Year: 2007
Director: Michael Moore
Country: US
Language: English
Who is the greatest propaganda film-maker of all time? During the late 30's and early 40's Frank Capra made a great number of pro-war films designed to make Americans hate the enemy and be filled with pride for their own country. Around the same time Nazi Director Leni Riefenstahl made grand epic documentaries like Olympia and Triumph of the Will. Though these directors could win people over, nobody has grabbed people's attention quite like Michael Moore.
Sicko is a "documentary" that looks at private health care in the United States and compares it to the Universal health care in Canada and Europe. He talks to various people from each country, as well as American veterans, 9/11 volunteers and doctors in Cuba.
I put documentary in quotations because Sicko is more like a travelogue. Throughout the film Moore doesn't get any actual facts or statistics, rather he interviews people who already have his bias point of view. He says "Canada has great healthcare" then makes a parrot out of someone. The Canadian healthcare system definitely isn't perfect, and there are a lot of well educated people who would say that, but does Moore care? No. He shouts the same slogan throughout the film "American healthcare is evil!"
His documentary is far from balanced; during the entirety of the film Moore doesn't show one person who disagrees with him. However he has never done this in any of his films and he has never bothered to look deeper into any given issue. He blatantly lies about the UK system, showing it as a safe haven when in reality most of the British feel the opposite.
In conclusion, though Moore's heart is in the right place, it's hard to enjoy such a dumbed down "documentary" about healthcare systems. It's frustratingly far from accurate and shocking that so many people have felt pray to the man's deceit. Though the opinion is correct, American healthcare is far from perfect, the execution is incredibly shallow.
Piss on it! 0.5/5
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