What's most striking about "Sicko" is how composed, even serene it is compared with Michael Moore's previous acts of cinematic insurgency. The puckish ferocity and combative mischief that marked such previous Moore polemics from 1989's "Roger and Me" to 2004's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is on relatively low boil in this one -- at least until the climax where he takes a bunch of chronically ill Americans on a boat to Cuba for some accessible pharmaceuticals and treatment.
You may have already heard that he's probably in a little hot water for that.
But overall, the net effect of "Sicko's" penetrating and devastating inquiry into the way America takes care of its ill and dying is to transfer the anger to the audience rather than have Moore's own outrage spread all over his film. Which makes this movie, by a considerable distance, the writer-director's most effective provocation yet.
Those who already have their backs up whenever they hear Moore's voice won't want to see or hear what he has to say about insurance companies that deny benefits and even life-saving surgical procedures to their clients. But he pretty much lets those clients and even some former employees of those companies speak for themselves.
And by the time you've heard a doctor working for one of those companies speak with remorse about such denials to seemingly incredulous congressional investigators, you wonder if you'll ever feel secure about the prospect of getting sick in the United States.
Or, as some of Moore's interview subjects attest, you may consider somehow finagling your way to other western countries where universal health care exists, whether in Canada or France -- or Cuba.Moore's depiction of relatively laid-back and acutely responsible hospitals, doctors and drug stores in Europe may seem implausibly sanguine to those who insist on cringing at the specter of "socialized medicine."
But his impulse to do more showing than telling in this context serves him and his film exceptionally well.Make no mistake, though, This is still a Michael Moore nonfiction film and that means that the ironies come at you with blunt, barbed force.
The sight of British hospitals offering money to clients to compensate for their transportation jars when juxtaposed against the story of poor or homeless patients literally dumped on Los Angeles skid row street corners with tubes and gowns because they weren't able to pay hospital bills.
Over-the-top?
Not when one considers the recent story of someone who died in an emergency room while waiting for someone to help. That's not in "Sicko." But only because Moore didn't get to it before he finished the movie. It sounds as though there's going to be plenty of material for a sequel.
Source
You may have already heard that he's probably in a little hot water for that.
But overall, the net effect of "Sicko's" penetrating and devastating inquiry into the way America takes care of its ill and dying is to transfer the anger to the audience rather than have Moore's own outrage spread all over his film. Which makes this movie, by a considerable distance, the writer-director's most effective provocation yet.
Those who already have their backs up whenever they hear Moore's voice won't want to see or hear what he has to say about insurance companies that deny benefits and even life-saving surgical procedures to their clients. But he pretty much lets those clients and even some former employees of those companies speak for themselves.
And by the time you've heard a doctor working for one of those companies speak with remorse about such denials to seemingly incredulous congressional investigators, you wonder if you'll ever feel secure about the prospect of getting sick in the United States.
Or, as some of Moore's interview subjects attest, you may consider somehow finagling your way to other western countries where universal health care exists, whether in Canada or France -- or Cuba.Moore's depiction of relatively laid-back and acutely responsible hospitals, doctors and drug stores in Europe may seem implausibly sanguine to those who insist on cringing at the specter of "socialized medicine."
But his impulse to do more showing than telling in this context serves him and his film exceptionally well.Make no mistake, though, This is still a Michael Moore nonfiction film and that means that the ironies come at you with blunt, barbed force.
The sight of British hospitals offering money to clients to compensate for their transportation jars when juxtaposed against the story of poor or homeless patients literally dumped on Los Angeles skid row street corners with tubes and gowns because they weren't able to pay hospital bills.
Over-the-top?
Not when one considers the recent story of someone who died in an emergency room while waiting for someone to help. That's not in "Sicko." But only because Moore didn't get to it before he finished the movie. It sounds as though there's going to be plenty of material for a sequel.
Source
1 comment:
Viva Moore!
Moore is a truly fantastic voice. Most mass-media journos, a field full of cowards and mercenaries, will still run away from him because it's the most convenient thing to do. Good for Newsday.
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