Would such a wealthy man
be sharing a hospital room?
shareno
call it poetic/cinematic justice, however implausible
It's just a movie.
share
MovieChat Forums > The Bucket List (2008) Discussion > Would such a wealthy man
Hi zena-1,
Did you watch the movie? He owned the hospital and it was his policy that every room was shared by 2 patients, no exceptions. So what a scandal would it have been if all of a sudden he would have gotten a room for himself, right?
In real life he probably would have had private duty nursing at home.
shareNo, not for more than one night, but hey, it's a contrivance to make the film work.
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Did you not watch the movie?
share3rd post i've seen on this board about this exact same thing. Are people just getting dumber or are they just busy screwing off on their "smart" phones while they "watch" movies so they end up missing important points like this one.
What are words for when no one listens anymore
The answer is. NO.
They kill this question right off the bat when Jack's assistant says that it would be a PR problem if Jack didn't go by his motto, to have 2 people in each room since he owns the hospital.
But a man who owns a hospital wasn't elected. People who aren't elected and have tons of money worry about PR.
He would have an entire floor to himself if he wanted, and no one would complain.
It would have been more realistic had Jack been in the room first. Then, say, there would be an explanation that Freeman, who had been there a while, had to change rooms because his room was needed for an emergency, and in that, he HAD TO go to the one room open, Jack's. This would still be a stretch but would be much more realistic.
Then again, who cares. It's a stretch that just kinda wisps by quickly.
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Other than when he had some goons rough up his son-in-law who had beaten up his daughter, he never seemed like he was any kind of power-hungry, eff-everyone-else, type of guy. Yeah, he was an azz to Tommy, but that's different than being a "Paris Hilton" or "Kardashian."
I can see where, while he didn't like it, he would abide by his own rules.
Completely, utterly and 100% unrealistic thing in an unrealistic movie. What else is new.
However, this movie has one REMARKABLE thing about it that I NEVER thought I would see in a hollywood movie. It ACTUALLY tells the truth about who invented the radio.. it wasn't Marconi.
I paused the movie before Morgan answers the question, to remind myself it was really Tesla, and how it all happened, and would've bet a lot the movie would not have told the truth about that. To my surprise, Morgan's character actually.. ACTUALLY tells the truth about that!
Now, if we could get hollywood movies to tell the truth about Edison, animal murders, Tesla, light bulbs, worker deaths, capitalistic greed, etc.. we'd really be on to something.
However, 'Epic Rap Battles of History' does a surprisingly good job, so maybe hollywood movies don't have to.
In any case, this movie is pretty much paint-by-the-numbers, predictable, wannabe-profound-but-really-isn't.. and gives nothing to the viewer. The soundtrack is awful; it's either unbearable rock crap or sappy, slow piano syrup that tries as hard as possible to make your musical sensibility vomit.
SPOILERS:
It's not against the law to 'bury someone' on a mountain (what a contradiction in terms anyway, but whatever). Putting a canister of powder inside a rock on top of a mountain surely isn't against law. But then again, people don't understand or even recognize the difference between law and legal system.
In any case, that last sentence almost got me anyway - that was a good way to end the movie, so this is not a complete waste - the movie has taste, after all that's said and done, and maybe I will watch it again some day (it was another one of those bargain bin 'I wonder what this movie is' things that I could afford at the price of 1 euro)..
I found it funny that Fleischer is Jack's doctor - for those that don't know, the same actor portrayed a temperamental jewish doctor in an old TV show called 'Northern Exposure'.
But yeah, that 'contrivance' made me think Jack's character is super poor or deep in debt, for not being able to afford simple home care in his most likely well-equipped mansion, instead of having to share a room with some 'common man' from the streets.
Regardless of what 'PR' it might be, there would be a million ways around that - rich people are always able to move in the shadows, gaslight audiences, buy articles and reporters, and so forth and so on. Owner of a hospital can declare a room -anything- from an emergency to being contaminated or just 'closed for repairs' and no one would be the wiser.
A rich man would never end up being treated in a hospital he owns - and a hospital owner would surely have the state-of-the-art medical facility in his own home in the case of any emergency so he won't HAVE to end up in any hospital, including the one he owns.
Anyone that has watched 'Yes, Minister' - especially the hospital episode - knows that the rich and powerful would NEVER in a zillion years agree to end up in a 'public hospital', regardless of who owns it.
There are private hospitals, private clinics, and someone as rich as Jack's character (forgive me if I just call him Jack for convenience), could afford to convert his friggin' private jet into a medical facility specifically equipped to handle his ailments, whatever they might be.
So the situation where the hospital owner doesn't have a say on where he ends up in, is completely and utterly BS and nonsense, that immediately kills any immersion and realism this movie might have to otherwise offer to the viewer.
Funny, how in so many movies, 'if it was realistic, there wouldn't BE a movie'. Why even make movies that can't exist without destroying the realism this far?
I don't mind time machines or stargates, super intelligent time-traveling space robots from other planets - but a rich man not having the power to avoid staying in a hospital is just too much.
This would be akin to a rich man that owns the airline and the airplanes, being forced to sit in coach with some poor 'common man' just so a story can happen. Ain't gonna happen in real life.
That rich man would use his private jet - heck, he would probably own a friggin' powerful electric-powered F-19 that's invisible to the radar if he wants. (Some people think this plane doesn't exist, but I think it's the coolest 'Earth-design' for an airplane I have ever seen, together with the majestic-looking Concorde that people probably don't even remember anymore)
So this rich man should own multiple mansions in beautiful locations in the most private and secure areas, he would NOT need to be put amongst the commoners in any situation, sick or otherwise.