Why let the Oscars have all the fun?
In honor of this year’s Academy Awards, Medscape and WebMD asked readers to pick the best of the best from the world of healthcare-related films and performances. More than 250 readers weighed in on more than 50 characters and 25 films to select the best portrayals of medicine on the silver screen.
Readers were allowed not only to select from pre-selected candidates, but could also write in their favorites.
So, without further ado, the Meddy goes to …
• Best Medical Film: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Criminal Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) pleads insanity and finds himself out of prison, but in an institution overseen by the iron-fisted Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). The 1975 drama earned several Oscars, including Best Picture (one of its producers is the actor Michael Douglas), Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Fletcher), and Best Director (Milos Forman).
The film earned 42% of the vote in our reader poll, followed by “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” (15%), “The Fault in Our Stars” (10%), “The Hospital” (7%).
Upon its release, The Hollywood Reporterheaped praise on the film’s actors and its director, calling the movie “a frighteningly persuasive portrait of a preeminently sane man being pushed to the outer limits of his sanity by the need to conform to hospital rules and regulations.”
Drew Ayers, PhD, associate professor of film for Eastern Washington University, said the film’s excellent ensemble represented the emotions of many of the time.
“This was the mid-1970s, and the film spoke to alienation and not fitting in, especially Randle McMurphy,” he said. “There was this quest for freedom, but it was unobtainable, as in Easy Rider or Bonnie and Clyde.”
Wayne Grody, MD, PhD, professor of pathology & laboratory medicine, pediatrics, and human genetics at the UCLA School of Medicine as well as a frequent consultant for film and TV shows like CSI, understands the appeal of the overall winner.
“Certainly, it’s a classic. It’s considered one of the greatest films ever made by director Milos Forman,” he said. “As with the original text by Ken Kesey, the film adaptation adopts that sort of sensationalized, magical realism slant that takes it from being a true depiction of psychiatry to something more Hollywood – which clearly resonates.”
• Best Doctor: Robin Williams, Awakenings
In a shock to many at the time, Williams was not nominated for an Oscar for his role as neurologist Malcolm Sayer, MD. That honor went to his co-star, Robert DeNiro, as patient Leonard Lowe, the beneficiary of an experimental drug used on catatonic patients. Williams actually tied with DeNiro for Best Actor honors from the National Board of Review.
Awakenings, which did garner a Best Picture nomination, is based on the memoir of the same name by Oliver Sacks, the inspiration for Williams’ character. When the movie was released in 1990, film critic Roger Ebert called it one of Williams’ “best performances, pure and uncluttered, without the ebullient distractions he sometimes adds —the shtick where none is called for.”
In our poll, Williams was the overwhelming favorite, with 55% of the vote. Trailing a bit behind in second was Jennifer Garner in “Dallas Buyers Club,” followed by Omar Sharif in “Dr. Zhivago” (12%), and Michael J. Fox in “Doc Hollywood” (10%).
For Ayers, Williams’ portrayal of the real doctor, and the real drug, mixed with a little fictionalization of Hollywood is part of what makes the film and its performances so realistic.
“[Sacks] was a well-known doctor and that lent credibility, as well as the real story behind the drugs,” he said. “It’s probably the most accurate portrayal [of the nominees].”
• Best Nurse: Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
The aforementioned Fletcher not only won an Oscar, but also a Golden Globe, and honors from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for her role as cultural icon Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. In her Academy Award speech, she thanked the organization with the line, “all I can say is I’ve loved being hated by you.”
Our audience also loved Fletcher, with 47% of the vote. Emma Thompson’s Nurse Emily in “Angels in America” finished a distant second, followed by Ben Stiller’s role as Greg Focker in “Meet the Parents.”
For Grody, Fletcher’s role stands as “an iconic moment in movie history.”
When the American Film Institute compiled its list of top movie villains in 2003, the strict nurse ranked #5 behind Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, Darth Vader, and The Wicked Witch of the West. In 2018, Fletcher told Vanity Fair that the idea to have the nurse speak placidly was her idea — something director Milos Forman eventually accepted — and that she had concocted a backstory for the character shared with no one else on se or to this day.
“The role is memorable,” said Ayers. “This depiction of a nurse is clearly not one to emulate, but it’s memorable.”
• Best Patient: Tom Hanks, Philadelphia
Tom Hanks won the first of his two back-to-back Oscars for the role of Andrew Beckett, a gay Philadelphia attorney forced to hide his sexuality and his HIV-positive status from his partners at a powerful law firm. Hanks’ portrayal in one of the first major studio movies to address the AIDS crisis broke the mold of him as a largely comedic actor, while also providing important representation of gay characters to a wide audience.
Upon receiving the Trailblazer Award for his role in 2015 by Out Magazine, the journalist Nathan Smith outlined the significance of a recognizable actor playing Beckett: “What Philadelphia showed was this: Tom Hanks gave a face to being gay. Tom Hanks gave a face to living with AIDS. Tom Hanks gave a face to being both gay and living with AIDS.”
Ayers called Hanks’ portrayal and the movie itself “historically important,” in how it addressed homosexuality, the AIDS crisis, and the general public’s understanding—and perhaps more specifically, fear—of the virus, spurring public discussion.
Grody agrees that Philadelphia played a pivotal role in the public’s perception of those living with HIV/AIDS. “The movie showed that people living with HIV and AIDS are just like everyone else and Tom Hanks’ portrayal was essential in proving that point – he just plays such an admirable character.”
Hanks’ role resonated with our audience, with 46% naming him the best patient on screen. Jack Nicholson’s Randle McMurphy from “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” garnered 27% of the vote, followed by Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of Lisa Rowe in “Girl, Interrupted.”
• Best Worst Caretaker: Kathy Bates, Misery
When it comes to the person our audience wants to least receive care from, Annie Wilkes from the 1990 film Misery was the clear winner with 60% of the vote.
Kathy Bates’ portrayal of the antagonist in the movie based on a Stephen King novel earned her a Best Actress Oscar. Wilkes’ nurturing of novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) following a car crash proved that not everyone is fit for caring for others.
Grody agrees that for the Best Worst Caretaker, Annie Wilkes was the only choice. “I don’t know who else you could choose for this category,” he said. “No one else could come close to winning this award.”
The late film critic Gene Siskel said Bates’ performance elevated the film from being a “routine thriller” through her “wonderful performance … as the crazed fan who alternates between compassion and violent kookiness—all while smiling beatifically and with a little gold cross hanging from her neck.”
Finishing second to Bates in our polling was Anthony Hopkins’ Dr. Hannibal Lecter from “Silence of the Lambs” (21%) and Gene Wilder’s Dr. Frankenstein from “Young Frankenstein” (13%).
For Ayers, the film is less about caregiving, but more about something highly prevalent today, 30 years after the film’s release: toxic fandom.
“It’s all about owning or controlling the art or the thing that’s made, feeling it is just ‘for them’ and thus deserving access to it,” he said. “This speaks to social media today and how some attack and actor or author over something they’ve made because they feel it is theirs.”