This is what "The Doctor" teaches you. Doctors and patients alike should give this movie a fair shake. It may not be a classic piece of film, but it is a very compassionate, heartfelt story.

dunmore_ego Many times "The Doctor" crouches about to pounce on intrinsic deficiencies beclouding medical bureaucracy, then shies away at almost every opportunity. While Doctor MacKee (the remarkable William Hurt) does undergo certain difficulties when diagnosed with throat cancer and thrown in amongst the afflicted rabble - in accessing his files, being patronized, filling out forms, etc. - his ultimately smooth operation and recovery tempers the humiliating tribulations he was made to suffer.And he's a doctor. His wallet is completely unaffected, thereby negating whole chains of effects which compound problems between patients, their afflictions and hospitals.Second act enters Chick Flick mode when MacKee's marriage falters (with Christine Lahti - who does a great "sad smile" - playing the troubled wife because plot device calls for it) and he leans on fellow patient (pert, young and pale Elizabeth Perkins) for psychological support. Platonically. Doubt this faux-romance would have flared up had Perkins been 58 and slightly paunchy.The disdain that the black hole vortex of the medical profession affords us non-medical civilians cannot be assuaged by this shallow fantasy, which ends with MacKee reconciling his marriage (after his platonic pillar dies) and then forcing his med students to pretend patienthood for 72 hours to experience patient humiliation.Though addressing the problem from the wrong end, it is a nice sentiment. But absolute malarkey.(Movie Maniacs, visit: www.poffysmoviemania.com)

elton-4 This movie is excellent. I am a Doctor too, General Surgeon and was very impressed by it. I am a teacher, as well, and it would be very good if I could watch together with my medical students. I do not know why this movie is not available to buy. It should be, either in VHS or DVD.