Dir. Michael Moore, US, 2007, 123 mins, documentary
Cast (as themselves): Michael Moore, George W. Bush, Reggie Cervantes, John Graham, William Maher
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Michael Moore documentaries should carry their own medicinal label; take once only, may be side effects resulting in anger, emotion and possibly only used for the placebo effect of making you think that it’s more important than it actually is. That’s not a scathing anti-Moore attack to jump on the band-wagon that has followed the larger-than-life filmmaker since Fahrenheit 9/11 and the now infamous Oscar acceptance speech, but a warning that all of his documentaries, no matter how inflammatory, should be taken with a pinch of salt (or not, if you are one of the subjects of this look at the state of US medical care), as the starter to a bigger argument or a biased, one sided point-of-view that sparks countless post-viewing diatribe. And isn’t that the point?
Where Sicko is different from Moore’s previous outings is that it isn’t simply a case of him presenting his opinion on the failings of the health system, he points his camera and lets the array of people do the talking about how they have had to give up their homes and jobs just to stay alive. It’s this human approach, the line-up of talking heads that is the real heart of the piece and replaces on the whole Moore’s penchant for public stunts. The 9/11 helpers whose brave sacrifice has led to a lifetime of lung-related problems ignored by the government, the grandparents forced to live in their children’s basement to pay for cancer care, and the single mother who cannot afford the $150 inhaler she requires, that only costs $1.50 across the Mexican border. It is powerful stuff and really is enough to make you sick.
The effects eventually wear off about two-thirds of the way through when he presents an all-too rose tinted view of the NHS as a walk-in haven of medical care. Now, in comparison to the US mess that has preceded it, our hospitals do look appealing, but with no mention of MRSA and the under-paid nurses, to us on this side of the pond Moore’s point is somewhat moot.
Never the anti-American he is made out to be, he makes these movies in the hope that it will enforce a change with the debate it stirs, but he cant help his narrative flow running towards the tiresome “Bush-bashing” that has occupied his previous movies as he takes a group of suffering people, whom we have been introduced to along the wa,y to Guantanamo Bay prison, where the terror suspects are treated to 24/7 top of the range health care that his passengers can only dream of. Yes, it’s uplifting, yes it shows the questionable priorities of a questionable presidency but it’s just treading the same old ground with a different excuse to be doing so and loses the films major focus on the normal people with problems.
More human and accessible than Moore’s previous political propaganda Sicko is a funny, heartening and all-too-often-heartbreaking look at a system that is in need of a serious face-lift.
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