Daily Dialogue — February 23, 2014

“It is all rubbish isn’t it. I mean… transplants, anti-bodies, we can produce birth ectogenetically, we can clone people like carrots, and half the kids in this ghetto haven’t been inoculated for polio. We have established an enormous medical entity and we’re sicker than ever. We cure nothing! We heal, nothing! The whole goddamn wretched world, strangulating in front of our eyes.”

— The Hospital (1971), written by Paddy Chayefsky

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is surgery.

Trivia: The movie became a benchmark template for black comedies examining other institutions such as Network (1976) (the media) and Teachers (1984) (education), the first also being written by this movie’s writer Paddy Chayefsky and the latter also being directed by this film’s director Arthur Hiller.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Everyone knows Network, but if you’ve never seen The Hospital, it’s a must-see. Paddy Chayefsky was not only a master wordsmith with stellar dialogue as evidenced by today’s post, but also a prophet. Both The Hospital and Network are eerily prescient about what is happening in today’s world.

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