Yapım :2007 Ülke : Amerika Tür : Documentary Süre :
113 dakika IMDB Puan : 8.5/10 IMDB ID: tt0386032
A.K.A SiCKO USA (alternative spelling)
Oyuncular Michael Moore, Himself
George W. Bush, Himself (archive footage)
Reggie Cervantes, Herself
John Graham, Himself
William Maher, Himself
Richard Nixon, Himself (archive footage)
Linda Peeno, Herself
Bilgi :Let's face it, we all come to Michael Moore's films with our own established preconceptions, just as Moore arrives onscreen with his rather renowned baggage. For those who loathe his methods and politics, he is, as the great film critic Pauline Kael said, a peddler in "gonzo demagoguery." For those who celebrate his zealousness and guerilla tactics, he is a prophet, calling forth repentance in the public square. After winning the Academy Award in 2003 for Bowling for Columbine, Moore spent his time at the podium railing against President Bush and what he called a "fictitious war." The next morning, even he seemed to know that he had gone a bit too far. He apologized for his vitriol, and admitted that he'd made a stop over on the way to the ceremony that had left him passionate and fervent to speak truth to power. He had come from church.
Moore began preparing for Sicko almost ten years ago. Inspired by a segment in his TV show, The Awful Truth, Moore got the idea to make a film tackling the absurdities of the American healthcare system. Then came the Columbine shootings. And the Iraq War. After the dust settled from Fahrenheit 911 —the highest grossing documentary in film history—Moore found himself returning to his shelved idea. After all, healthcare affects more Americans than either gun violence or terrorism.
Filmmaker Michael Moore interviews a doctor
There are no congressional ambushes or CEO confrontational stunts in Sicko. Moore seems to be channeling the great social critics of the past, like Mark Twain, stating his argument and framing his ideology clearer than ever before. Sicko is less angry and antagonistic than his former films, incorporating a surprising amount of joviality for a subject as painful as this. You can say things in comedy that you can't say in drama. Moore has somehow managed to utilize both in a way that will make you laugh yourself sick. This is his most accessible and enjoyable film, and he might just win some fans with this one.
While many would assume Moore is out to slay the dragon of America's nearly 50 million uninsured citizens, he's not. It's about the millions of others who dutifully pay into their insurance each and every month, and when it comes time to draw upon that reserve, find themselves ensnarled in bureaucratic red tape. America currently ranks No. 38 in global health care—just above Slovenia. Touting the best medical care known to man, Americans are far from the healthiest people on the planet, nor do we have the longest life expectancies. There are third world countries with lower infant mortality rates than the United States. Moore populates his film with profiles of ordinary Americans whose lives, in one way or another, have been forever altered by collisions with the healthcare system. It is through their stories and tears that the often-overwhelming colossus of healthcare is distilled into very real, very personal vignettes.
The truth is, socialized organizations are not alien to Americans at all, and far from the Red menace alarmists would like us to believe. Everything from our police and fire departments, public school, libraries and postal service are all managed by the government on a not-for-profit basis. Why should medicine be any different?
Like him or not Moore is gifted at mingling with regular folks and showing a caring side
Despite the accusations of manipulation, condescension and playing fast and loose with the truth, Moore's brand of commentary is difficult to resist. Doubtless, there will be those who can find the holes in his arguments and point out the film's glaring oversights. And almost certainly they would be right to do so. Moore is decidedly uninterested in showing both sides of the story. His is a polemic world of diatribes and invectives. And though it might have been nice if, during the two-hour running time, he had taken a moment to suggest what universal healthcare might cost the American taxpayer, it is enough, I suppose, to simply start the conversation.
While Sicko includes facts, statistics and graphs, it's ultimately much more interested in how this drama plays out on a human level. The question is not why this utopia does not exist, but why we don't even care to try to make it so. For Moore, it is not about politics; it is about morality. Profit, he argues, should never enter into the equation where a person's health is concerned. It has been said that a country can be judged by how well it treats its poorest citizens. If that is true, America is in dire straits. Sicko is a David versus Goliath story, and anyone who doesn't hear its clarion call to revolution isn't paying attention. I think we can all, on some level, understand Moore's righteously inspired indignation, even if we can't always identify with its objective. I think we can all understand the sort of passion that comes from spending time amidst the holy and coming away changed, hearts broken by the things that break the heart of God and emboldened to take on a vast and wicked system that works as a cancer within creation. Whatever else you want to say about him, Michael Moore seems to genuinely care about the people he includes in his films. He is consistently the champion of the underdog, the helpless, the powerless, and the marginalized. It is a calling that we should all recognize. Christ's command to love and care for "the least of these" will continue to echo in your head long after Sicko has ended.
