Sicko
Directed/Star: Michael Moore.
Michael Moore is a divisive figure, and by inference his films polarise audiences. Sicko incorporated the obligatory Moore trademarks; the film opened with a Dubya Bush verbal blunder that has come to characterise the President's public persona. What was unexpected, certainly for this reviewer, was the degree of heart-felt sentimentality and pathos laced throughout the film, and it was this factor that engineered a truly enjoyable, and (dare I say it?) inspiring filmic experience.
Sicko is a diatribe against monolithic American insurance companies that cheat their clients out of payments which, by reasonable standards, are deserved. There were belly laughs in abundance, as Moore played every trick in the (film-making) book, employing satirical jabs, family humour, Star Wars grabs and the doco tricks his films have made famous. Sicko's greatest prank involved Moore transporting embattled 9/11 rescue workers (denied treatment in the US) to Cuba's Guantanamo Bay military jail, where it was asserted that the inmates received better treatment than some 40 million US citizens (those without health insurance). Another highly effective passage involved Moore trotting over borders to Canada, Britain and France to draw comparisons with the health insurance systems of these countries. The results were astounding. We were privy to the unfortunate case of an American who, after sustaining a hand injury, was forced to choose which finger the doctors would not attach due to his inability to afford multiple operations. This was juxtaposed with the French system, wherein a citizen without private health care had his cancer treated free of charge, then was granted 3 months paid sick leave to recover in the south of France.
Put in such harsh contrast, the film engineered feelings of injustice in this viewer. It also increased the punch of Sicko — there was one passage in which a wife described losing her husband to preventable kidney cancer. At this point, crying could be heard throughout the cinema. The ability to generate raw emotion from an audience is the feature that shifts Moore from the category of documentary-maker to artist, and transformed Sicko from an angry, crusading documentary into an inspiring work with a tangible message of community and compassion.
Sarah Reid
