a1_andy_11 What incredible human beings.Henry Marsh's attitude is astounding, as is Igor's. The dedication they have for saving and improving peoples lives is nothing short of heroic. They have to deal with a system that is in pieces; consultations with desperate patients who have been treated so poorly by the health system that their only hope is incredibly risky surgery. Surgery that has to be done with the most basic and primitive medial instruments. Most of which are provided by Henry himself. Patients have been treated so badly by the health care system, by the time they reach Igor or Henry there is often little to no hope, and huge risks involved if there is any hope at all.Despite all this, Igor's own government has tried on numerous times to shut him down, rendering him unemployed for 2 years at one point in his career.Yet both men are determined to keep pushing on and keep helping these unfortunate people. On patient Marian, who had to endure brain surgery with nothing more than a local anaesthetic is incredibly brave. I don't know how he went through such a brutal ordeal. The man was laying there with a pulse of 72 while they were boring into his skull with a cheap black n decker rechargeable drill. Astounding.It made me feel so lucky, living in the western world with our comparatively luxury health care, and all because I got lucky by being born here and nothing more.It also made me feel a huge admiration for these surgeons, both of which could have quite easily given up on the seemingly futile efforts of improving that part of the world, and move to somewhere like America where they could command outrageous salaries and live a much higher quality of life.It's sad that here in the west we idolise singers and football players over truly remarkable selfless people like Henry Marsh.This documentary really touched me, I hope that I can be even a tiny bit as altruistic as the people featured in it.

druid333-2 Henry Marsh is a successful Neurosurgeon from England with enough patients for a lifetime. Several times a year, Henry goes to the Ukraine to treat patients with little or no money,in some of the most primitive hospital conditions in Eastern Europe (hospitals there,as well as in Russia are controlled by the K.G.B.). He is generally assisted by Dr.Igor Kurilets. We see the endless queues of patients waiting for Henry to tell them wither it's yes or no on brain surgery. Much of the documentary is focused on a young man named Marian,who has a brain tumor that causes epileptic seizures. The operation must be done while the patient is awake,for the full effect to take place (i.e.:the removal of the tumor). We see,via a "fly on the wall" approach to all of this (preparations for surgery,and a good block of the surgery itself). A subtext to all of this is Marsh visiting the family of a patient that didn't make it (a 15 year old girl),which Marsh took all too seriously. We see Marsh & the girl's family make peace with one another. I really admired the documentary's "cinema verite" style (no outright narrative:the images speak for themselves). Geoffrey Smith directs & produces this fine documentary,that was produced for BBC Television (it's shot entirely on video,so not a whole lot of cinemas will be screening it). Not rated by the MPAA,but contains some graphic,bloody scenes of brain surgery that will put some viewers off,as well as a few rude words that spew from the occasionally frustrated surgeon's mouth

leegaccmovies This film is so touching and moving, I nearly cried several times. The English Surgeon is about real-life Dr. Henry Marsh, who travels from England to the Ukraine with secondary medical tools to help his Russian counterpart perform surgeries. It is a great documentary. Dr. Marsh is compassionate, but realistic; he will tell a patient outright they have no chance to live. But he keeps trying, despite his emotionally fatigued state.What I found most intriguing about this film is how pivotal it is to our society. This man travels across the world to try and make a difference, even with the odds of his patients living unknown. He gives it his all, and it can teach us all to show a little more compassionate to our fellow man.

vinylv22 The English Surgeon confronts an issue that we rarely care to talk about, and that we simply refuse to recognized. This documentary displays the compassion of Dr. Henry Marsh, an English neurosurgeon, to give to those who are less fortunate in the only way he knows how. Dr. Marsh travels to Ukraine with nothing more than a used medical supplies and the heart of lion. His true test comes when he has to make the judgment call when patients' lives are on the line. Geoffrey Smith delivers a film long overdue for the uneducated masses that either refuse to believe the failure of health care systems in developing countries, or those who refuse to recognize the magnitude of the issue. The humanity of the film ignites the soul and inspires greatness.