After satirising Britain's education system in 'If....' and the British justice system in 'O Lucky Man!', Lindsay Anderson takes a look at the health care system in this final part of his trilogy with Malcolm McDowell. It is not as effectively dramatic as 'If....', nor is it as delightfully whimsical as 'O Lucky Man!', but even if slightly inferior, this is a good film in itself, full of fascinating ideas and colourful characters. It is quite interesting to watch throughout, although a bit excessively disgusting and over-the-top at times, and in general it is a fairly solid conclusion to perhaps the oddest trilogy that has ever been filmed.

British comedies made in bad taste are sometimes some of the funniest films ever made, because they defy convention and literally go out of their way to offend the people in power to make a point and set the steps for change. I started watching this movie and was immediately reminded of two previous films, the American black comedy "The Hospital" (1971) and "National Health" (1972),the British medical organization which this film takes a stab at. It is the saga of a medical industry in total disarray, dealing with staff strikes and poor health treatment for the patients outside of the upper class, and pompous administration officials. The opening scene, an old man gagging in agony, how's the staff sitting around talking about taking their tea break, and leaving the poor soul there to all of a sudden just gasp and die. Not funny in reality at all, but I was laughing so much I nearly split my sides.

You basically could take this script, change certain lines and it's in focus on any industry out there. But spoofing the medical industry makes a bigger point because it's something very important, and by utilizing comedy to get attention, it makes people think twice about what day would go through if hospitalized or what others around them go through outside of the Rich who refuse to share a hospital floor with those in the lower classes. It's the third part of a Trilogy, not necessarily a sequel to the two previous films, but featuring the same character that Malcolm McDowell played in the cult movies "If..." and "O Lucky Man", all directed by Lindsey Anderson. A far cry from his most remembered film, "The Whales of August", which was the big screen exit of Lillian Gish and Bette Davis.

The often scantily clad McDowell is just part of an ensemble, a huge cast of veteran British actors (and a few Americans) including Joan plowright, Marsha Hunt, Richard Griffiths, Jill Bennett, Vivian Pickles, Alan Bates and even Mark Hamill. The story surrounds the National Health preparing for a visit from a member of the Royal Family, and the outlandish activities surrounding getting ready for that visit, including press conferences, private meetings, experiments going on behind the scenes and plans for the future that make no sense in a way of improving the industry. Sometimes the funniest bits don't come from the lines, but the pickle pusses on the administration that shows their pomposity.

There is rarely a time when I have a smile on my face throughout an entire film, and in the case of comedy, rarely do I find myself laughing so much as I did here. It's a bit longer than your basic comedy, but there's a lot more than just parody and pratfalls and pompous fools to laugh at here. This is a black comedy with a point, and that point is made very early on in the film. Having just seen "If..." very recently, I was familiar with McDowell's character and the style of comedy that Anderson was going after, but you do not have to watch either of the earlier films to appreciate this. Some of the darker moments are truly disturbing, and the mocking attitude towards society and humanity in general might offend a few, but if you can stomach it all, you'll come out of this truly amused and perhaps a bit enlightened, reminding the world that the best part of humanity is sometimes it's ability to laugh at itself.

With 1968's "If...", Lindsay Anderson looked at the British boarding school system and the hierarchy therein, with Malcolm McDowell playing one of the students. He followed it up with 1973's "O Lucky Man!", wherein McDowell's character enters the labor force expecting to be a big success, only to get ripped off. The final part of the trilogy was 1982's "Britannia Hospital". Again we have McDowell's character, but this time he's only a supporting character.

This black comedy focuses on a dysfunctional hospital. In addition to the hospital's preference for private patients - including an Idi Amin-like dictator - the director of the new wing is mainly focused on a series of perverted experiments. Everything culminates in a protest.

I would presume that the movie got intended as a criticism of the National Health Service's policies under Margaret Thatcher (although as Tony Benn told Michael Moore in "Sicko", Thatcher didn't actually try to abolish the NHS, knowing how popular universal health care is among the British population). Whatever the case, the movie is a fun romp. Maybe not as sharp or biting as the previous movies in the trilogy, but no less shocking.

In addition to McDowell, the cast includes two people from the Harry Potter movies: Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) and Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon). There's also Joan Plowright, Mark Hamill, Alan Bates and Brian Glover (one of the bar patrons in "An American Werewolf in London" and one of the inmates in "Alien 3").