'Sicko' Shows Michael Moore's Maturity as a Filmmaker

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,273875,00.html ^

[badpacifist]

Filmmaker Michael Moore's brilliant and uplifting new documentary, "Sicko," deals with the failings of the U.S. healthcare system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity. Unlike many of his previous films ("Roger and Me," "Bowling for Columbine," "Fahrenheit 9-11"), "Sicko" works because in this one there are no confrontations. Moore smartly lets very articulate average Americans tell their personal horror stories at the hands of insurance companies. The film never talks down or baits the audience. At a press conference on Saturday, Moore said, "This film is a call to action. It's also not a partisan film."

Indeed, in "Sicko," Moore criticizes both Democrats and Republicans for their inaction and in some cases their willingness to be bribed by pharmaceutical companies and insurance carriers.

In a key moment in the film, Moore took a group of patients by boat to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba because of its outstanding medical care. When they couldn't get into the U.S. naval base, Moore proceeded onto Havana where the patients were treated well and cheaply.

This has caused a great deal of controversy, with the federal government launching an investigation into the trip, which officials say was in violation of the trade and commerce embargo against the Communist country.

[badpacifist]

Can Filmmaker Michael Moore really let a story be just a story and not mess with the truth? I'll believe it when I see it.

[LdSentinal]

I'll believe it when I see it.

You're going to see it? Geez.

[LeoWindhorse]

check out the new website about Michael Moore.

http://www.monsterpig.com/

Apparently , Mr. Moore suffered a bit of a setback /s

[RatsDawg]

Barf Alert!

And why on Earth would Fox News support this? Michael Moore Hates Fox News! He basically blaimed them for Bush getting elected in 2000!

[beltfed308]

Comment removed by poster.

[digitalbrownshirt]

Moore could do a documentary about his last bowel movement and the majority of MSM reviewers would pile praise on it.

[digitalbrownshirt]

The writer, Roger Friedman, is an idiot. He’d fit perfectly on any MSM outlet.

[sono]

Mickey blamed Fox? Everyone knows the Illuminati got W elected.

/s

[alancarp]

This is just so Wrong on so many levels, I don’t even know where to start. The notion that the Blob would do ANYTHING non-partisan or non-confrontational is sickening to me (but fortunately, there’s Cuban medicine if the US system fails me). The notion that the reviewer would be taken in by this is flabbergasting.

[D-Chivas]

Nobody who weighs 400 pounds should be lecturing the rest of us about the US healthcare system.

[SpaceBar]

An oldie but a goodie for everyone's reading pleasure.

Deconstructing Michael Moore

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“The notion that the reviewer would be taken in by this is flabbergasting.”

Odds are that if you make your living following what entertainers/filmmakers etc. do, you likely share their political viewpoints. Certainly not universally true, but I would put good money on this reviewer being a big time lib.

[Liberty Valance]

Dang. That’s the biggest pig I’ve ever seen.

[Common Sense 101]

Given the film’s title, I figured it was an autobiography.

[LeoWindhorse]

ain’t it!?

I was immediately reminded of Michael Moore

[JasonC]

Did you read the review? It is an ad for communist Cuba. Of course he isn't telling people's stories, he is selling communism. As always.

[syriacus]

Nothing's quite as horrible as having the government handle things for the American people.

When you think "government medical care" you should think of the disastrous "government housing projects" which were filthy, infested, and plagued by murder, gang wars, and drugs.

Pruitt-Igoe Housing project in St. Louis (had to be destroyed in 1972)

Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, demolished in 2007.

[badpacifist]

rofl ...there you go ....pop all over my monitor

[Polybius]

In a key moment in the film, Moore took a group of patients by boat to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba because of its outstanding medical care. When they couldn't get into the U.S. naval base, Moore proceeded onto Havana where the patients were treated well and cheaply.

What would we ever do without "useful idiots"?

If you are a Communist Party big shot, a foreigner with money or a foreigner trying to advance a pro-Castro political agenda, you will get pretty good medical care in Cuba. ..... Even if the Cuban Communists need to import a Spanish doctor like Castro did for his own medical care.

If you are an average Cuban, you go to filthy clinics without diagnostic equipment and, if your medical provider recommends some medicine, you write to your relatives in Miami and ask them to buy the medicine and send it to Cuba for you.

This reporter would have been mightily impressed with Nazi show camp at Thereisenstadt.

On June 23, 1944, the Nazis permitted the visit by the Red Cross in order to dispel rumours about the exterminations camps. The commission included E. Juel-Henningsen, the head physician at the Danish Ministry of Health, and Franz Hvass, the top civil servant at the Danish Foreign Ministry. Dr. Paul Eppstein was instructed by the SS to appear in the role of the mayor of Theresienstadt...... To minimize the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt, the Nazi deported many Jews to Auschwitz. Also deported in the some 7,500 were most of the Czechoslovakian workers assigned to 'Operation Embellishment.' They also erected fake shops and cafés to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort. The Danes whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms, not more than three in a room. The guests enjoyed the performance of a children's opera, Brundibar, which was written by inmate Hans Krása...... The hoax against the Red Cross was so successful for the Nazis that they went on to make a propaganda film at Theresienstadt. Production of the film began on February 26, 1944. Directed by Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron (a director, cabaret performer, and actor who appeared with Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel), it was meant to show how well the Jews lived under the "benevolent" protection of the Third Reich. After the shooting most of the cast, and even the filmmaker himself, were deported to Auschwitz. Gerron and his wife were executed in the gas chambers on October 28, 1944. The film was not released at the time, but was edited into pieces that served their purpose, and only segments of it have remained.

[ModelBreaker]

This is 1992 redux. The left saw a dem president, and a dem congress. There was an unbelievable media barrage for about a year about how bad the health care system was. The goal--socialized medicine.

The stakes are immense. Socialized medicine would be the final nail in the coffin of the American Republic. On top of the New Deal the War on Poverty, and mass immigration from third world countries, socialized medicine will create so many government dependents that it will become impossible ever to get rid of the socialist government by popular vote. Which, of course, is the whole goal.

The left is again salivating at that prospect. So the media machine is beginning to ramp up--this is one of the first salvos. And the Old Media will take up the chorus soon.

The media hysteria in this one will make the assault on Pres Bush over Iraq seem mild. We will see series of articles and news features about babies dying because we don't have socialized medicine, cute young girls who cannot fix their crippled leg because we don't have socialized medicine, and uncaring Republicans and business executives gleefully collecting money because orphans have fatal diseases and we don't have socialized medicine. Watch in awe as the elites get the people to vote them the effective totalitarian power they have craved for so long.

2008-2012 will be an historic tipping point. If America survives that period, we have a chance of recovery. But frankly, the odds are not very good.

After that, one of two things happen. Either America enters a long twilight while China and the Muslims fight it out for world domination or blood runs in the streets of America as the people take control back over their nation. Frankly, I don't think enough Americans have the will to make option two work. So my grandchildren will either kowtow to Beijing or wear burkhas.