Sicko

Review by Kris Ashton

Journalists probably have a different take on Michael Moore than the average punter. Moore polarises most people; you either agree with his leftist views and consider him a modern-day messiah for the misused and downtrodden, or you think he’s an overweight gasbag with a hypocritical streak as big as his double-chin.

But people who assemble facts for a living – and especially the kind who must also objectively critique films – are more analytical.

For mine, the flabby filmmaker from Flint has always been a frustrating contradiction. He appears to have a genuine interest in exposing corruption and helping the less fortunate, but he has always gone about it in a questionable and sometimes lamentable fashion.

Much has been written about his use of ‘creative editing’, and while Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 brought up issues that desperately needed airing, they amounted to little more than sensationalist diatribes. You need only look at a real documentary – say Deliver Us from Evil or God On My Side – to establish the difference.

If you’re expecting this paragraph to say Sicko is different … well, you’re expecting in vain. All the Moore trademarks (and all the things that made his other films so successful) are here: bias, cheap emotionalism, dubious research, using a single example to represent the multitude, and often hilarious sarcasm and comic timing. Yet one key thing is different about Sicko – it’s not political.

Well, okay, it’s a bit political – politicians are involved and so is big business (Moore’s arch enemy since the days of Roger and Me). But the politics (and policies) Moore is railing against – those responsible for America’s profit-driven healthcare system – are indefensible on anything but the shakiest moral ground.

As he points out, the US is the only western nation that does not provide some form of free healthcare. Why? Because the pharmaceutical giants and insurance companies who line congress' pockets prefer it that way.

Moore goes to various countries (Canada, France, England, and in perhaps his biggest stunt yet, Cuba) to prove just how pathetic America’s healthcare system is … and how ill-founded are the warnings against socialising it. As an English doctor explains, rewarding healthcare professionals for keeping patients well can also turn a profit (just not as big a one as turning down insurance claims with preposterous excuses or grossly overcharging for medicines).

Adding extra credence to Moore’s argument, he is even willing to sacrifice that darling of the left, Hilary Clinton, and show how her plan for government-run healthcare was shot down – and how a bagful of greenbacks helped her forget it ever existed.

As usual Moore goes too far – his attempt to paint Fidel Castro as a poor, misunderstood visionary who was demonised by the media will have even halfway informed viewers rolling in the aisles, and he just can’t help but have an irrelevant dig at the war in Iraq. Yet some things can’t be denied, and only a heartless creep or a buffoon would argue that it’s anything other than reprehensible to dump people in need of medical attention at a shelter because they can’t afford it.

The basic tenet to emerge from Sicko is that certain services should be free in a prosperous democratic society, and medical aid is inarguably among them. But President Nixon, in the guise of ‘improving’ healthcare for Americans, actually stole it away from them.

Let’s hope Sicko goes some way to getting it back.

4 out of 5

Sicko
Australian release: 9th August, 2007
Cast: Michael Moore
Director: Michael Moore
Website: Click here.