Hospital

Hospital is the third Frederick Wiseman picture I've seen, as I slowly but surely peruse through his unbelievably checkered and well-rounded filmography. His first film I saw - his controversial debut documentary Titicut Follies, which focused on the poor treatment in an insane asylum in Massachusetts in the 1960's - is required viewing to say the least, in its deeply disturbing, eighty-four minute glory.

I thought the movie was very useful for those who never had the chance to witness how hospitals in the US operate. It was simple, which made it even more realistic.

More horror film than documentary, Frederick Wiseman's "Hospital" begins with a patient's stomach being cut open by doctors. Wiseman's camera then peers inside the bloody gap, a moment which perhaps signals Wiseman's intentions with "Hospital": to peer into a sphere of human life which man routinely keeps sanitised and concealed.

Acclaimed documentarian Fredrick Wiseman trains his notorious camera on the goings on of a hospital used primarily by people from a lower income bracket, and the results will likely sadden and horrify you.Wiseman is always skilled at making you think he's being totally objective; it appears that he just turns his camera on and lets it run.

Frederick Wiseman really set a new standard in regards to the Direct Cinema and the Cinema Verité movements. This is a very jarring experience for people who aren't used to watching documentaries.

In my entry on "High School", talked about how Wiseman was criticized for showing a close-up of a girl with over sized glasses. Some considered that shot to be unnesesarry and potentially embarrassing to the girl.