Sicko
May. 18,2007 PG-13A documentary about the corrupt health care system in The United States who's main goal is to make profit even if it means losing people’s lives. "The more people you deny health insurance the more money we make" is the business model for health care providers in America.
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Reviews
To me, this movie is perfection.
Overrated and overhyped
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
This starts with Michael Moore presenting cases of Americans struggling with the health care system. This first act is the most compelling part of the movie. The people are very human. Their cases are touching, insightful, funny, and head-shaking. Next, it gets into the political case.The case is very general but informative. It tries to be too cute with the comedy. It's very much Moore's style but it takes away from the seriousness of the situation. Once it gets to Canada, the movie has a great opportunity to explain the system. It's an opportunity half exploited. Moore is able to dispel some of the scare tactics of the American critics. However, he doesn't explain how the system is paid for. It's half a story told and that keeps going as he starts globe-trotting. I would rather he dig deeper into the dollars and cents of the Canadian system. Moore plays like nobody pays but of course, it's all paid in taxes. It's disingenuous and too obvious. The problem is that the audience is not that dumb.In Britain, he spends a little time promoting how well a doctor gets paid. It's the wrong audience. Nobody watching this cares if doctors stay rich. Again, it's the lack of an overall financial picture that leaves the critics with the ability to muddy up the story. It allows them to say it's too good to be true because Moore is almost saying it's all free. It gets even worst in France. Moore is coming up with some of craziest social programs. I don't understand why he'd think Americans would love the idea of the government coming into your home to do laundry. He's basically doing the work of the opposition by showing the weirdest thing a socialist French government waste their money on. He finally figures out that the audience is asking about the taxes but then he simply asks one random couple with the least informative questions about their finances. Fishes...I have no problems with globe-trotting. Go to Britain. Go to France. Go to Cuba even. The most compelling human story continues to be in the U.S. Dumping human beings by American hospitals is horrifying. There is no doubt that this raises the issues with great personal stories. It is missing a more in-depth explanation of what the solution entails.
This movie is obnoxious. It is blatantly attempting to dumb down the health care systems of a few countries to the degree that the average American is supposed to understand. Some of the things covered in the film are accurate, others are partial truths at best, however they are presented as absolute fact. The pathetic pandering to the emotions of those foolish enough to believe everything Moore presents is frustrating. This is NOT anything I could recommend that someone watch, even to begin understanding health care systems. This is presented as a documentary but is frustratingly far from accurate. For those who cannot be bothered to research these systems on their own this is believable. I even agree with some of the premise (in terms of health care being a fundamental human need that a modern and economically stable country should provide their people). Moore then stoops to where he is comfortable, making it an emotional plea without putting much actual concrete fact into the production. He spent more time on annoying music, needlessly dramatizing certain areas he wished to highlight, than he did with actual comparisons.
One earlier review title sums it up - short on information, high on anecdotal scare stories. I enjoy Michael Moore as a film-maker. Canadian Bacon was fun, it was a spoof, it was fictional. Sicko cannot be described as 'fictional' but it is no more realistic than Canadian Bacon. No health care system in the world is perfect, the US is certainly no exception. But, the description of the Cuban system was so ludicrously inaccurate and misleading as to be laughable. Can a health care system, where officials of the national blood service knowingly, willfully allow HIV-infected blood to be distributed for transfusions (as was the case in France) be considered exemplary? And the greatest pressure in US hospitals to get patients 'out the door' comes not from private insurance companies but from public-funded programs (Medicare / Medicaid). Outcomes data clearly document that if you have a serious illness, there is no better place to be than the US. If a 12 year old girl severs a digit, a thumb for example, she will probably get excellent, low/no cost wound care in Canada and the UK, and grow up without a thumb. In the US she might even be able to have that thumb surgically re-attached (that is fact, albeit anecdotal), although that is not guaranteed, some insurance programs will not cover the surgery, and the success rate is far from 100%. If Moore had started with the premise, 'Who has had a fantastic experience with health care in the US', he could just as easily have produced a so-called documentary with a very different message, but which would have probably also been equally unrepresentative of reality. Enjoy the movie, but don't take it too seriously.
At first I thought this was just going to be another documentary about some socialist minded paranoid complaining about something we already know about. I was wrong! I recently rented this movie again for my wife and step son to see. They were in amazement after seeing some of the stuff they saw. Even after seeing it a second time I was still in amazement. Normally I don't buy movies, but I'm seriously considering buying this one to show anyone I know who didn't see this movie. Michael Moore did an excellent job here in bringing out the truth. America is still one of the best countries in the world and I love her, so we have to wake up! If you are a true red blooded American you have to see this movie. Also, I definitely recommend "Fahrenheit 911", also by Michael Moore.