Quote:
Originally Posted by Bacchus
Sicko is one of my favorites.
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Ah, thank you. It's nice to have something funny and (relatively) light after watching the last two. I couldn't find it on any streaming sites, so I got it elsewhere. After all, it's cool with Moore,
"I'm just happy that people get to see my movies. I'm not a big supporter of the copyright laws in this country"
Moore's work is heavily criticized, not just by right-wing PACs (they were out to destroy his character in 2004 when he went after Dubya) but also by documentarians who dislike how he tampers with his subjects, and stages a few scenes (e.g. the bank-gun scene in Bowling for Columbine.) But I like his films, he's a great prankster when there's a point to be made, and is genuinely funny.
I didn't remember that Sicko isn't about the un-insured. Moore spends about 5 minutes on the working poor.
Sicko is about Americans who have health insurance, many with premium coverage, and how they're repeatedly screwed over and left to die, for profit. It made me feel much less secure with my own insurance.
The pranks aren't as shocking as other Moore films (Going to Guantanamo for healthcare sounds like a big awesome idea, but it's anticlimactic in reality) and the scenes in Cuba seemed rather forced - the 9/11 Heroes getting to finally see a doctor came off too sappy, Moore tried to make it seem so wonderful, but you know those ailments aren't going to be cured with one trip to a doctor.
The best scene is when the idea of being criticized in a Moore film scared one insurance company so much that it decided to pay for a little girl's cochlear implant.
When I say it's "relatively" light, I do mean relatively. There are scenes with very sick people who are in pain. One woman tells the story of when her husband was refused a bone marrow transplant (despite having premium health insurance) and he said he'd accept his own imminent death, but doesn't want to lose her or his daughter. Pretty rough. Death panels are already here, it turns out.
Moore's conversations with people in our fellow plutocratic nations of Canada and the UK are great, to hear them say how much they appreciate healthcare, and in the same breath admit they're conservatives. I've never had so much respect for conservatives before - except maybe Garcia here in the forums.
As far as MM films go, I still prefer
Bowling for Columbine because the message was more subtle.
Now that more Americans will be dealing with insurance companies than ever, Sicko is more relevant than ever.