Sicko



www.michaelmoore.com

In 2007 the controversial filmmaker Michael Moore came out with another film. Yes this was going to be one more film that was going question many things, and make a lot of people angry, because that’s what Michael Moore is good at. Michael Moore’s new film Sicko is a film that questions and looks at the United States health care system and compares it to the health care systems of other countries. From the beginning of the film you are shown a few people who have had some sever and unfortunate accidents that they either have to deal with on their own or go to the hospital and pay straight from their own pocket. I never really thought your middle finger could be worth sixty thousand dollars as we found when one gentleman needed to have that or his twelve thousand dollar ring finger. There are fifty million people in the United States that don’t have any health insurance and of the fifty million who are un insured eighteen thousand of them die per year uninsured, some major statistics here. However here is where Michael More made his point that this film is not about the fifty million who are uninsured, it’s about the two hundred and fifty million who are insured in the United States. Here is where the problems have started to begin. You would have thought being insured would cover any of your health problems. With the stories of a few different people Michael More takes us through the amount of problems or madness you could say when these people who have health insurance are denied coverage, denied full payment, or told they will only be covered if they use specific health care providers even in the case of emergency. Michael More uses all of this information and all these stories, specifically the story of two 9/11 volunteers who are now facing major respiratory problems due to everything they were breathing in wile doing what they could to help. Who’s insurance companies wont give them the correct help they need because it’s not covered. Michael More takes these stories and information and starts to explore how other countries health care systems work. Moore visits Canada, England, France, and Cuba well and if you saw the extra footage Norway who’s health care system made the systems of France and England look strict.
I have only seen two of Moore’s films yet I have always liked him not necessarily because of the work he does in film, but because of the fact that he causes people to become aware and look at different issues, and he makes people question them. He has done this in many ways one of witch he might be the best at is pissing people off, a lot of people don’t like Moore yet by irritating people and making them angry he still is able to make them aware of the issue he is getting across bring more light to it. It kind of goes along with the no publicity it bad publicity saying. I have seen Sicko twice and I think that it’s a good movie it hits on a major issue we have here. The issues of health care have long been around and effect us all, so I don’t why it isn’t more of and issue. We all are going to have to deal with it very soon if we haven’t already, being college students. Some of us have had to deal with finding our own insurance or taking the risk and not having any insurance, and some of us are still fortunate to be covered by our parents insurance.
In all I think that this was a good movie because it brings awareness to a good issue that needs more light shown upon it from somewhere other than the politicians. How ever for the actual aspects of the film there were some parts that I was off set by. I guess you could simply call it Moore’s film making style, but I don’t know because I didn’t remember some of these things in the other movie I saw by Moore. The things that got me were just some of the comedic portions, I actually like that he is able to add this aspect to a documentary and a serious issue I felt some of it was just stretched a little bit to much. The other thing that got me I guess even more so than the comical jabs and satirical humor was the sound track for the movie. It may have been this that actually made some scenes seem comical when they didn’t necessarily need to be. If there were anything I could object to or alter would have been the sound for this film.