Review of "Sicko"

"Sicko" is the latest documentary by muck-raking filmmaker Michael Moore. Those expecting a Republican-bashing film like "Fahrenheit 9/11" will find some of that here, but primarily this film attacks the corporations responsible for the deplorable state of health care in the United States. Nearly 50 million citizen have no health care, and while these people are certainly highlighted, "Sicko" mainly focuses on those of us that do have health care.

Before he began filming he sent out a request for "health care horror stories" and the volume of responses he got ( some even from insiders who were fed up with their employers) was surprising. More than his other works (even including the classic "Roger and Me") he presents the stories of very sympathetic people who have been run through the mill. One woman tearfully recalls her husband's final days fighting for coverage for drugs that in all likelihood would have saved his life. Another man in his seventies talks about not finding any "golden years" and has to work as a supermarket janitor to get the benefits necessary to pay for his wife's medications. This movie attacks politicians of all stripes, from George W. Bush to Hillary Clinton to some chilling archival tapes of Richard Nixon, in their complicit roles of allowing the HMO's to rise up and make obscene profits from their less than compassionate care.

In the final act of the film Michael Moore takes true American heroes from the 9/11 rescues on a harrowing journey to get them treatment from Guantanamo Bay-I won't ruin what happens in this review, but it is truly moving. This is a great film which does not have to work hard to move it's audience. CNN recently did a study of the facts Moore quotes and found he is mostly accurate. At one point Moore asks "Who Are We?" and each person who sees this needs to find their answer and hopefully become a part of the solution-taking the best of other nation's ideas and make them our own to heal our problematic health care system.