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‘Sicko’: so obvious, yet so alarming
Following his cinematic diatribe against the Bush administration with 2004’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ Moore decided to focus his attention on a problem that seems less divisive and even more obvious.
More than a year ago, Moore put out a request on his Web site asking Americans for their personal horror stories in dealing with insurance companies and health management organizations. Within a week, he received more than 25,000 e-mails. Compelled to act as the voice for those who are so often unheard, Moore set out to make ‘Sicko.’
Instead of putting himself and the hunt for his movie’s antagonist at the center of his story, as he has done in his previous documentaries, with ‘Sicko,’ Moore wisely chooses to focus on his subjects’ stories. The result is a movie with more heart, and while still relying on his smug, tongue-in-cheek attacks on those in power, more substance than style.
As the narrative bounces from one story of a woman denied coverage because she is declared too young to have cervical cancer to a once upper-middle class family that has gone bankrupt because of medical expenses, Moore seems genuinely disheartened by the state of health care in our country and the fact that Americans would allow their fellow citizens to suffer so gravely, all for the sake of the almighty dollar.
Overwhelmed by their tragic stories, Moore takes the audience through the history of how we as a country reached the sad state of affairs in which we find ourselves. Not surprisingly, Moore found an easy villain in Richard Nixon and his former assistant John Ehrlichman, using rather sinister-sounding archived tape of the two discussing what would become Nixon’s national health care plan. After Ehrlichman easily persuaded President Nixon to pass legislation allowing large companies to make enormous profit off of Americans’ illness and attempts at preventive procedures, the main corporate culprit being Kaiser Permanente, insurance companies and HMOs instantly reaped the financial whirlwind, accumulating millions while Americans paid the price.
Instead of using the rest of the film to diagnose more precisely how this private system came to be, Moore decides to investigate the national health care systems of Canada, Great Britain and France. Using anecdotal stories told through the rosiest of lenses, Moore depicts Canadian, British and French citizens living in an idyllic wonderland of socialized medicine. While eschewing attempts to give a complete picture of these Western nation’s health care systems, Moore makes it quite clear that other countries give medical help regardless of a patient’s ability to pay, ensuring that truly no citizen is left behind. In his most heavy-handed bit of grandstanding, Moore even takes volunteer workers from New York’s ground zero to Cuba to prove that even citizens and tourists in a communist regime can receive quick and free medical care.
As is his wont, Moore’s work as an artist does not endeavor to show both sides of the story. He does not speak to the fact that funding nationalized health care for a country of 400 million people is much more difficult than doing so in a country the size of France; nor does he speak directly and thoroughly to the issues of taxes in Europe or the wait times in the Canadian system.
But Moore does not pretend to have the answers in ‘Sicko.’ In this, his most mature and least self-important film (he does not appear on camera for the first 40 minutes), the director who has found fame (and infamy) as a provocateur, simply speaks with an unbridled sympathy. He has looked into the heart of a system that would rather save $500,000 than a human life, and he is horrified and saddened that the country he loves would so blatantly ignore its own. After viewing ‘Sicko,’ I imagine you will feel the exact same way.
No matter your politics, there is no denying that we live in a country with a system that is broken seemingly beyond repair. The question now becomes, can we fix it, and if so, how?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Movies
Comments
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By Filth Rich
June 29, 2007 2:16 PM | Link to this
You Sick Commie…can’t you see a set up when it’s comin. You should be shipped to a Gulag in Siberia to spend your final days erasing stains off of old Lenin and Stalin posters. Only the filthy rich should be allowed to have good health care. They’re the one’s creating all the jobs for the rest of us and thus we need them to remain alive and healthy as long as possible. As Adam Smith said, “civil govt. was created to protect the rich from the poor.”
By kristina b
June 30, 2007 6:06 PM | Link to this
this is a good review, matthew. a lot of people i know, because i apparently surround myself with extreme lefties, bought it hook line and sinker with no reservations (which is just about never smart, imo).
i agree that this is moore’s best film, but i’m glad you also pointed out that he still told a one-sided story like he always does.
By FBA
July 5, 2007 3:01 PM | Link to this
yes we can fix it; for example my dream house came available. I’m about 800K shy for the purchase. If everybody in ausitn gave me a dollar… bingo, bango, bongo.
Now if everybody in austin gave allen and rick a dollar… well you get the idea. Start with me, move on down the list from there.
you also get a case of goji juice with every donation.
dream large, like charles in charge.