Strong Medicine (1986 TV Movie) User Reviews

Better than the book, how rare is that?

[wombat_1 · 8/10 · 5 July 2001]

For those of you who have are unfamiliar with the works of Arthur Hailey, he writes massive tomes about various industries, as seen from both the very bottom (for example, assembly line worker living below the poverty line) and very top (a lot of time spent in the boardroom). Well known titles in this regard include "Wheels" (the car industry); "Airport" (as the name suggests); "Overload" (the power industry); "The Money Changers" (highest finance); and this one: the drug (err, LEGAL pharmaceuticals, that is!) industry.

The plot is very simple. It follows the life of a young woman, who starts as a lowly salesman (when drug salesmen really were very low!). Through a series of perhaps reasonably plausible adventures, she ultimately becomes..... well, that would spoil the story, but if you've survived this far it won't come as a surprise that she moves very high up indeed.

A few of Arthur Hailey's works have become movies; in fact "Airport" started a whole genre. What makes "Strong Medicine" quite unique is that (a) it follows the book reasonably closely; and (b) it is the only movie-from-a-book that is actually _better_ than the book; and the book is indeed very very good.

Patrick Duffy surprised me. I'd only ever seen him before as Bobby Ewing from "Dallas"; in this movie his performance was vastly better.

Strong Medicine, Strong Drama

[stugood-07006 · 7/10 · 4 May 2023]

Melodramatic and quasi-fairytale like-moments reach to serve the idealism of heroism. However, the whole thing is a rather delightful saga depicting themes of friendship, corruption, and changing relationships. Dick Van Dyke is great as the diplomatic boss and Annette O'Toole is cast perfectly as the best friend, although it's likely this two-parter would have ran out of steam without its lead, Pamela Sue Martin. Probably a forgotten talent now, but quite worth becoming acquainted with, especially if all her work is this good. The author's centrepiece of the pharmaceutical industry provides lots of twists and turns too. Sam Neil's accent is a bit questionable, but all in all a very pleasing drama indeed.

The worst adaptation I've ever seen

[ColinBaker · 22 September 2003]

SPOILER I couldn't believe the remarks from the Australian guy, unless he was being ironic. The adaptation includes characters that never existed in the book, Patrick Duffy's character getting killed off (in the book he survives and stays married to Celia throughout), the subsequent second marriage to Ben Cross's character (which was a one night stand in the book), and worst of all, the relationship between the characters Celia and Senator Donohue. In the book, Donohue is out to get Celia, because she humiliated him in front of a congressional hearing, and the start and end of the book (which is mostly in flashback) suggests that Donohue has won. The TV version ends with Donohue seeing Celia as a heroic figure, who then becomes President of the company.

I hope this rubbish never infects our TV screens again.