Editing The Hospital (section)

===Critical response===
When ''The Hospital'' was released, film critic [[Roger Ebert]] lauded the film, writing, "''The Hospital'' is a better movie than you may have been led to believe. It has been criticized for switching tone in midstream, but maybe it's only heading for deeper, swifter waters. [...] Chayevsky's [''[[sic]]''] bizarre and unexpected ending suggests that men—even madmen—can still use institutions for their own private purpose."<ref>[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19720207/REVIEWS/202070301/1023 Ebert, Roger] ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'', film review, February 7, 1972.  Last accessed: February 23, 2011.</ref>

''[[The New York Times]]'' found the film “a very serious (in fact, perhaps, a little too serious), very funny melodramatic farce&nbsp;... [it] is not, as you might be led to believe, the sort of pious, inside-institution literature that [[Arthur Hailey]] grinds out to satisfy the book clubs, if not the muses, nor is it really one of those malpractice horror stores that are so helpful in obtaining lecture tours for medical men&nbsp;... the writer’s intelligence, and his only recently exercised gift for fantasy&nbsp;... save ‘The Hospital’ from a couple of serious seizures that, toward the end, overtake the movie when it feels called upon to certify its serious purposes and to straighten out its peculiar plot&nbsp;... Mr. Hiller&nbsp;... obtains excellent performances from his stars [and] has perfectly cast the film down to roles that are so small they depend—I suspect—as much on natural mannerism as on acting talent.”<ref>Canby, Vincent. “Screen: ‘The Hospital’.” New York Times, 15 December 1971.</ref>

More recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz gave the film a mildly positive review, writing, "The gallows humor was the melodramatic farce's saving grace; the film uses its razor-sharp instruments to cut into the hides of the insensitive institutionalized health care providers like [[Michael Moore]]'s ''[[Sicko]]'' does in 2007 to the fat-cat [[HMO]]s. My major gripe was that it could have been better, as Chayefsky delivered his part of the bargain and so did Scott; nevertheless the pic flattens out as the director increasingly loses his way in all the bitterness and invented horror stories and leaves us dangling over how to get out of such an irredeemable world (where modern man is perceived as forgotten in death)."<ref>[http://homepages.sover.net/~ozus/hospital.htm Schwartz, Dennis].  ''Ozus' World Movie Reviews'', film review, July 13, 2007.  Last accessed: February 23, 2011.</ref>

The film has a [[List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes|100% rating]] on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], with an average rating of 7.8/10, based on 12 reviews.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hospital/ |title=The Hospital (1971) |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=July 6, 2021}}</ref>