We watched SiCKO last night; maybe not the best film to watch during the holiday season, as it doesn't exactly leave one feeling warm and cuddly afterwards, but it was next on the Netflix queue.
How was it? Well, I would definitely give it 4 out of 5 stars, but there are caveats. I happen to be a Michael Moore fan - he's a great entertainer, he's provocative, and for better or worse, he gets people talking about the issues that his films present. No, he's not a journalist, he's not fair and balanced, but that's not his job, he obviously has an agenda and he's not trying to hide it. If you watch one of his movies thinking that you're going to get both sides of the story, you're going to be just as disappointed as if you were to approach Fox News or Salon.com with the same expectations. Not gonna happen. If you're looking for a documentary that presents facts without emotion, again, good luck. One of his most effective tools is giving a human face to the given issue, something that the evening news does all the time, albeit much more subtly and less effectively. One perfectly valid criticism of his past movies is that he's on screen too much, pulling dumb stunts that likely hurt his cause as much as help it. OK, I'll buy that, even if the stunts are usually entertaining. SiCKO, fortunately, moves away from the Fahrenheit 9/11 in-your-face style; Moore doesn't even make an on-screen appearance until the film's half over, and the publicity stunts are limited to a silly trip to Cuba at the end of the film that unfortunately isn't entertaining or effective (you want a good Cuba documentary, try Buena Vista Social Club, awesome movie).
It might be his best movie since Roger and Me in terms of content, but it's also the most frustrating film he's made. I think you would need three or four sequels to do this problem - health care in the U.S. - any justice, but even so there aren't enough Whys being asked in SiCKO. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that health care in the U.S. is fucked up, but why? It's helpful to point out countries such as Canada, Britain, and France where universal government-run care seems to be working, since I'm sure there are plenty of Americans that are ignorant that there are these kinds of systems in place that people are happy with, but how do they make it work? At one point, Moore asks a French doctor whether the national model that's in place in France would work in the U.S. He says "No", then walks away...what, no follow up? Just 'No'?!? I'm not expecting that this doctor would have all the answers, but I was waiting for someone on screen to at least attempt to explain this mess. It's easy to tag Richard Nixon with the blame, as Moore does at one point, but there is no possible way that it's that simple. I have my own theories and suspicions about who and what is to blame, but in the interest of brevity I'll save those for another post. There are also zero suggestions on how to fix the obviously broken American system.
I'll be spending at least one more entry on this topic, picking out scenes and themes from the film, delving into fact vs. fiction, checking some numbers, and searching for any practical ideas for fixing the system. Universal health care is also a great jumping-off point for discussions about the role of government in our lives, so who knows what tangential topics might end up being put in play - taxes, education, infrastructure, libertarians?
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