ABSTRACT
In film and in reality, illness is often unexpected and accidental. Using serious illness as a plot device brings melodrama to the narrative arc. Filmmakers often perceive medicine as health interrupted by illness followed by disability or death, and this topic is an endless source of ideas and fictional inventions. Doctors often appear when the leading character in the film becomes sick, and over many years their portrayal has evolved from the general family doctor to medical specialists, parallel with subspecialization of medicine as a whole. Medicine is also a topic of comedy, making fun of medical decisions and physicians. For physicians, the representation of medicine—particularly in films of import— is always interesting, commonly fascinating, and sometimes laughable. The depiction of medicine often starts outside the hospital and in ambulance runs. In the United States, the Doctor Kildare television and movie series became a classic in the depiction of physicians, nurses, and administrators, showing a virtually perfect world of medicine.
