Micheal Moore’s new movie, Sicko…
Well, some of you might have heard that this past weekend, Micheal Moore’s new movie, Sicko, was leaked and found its way to YouTube. By yesterday, it had saturated the online world when it found its way to BitTorrent. For a movie that hasn’t been released, having a high quality version get out can be devastating… but I think the leak was intentional.
Anyone that knows my politics, knows that I can’t stand Michael Moore. While I don’t agree with him politically (for the most part) I have always respected him as a filmmaker and a social provocateur. One of the things that I have disliked about Michael Moore’s approach to politics, it his usage of disinformation. Often, Moore will misconstrue or misrepresent the context of information to underline a point. One of the things I most admire about his skills, is his ability to make people believe that he said something that he didn’t. He is a very skilled manipulator.
I really enjoyed Roger and Me when it came out, but couldn’t stand Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 911. My dislike for Moore was clear to me when I got wind of the film leak. I immediately thought this was to the detriment of the film, and I sort of rejoiced inwardly. Yeah, that will teach him, I thought. But then I saw the film.
I have always been on the receiving side of the good part of American health care. But I was never a sickly person and with the exception of an ankle twist and mono in high school, I didn’t go to the doctor. Later in my life when stuff seemed to be going wrong with me, I had mack daddy health insurance that let me do whatever I wanted and go to whomever I wanted. I visited a psychologist regularly for panic and depression problems, had EKGs and emergency room visits because of panic attacks. Had MRI scans of the brain and did two sleep studies for sleep apnea, none of which strained me financially because my insurance paid for everything.
Just a week ago, I got into an argument (aka discussion, aka monologue) with a friend about health care in America. I went quickly to bat declaring that we live in a country where people that need health care, get it. Somewhere down deep I believe that even though I have watched my mom as she struggles to pay the mounting costs for her and my terminally ill father’s health care. I have frequent conversations with her about the pending switch to Medicaid for my dad and how that with pretty much deplete any money they have and probably take the equity in their home away, leaving my mom with nothing to pass on. Despite this, I still seem to think that everything is OK.
But everything is not OK, and there are places in America where sick people are loaded into cabs by hospitals and dropped off in front of public clinics in hospital gowns, dazed and confused, simply because they can’t pay the outrageous costs of health care in America. Why is it that I think this stuff doesn’t happen?
Moore’s movie isn’t exactly an objective unbiased look at health care, it is a campaign for socialized medicine. And if you believe the picture of socialized medicine he paints, who wouldn’t want that? But I don’t buy what he is selling. You see, his movie is about American horror stories, it is about worse case scenarios. When he goes to the countries with socialized medicine, you don’t get a single horror story–you see, he didn’t take out an ad to find the people who hate socialized medicine there like he did here.
Actually, the most misleading thing in his film, is the lack of sick people in the socialized systems. He didn’t talk to a single cancer patient who was dieing and get their opinion of the system (like he did with Americans). He talked to people who had broken limbs and stomach aches, people who had babies and people sitting in waiting rooms. At no point in the film did he talk to a foreigner who’s life was eminently in the hands of a socialized system.
He did talk to people who had recovered from a major illness–those that left America to seek treatment in a socialized system, but when he spoke to them, they were well. People who are well, have a much better view of everything… which is one subtle point of the film.
The film is rife with leftist propaganda that props up Hilary Clinton as a sexy intelligent woman who is full of moxie while at the same time portrays a host of Republicans as automatons for big business and idiots with their hands out. Everywhere you turn there is some political slant that colors what is presented. While it might not make you run out and get a Vote Hillary ‘08 bumper sticker for your car, it might make you wonder just who is piloting this ship.
While I can’t say that Moore’s latest film is a masterpiece of filmmaking, I can probably pay it the comment that Moore might find most pleasing of all… it made me think. Actually, it actually made me reconsider what I really believe about our current health care system and truthfully, it actually made me think about the possible value of socialized medicine. But it made me think about a lot more than just that.
This film made me question my disdain for France as well as reinvigorate my desire to see Cuba opened up to America again. I think that this is all part of Moore’s brilliance as a social provocateur, he shifted my view. This is obvious because I woke up this morning thinking about it. It made me think enough about it to look at John McCain’s site to see if health care was an issue–enough for me to write him a note inquiring about his thoughts and plans for making heath care affordable.
I don’t think that Moore could be offered a higher complement than to know that someone in the opposite political camp was moved to think about an issue. While I am sure that the film is full of misdirection and misinformation, I think there is enough of an issue there to make people start talking again.
So, was the leak of the film some nefarious act by someone seeking to destroy Moore, or was this a planned leak to get people talking? I think it is the latter. It is probably very likely that I would not have seen this film when it was released, but post it on YouTube and guess what…something happens. As a filmmaker who wants to see profit from his work, I am not sure how this leak will effect him, but as someone who wants to stir the pot and get people talking, I think he might have hit a bullseye on this one… at least if I am any indication of what this film can do.