Latest Stories  Medical stories as potent come-ons   HANKS.
Portrays a gay man stricken with AIDS in “Philadelphia.”  When
scriptwriters think up stories for new productions, they often
opt to dramatize tales about romantic or family relationships,
personal or institutional conflicts, and feel-good, inspiring
narratives. But, what happens if inspiration falters and the
stories end up feeling like predictable, twice-told tales?  A
reliable energizing input for writers is to add a “medical
drama” component to their mix of storytelling attractions.
Medical stories involving illness and the search for cures are
potent come-ons because everybody gets sick at one point or
other in their lives, or knows someone dear who is in the  grips
of a physical or psychological crisis. Thus, viewers relate to
those stories, and empathize strongly with their protagonists.
This helps explain why quite a number of movies bank on conflict
driven by medical problems, and doctors sometimes act as
resource persons for filmmakers w