MOVIE: Sicko

hairycoo

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MOVIE: Sicko

« on: June 29, 2007, 06:41:45 PM »

The bell has run and the ring is primed for the flood of Michael Moore lovers and haters alike.

I remember some spirited debate on the forums when Farenheit 9/11 was released. I was more enamoured with Moore then. But 9/11 left me cold. It was such a prime opportunity for a public caning of the Bush administration (minus the last four years of mind-numbing shit), but seemed to devolve into a series of loosely connected pot-shots. Not to mention the perpetual cutaways to photos of the president looking stupid. Not hard to come by, and not compelling debate material. All in all, it seemed like the opportunity was squandered.

In the interim, I've seen enough documentaries to recognize how manipulative Moore is with his work. But then, I'm not sure that is, in and of itself, an issue. If you buy in knowing this is a far more subjective than objective exercise, it's possible to enjoy how masterful his abilities of manipulation are.

I watched Sicko on the internet the other day, and it's powerful. It's agit-prop to be sure, but - again - I don't know that agit-prop is inherently perjorative. Everyone knows the US health care system is fucked (and if anyone wants to dig, Paul Krugman wrote an excellent essay for the New York Review of Books evaluating its shortcomings from an economical perspective - it's got to be on the web somewhere), favouring the profit margins of the insurance providers over the well-being of their customers. Sicko deals not with the 50-odd-million UN-insured Americans (dig the opening credit shot of a man suturing his own gaping knee wound - tasty!), but how the insured are fucked by their insurance providers. It's not only that the system is ineffective, dismissing preventative treatment (which is far more economically feasible in the long run) and rewards insurance employees and doctors for denying patients services, it's not only the absurdity and the death that results from the penny-pinching, but it's the stress of watching people's lives ruined because they get SICK. Moore follows a middle-income couple who are forced to move into their daughter's basement after both are diagnosed with cancer within six months of each other. The financial strain is too much to bear, and the humiliation of their situation is writ large on their sunken faces.

It's impossible to deny that Moore plays fast and loose with "the facts". Glowing portraits of the French, British and Canadian health care systems are given little context, and only anecdotal evidence to support their supposedly inherent superiority. That being said, they are, obviously superior - it's just a shame Moore couldn't break it down more academically. But then, maybe that would be a chink in his folk hero armor. Some of the most poignant details are the least lingered upon, such as when a Canadian mentions that Tommy Douglas was recently voted the Best Canadian (believe this was a MacLean's survey from a few years ago). Something I knew but hadn't thought much about. The man who introduced universal health care to our country is our most revered figure. That's something.

Moore's stunts are no less sensationalistic. I'm sure you've all heard of him boating 9/11 rescue workers suffering respiratory problems to Cuba for treatment - which they receive from a veritable TEAM of Havana doctors. Again, the details are the most striking. A woman discovers that a respirator charge she pays $120 USD for in the States can be bought at a pharmacy in Havana for...five cents. She bursts into tears. So did I.

I loved the film, and it's hard not to root for it's cause. I wonder, of those of you on the forums, if you feel that his methods must fully support his message, or are we willing to cut him some slack because of the potential good this film might do? I think he's a populist, pure and simple, and seeing his documentaries now for what they are, not entirely documentaries, but some mix of documentary film-making and outright manipulative staging, I can accept the shortcomings for the goals, and revel that someone has this much of a podium, and could propel this debate into the limelight as the buildup to the 2008 elections builds steam.

Thoughts, y'all?


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rp_zachharris

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Re: MOVIE: Sicko

« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2007, 08:34:38 PM »

I very much want to see it, but I'm first I'm going to see Ratatouille...wearing a large sweater and dark sunglasses just in case anybody wanders into the wrong theater and notices me.

Then Sicko...I got a torrent that went to 89% and died.


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Firefox

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Re: MOVIE: Sicko

« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2007, 10:15:14 PM »

I haven't seen it yet. One thing about running loose with the facts is that it may give the other side of an argument "moral permission" to run loose (or continue running lose) with their facts as well. It's kind of like an arms race with lies instead of nukes. Or something.


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hairycoo

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Re: MOVIE: Sicko

« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2007, 01:11:32 PM »

I don't know if, in this case, it's "loose with the facts" as "willfully ignorant of context" - if you'll permit me a semantic argument. I don't know that Moore states anything that is technically untrue - CNN recently fact-checked the film and, apparently, found no factual flaws or discrepancies (that's the liberal left-wing intelligazi's for you). But I do agree, FF, that this was EXACTLY what backfired with Farenheit 9/11 - Moore gave his opposition ample ammo, and after the firefight died down, it was impossible to tell who, if anyone, had won.

With Sicko, however, we're starting to see what sort of ideological retaliation we're likely in for...ideological retaliation we're likely in for...http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/06/universal-healthcare-terrorist-recruitment-tool


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Brad

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Re: MOVIE: Sicko

« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2007, 02:04:06 PM »

That's exactly the problem.

Somewhere between "Roger and Me" and "Bowling for Columbine" Michael Moore made documentaries popular (do a quick run of how many docs played in multiplexes prior to "Roger"... and (unfortunately) somewhere in there the American public decided that documentaries are journalisim.

They're not, any more than op-ed or essay is journalisim. They need to apply facts, and truths, but like their written counterparts they are arguments constructed to argue a viewpoint.

However since (somehow) the American populace seems to find them indistinguishable from "news" (which I think says more about the American "news" system than the "documentary" media) it becomes easy to trivialize them with the understanding that they are simply lies.

The problem is that evaluating any opinionated media takes nuance and consideration, something that the general public (worldwide, I'm not America-bashing here) seems reluctant to do. Does Michael Moore often hold up other countries (especially Canada) on a pedistal of non-critical perfection? Yeah, absolutely. But he's not structuring his argument to be of benefit to Canada... he's trying to make a comparison with American systems, and I don't think (especially with Health care) that there's anyone out there who doesn't think the system is seriously messed up.


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