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Product Description: No Description Available.
Genre: Documentary
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 8-JAN-2008
Media Type: DVDAmazon.com: SiCKO is more like a controlled howl of protest than a documentary. Toning down the rhetoric of past efforts--no CEOs, congressmen, or celebrities were accosted in the making of this film--Michael Moore's latest provocation is just as heartfelt, if not more heartbreaking. As he clarifies from the outset, his subject isn't the 45 million Americans without insurance, but those whose coverage has failed to meet their needs. He starts by speaking with patients who've been denied life-saving procedures, like chemotherapy, for the most spurious of reasons. Then he travels to Canada, England, and France to see if socialized medicine is as inefficient as U.S. politicians like to claim--especially those who receive funding from pharmaceutical companies. Moore finds quality care available to all, regardless as to income. He concludes with a stunt that made headlines when he assembles a group of 9/11 rescue workers suffering from a variety of afflictions. When Moore is informed that detainees at Guantánamo Bay--technically American soil--qualify for universal coverage, he and his companions travel to Cuba to get in on that action. It's a typically grandstanding move on Moore's part. And it proves remarkably effective when these altruistic individuals, who've either been denied treatment or forced to pay outrageous costs for their medication, experience a dramatically different system. Nine years in the making, SiCKO makes a persuasive case that it's time for America to catch up with the rest of the world. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Customer Reviews:
- Informative, Enlightening, Entertaining, Excellent: Michael Moore was a fine filmmaker before he became Michael Moore the Celebrity. A few people may have forgotten that, in which case this film serves as a reminder.
It's about people. He starts with profiles of some folks in the US, then goes around the world, mostly staying in the background and letting the people and the facts speak for themselves. It's just, as the title of this review might suggest, an excellent film. That's all.
- We sink or swim together. Oh wait....: Mike Moore bends US over and probes his camera deep into the dark, odorous canal of America's health system.
"Gimme 2 good coughs!"
This doc might just make you puke. It's alarming and revealing. We the people of the United States, the greatest most powerful country in the world, are getting violated in disturbing fashion by our HMO's, drug companies, and congressmen. Greed is killing us from within, and something desperately needs to be done.
Sickness, obesity, debt...these are becoming uniquely American?
Some of the incidents in this film might seem staged. Some of the facts also feel a tad bit manipulated. But it is done to prove a point. Our current system is a failure. We MUST do something quick. Hopefully Obama or Mrs. Clinton can get us back on the right track.
If not, I'm moving to Canada. Oh wait, it's cold up there. dang it.... - Moore of the Same: I've enjoyed his documentaries in the past, but this documentary is a complete joke. First, lets just say its rather obvious that Moore thinks the United States should have an all standard health care and not privatized insurance like his beloved Canada, but regrets to tell you that the waiting for health care in that country is absolutely outrageous, hours just waiting to see a physician for a common ailment and years, 6 years average for something we have access to here in the U.S. in a matter of weeks. Also, commercial insurance and the coverages of each individuals plans are chosen by the companies. A representative goes to Company X...we will use Dell as an example and asks them, what do you want to cover, what will you offer and pay for, the insurance companies follow that contract to the letter, so blame Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield all you want, you are missing the mark Moore, if Walmart won't pay for ambulatory surgery the fault is on them, not the insurance carrier, his research on this documentary was sloppy, his personal views are sloppy and he's losing it. Stay in Canada Michael, but hey they are plenty of easily swayed Americans that will continue to buy your dvd's and books, so make sure to come back to take their money.
- Not What I Expected--and That's Good!: After two political films ("Bowling..." and "Fahrenheit 9/11"), Michael Moore returned to his more humane, storytelling roots with "Sicko." Drug companies across the country ordered their employees to be on the lookout for the wily Mr. Moore when they heard that he was making a documentary about Big Pharma.
It turns out that they needn't have bothered: "Sicko" is about people, not drug companies. The movie's biggest "stunt" turns out to be not as bad as the press would have you believe: His original goal wasn't to take sick Americans to Cuba, but instead to take them to the United States military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The only problem with the film turns out to be its lack of statistical basis--in reigning in his focus to the stories, viewers are left with only a partial picture of the health care system in the United States and abroad. - Always controversial: Always controversial but never strays from the absolute truth. Moore's films are always evocative and anyone watching this and only seeing political agenda really isn't watching it for any other reason. PBS recently did a similar report about comparing and contrasting the health care institutions of different nations. Though PBS showed more examples of different styles of health care institutions, the bottom line for both documentaries is that American health care system needs serious overhauling.
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