The Diagnosis Is In
Written: Aug 07 '07 (Updated Aug 07 '07)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Some good points made, tame, interesting presentation...
Cons: Emotional manipulation, formulaic, maybe a little too tame
The Bottom Line: Part travel film, part melodrama, part political, part American, all Michael Moore. 2 and a half stars.
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| JiggyJay's Full Review: Sicko |
You could’ve asked me years ago how I felt about Michael Moore and I would have been straight up brown nosing, but at this stage of my life I am a bit more standoff. While Bowling For Columbine, his examination about the gun control in our society, was definitely the pinnacle of his success, after the years went by of seeing the after-effects of Fahrenheit 9/11 (a movie I cherished at the time), I grew to think of him more of a barker of epic proportions; pointing out America’s downfaults as well as leeching on to subjects that Americans, no doubt, will go to the cinemas to see just to get his witty insight and see his biased approach. Sicko is no different.
Mind you, I am not a republican or a democrat or conservative or liberal; I am the type of person that is in awe of our country and when voting I am quick to judge politicians on how they will make this country a better place regardless of their political rightness or leftness. Whatever’s best for our country is best for me—bottom line.
I am no longer the angst-filled teen I was when I watched the documentary Moore did before this one, Fahrenheit 9/11: aimed directly at George W. Bush—a clear cheapshot to sway the elections of 2004. However, Sicko is an entirely different case altogether. Instead of opting for a controversial look into the health care system of the United States, he goes on a rampage through other countries pointing out, in my opinion, how much better their governments treat their citizens.
From France to Canada and to the finale set in Cuba (which has caused some tongue-in-cheeks to happen because of the high risk nature of the endeavor by Moore to send post-9/11 volunteers to seek aid in Cuba), Moore embarks you on a journey to not only see what health care is like inside other borders, but see just what other cultures think about health care systems as well as America’s lack of enthusiasm about a universal health care plan making it so that you and I and my mother and your mother can get the benefits of not having to pay an arm and a leg for medication and surgeries and have our nation take care of us.
In doing so, Michael Moore also points out, in typical fashion, the stakes that the high-rolling corporations behind the big drug companies are rooting for and just how tied the government is with these facilities. Here’s where one of the biggest problems occurs in the movie: like Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore just points out the obvious how there is a problem in our health care system in America, but he does little to actually argue what could be done to change things.
And his attitude makes things even worse. Moore not only looked like he needed health care himself with his pasty skin, but his approach and insight reminded me of a little kid who was being a smart aleck—and knew he was being a smart aleck. The whole ‘na na na’ thing just didn’t suit me well and seemed out of place to the subject matter especially since Moore isn’t stepping on anyone’s toes this time around.
Unlike his previous films like Roger & Me about General Motors in his home town of Flint, Michigan or The Big One about corporations in the US of A, he doesn’t make any real fuss in Sicko almost as if he had such negative feedback for Fahrenheit 9/11 that he just didn’t want to cause as much fuss—which makes sense for two reasons. For one, it means that an audience is easier to come by, as the film is fairly unbiased and actually resourceful. On the other hand, the lack of controversy (AKA coverage) really dampened the marketing process of Sicko. Despite Fahrenheit 9/11 being the highest grossing documentary picture of all time, Sicko is still getting limited release and further despite the PG-13 rating, and the good portion of people in my theatre, it clearly not making as many waves as I expected.
Michael Moore makes a tame statement in the movie and he’s not pushing any boundaries, but at the same time it’s also a bad thing: Sicko just felt edited and tampered as if Moore had so much more to get off his chest that wasn’t presented. At the same time, the new direction that he has taken is far from good and doesn’t get a recommendation from me: the formula.
The structure of Sicko is terrible as all get out. It starts plucking away at your heartstrings in the first section, then transitions to the area of the movie where he tries to get you angry at politicians and drug companies by pointing out mistakes Bush has made as well as hospitals and health insurance providers, then he moves into the period where it’s really informational, then a swift follow through of the information before the climactic epic finale involving Cuba that just seemed too far fetched even for me.
But an even bigger problem is how the movie jumps around so much so that you never really get sympathetic with many of the people onscreen no matter the role they play later in the film where Moore takes them to Cuba for the climax including a very valuable interview with Che Guevera's daughter (which is an astounding feat all on it's own).
It’s more along the lines that Moore was trying to manipulate the audience and while I can’t honestly deny that he didn’t manipulate me into tears at a few points throughout the picture, I can at least say that I identified what was happening. On the melodramatic side of things, Moore seemed to try to hard to get reactions out of the people he interviewed and this seems all to clear when as soon as a tear is shed—ZIP—the camera swoops in to get the glory. Many good documentaries have done this, but while watching it just seemed to me as insensitive and a bit dishonest.
On a cinematic level, the film should have been edited down. Being about two hours long, it was too long—and it showed. I grew bored on a few occasions as Moore trudged through many of his evidences on the impurities of health insurance agencies, but yet he steered right in some directions such as the damning evidence against Hillary Clinton and her pay-offs to keep quiet about attacking them as well as even further damning evidence provided by none other than Richard Nixon—giving you yet another reason to hate him even more.
It’s not that Sicko was bad, because it wasn’t; it had it’s good parts, it was informational, but it just seemed too uneven. At times Moore could be getting somewhere with his points, and then right when you think he’ll hit pay dirt, he just doesn’t deliver. One point that I really looked down on Moore’s tactics involving the subject matter was when a woman was crying onscreen about how she had to deny health care to a patient and then all of a sudden the screen darkens and the Star Wars theme plays followed by conditions that will make you immediately not gain health insurance. Sure, the point came across and it was informational and very sickening, but the presentation and timing was distasteful and interrupted a powerful moment.
All said and done I’m glad that I saw this movie, it’s all I was hoping for, but I wish it was more. The whole health care fiasco is a very big issue for me and it shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s a great subject for a film, but Moore could’ve done much better with the skills that he has showed in the past from research and a more resourceful filmmaking process. While I recommend it for interested film audiences and people who are interested in the pitfalls of our declining (and quite hellish) health care, I’d say that if you didn’t like Moore before, there’s no reason why you’d start now.
(copyright) Jason Haskins, 2007
Further Reading
Fahrenheit 9/11
Adventures In A TV Nation by Michael Moore
Downsize This! by Michael Moore
Recommended:
No
Movie Mood: Date Movie
Viewing Method: Studio Screening/Premiere
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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Epinions.com ID:
JiggyJay
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Member: Jason Haskins
Location: Portland, Oregon
Reviews written: 621
Trusted by: 297 members
About Me:
Finals = (Possible) Brief Hiatus--Will Try To Keep Up With My Readings/Ratings
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