DOCTORS
Doctors figure prominently in all our lives- often they’re the first and last person we see!- and Hollywood has done a good job with their various phases.
The Cider House Rules (1999) garnered an Oscar for Michael Caine as the zonked-on-ether physician who directs a combination home for orphans and illegal abortion clinic. John Irving also won an Oscar for the screenplay from his own novel. The superior cast includes Charlize Theron, Cathy Baker, Kieran Culkin, Jane Alexander and Toby Maguire. This doctor’s humanity shines through in a quirky but somewhat wonderful story.
The always-likeable Michael J. Fox is the physician on his way to LA to make a ton of money as a plastic surgeon when he crashes his car in the middle of nowhere (South Carolina) and has to do community service as a primary care physician, in Doc Hollywood (1991). Don’t wonder if he decides to stay among the simple folk and be of use instead of rich- look at the movie’s title! 
Paul Muni shines as The Last Angry Man (1959), a retiring Brooklyn physician and local icon whose life is to be portrayed in a TV show. David Wayne, Betsy Palmer, Godfrey Cambridge and Billy Dee Williams are along to bolster a story that veers close to over-sentimentality but narrowly escapes. What is he angry about? See for yourself!
William Hurt is perfectly cast as an arrogant and gifted surgeon in The Doctor (1991). His beside manner is non-existent, and he tells his residents to, “Get in and get the hell out”, when operating. Then he develops throat cancer and suddenly finds himself on the patient end of things. Elizabeth Perkins excels as a fellow patient and Christine Lahti is very good as his wife. His gradual awakening and yes-humiliation- should be instructive to everyone who has ever been a doctor, or a patient. 
The ground floor of all this deification of and richly rewarding of doctors is represented effectively in The Citadel (1938) with Robert Donat as the physician determined to make money and contacts, forsaking his ethics, friends and family along the way. Perhaps still a cautionary tale, it is a far cry from the good old country doc in his model T of that era. 
M*A*S*H (1990) was a tremendous box office and critical success. The movie is much darker than the hit TV series. With Donald Sutherland as Hawkeye, Elliott Gould as Trapper John, Robert Duvall as Colonel Blake and Sally Kellerman as Hot Lips O’Houlihan this film is a complete pleasure. The doctors and nurses in this military hospital in Korea work very hard to save lives and limbs, and there has to be a little humor or everyone would go nuts!
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming.  All are for grown-ups.
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