Agreed, generally. Metacritic.com awards SICKO a score of 74,
categorized as generally favorable reviews. Of films in wide release
only GRINDHOUSE,
28 WEEKS LATER, HOT FUZZ, KNOCKED UP, RATATOUILLE AND PAN'S LABRYNTH
(metacritic's "window" of release dates is fairly wide - I don't know
their exact criteria on this) fare better. Critics have commented on
how funny the film is, and I agree, but I must say that the Austin
audience I
saw the film with last night was mostly silent. Maybe they were just
appalled.
Having said all this, we went to the theater to see LA VIE EN ROSE,
but the air conditioning was broken in that room. So SICKO it was.
K.
On Jul 1, 2007, at 2:08 AM, David Kusumoto wrote:
** True, while film critics (vs. political pundits), have remarked
that "Sicko" has more humor than Moore's previous efforts, his
latest film has been excoriated by a surprising number of writers
who are fine-toothing him like never before.
** The New Yorker, hardly a "conservative" magazine that I've read
for nearly 40 years, was particularly harsh. David Denby's review
of "Sicko" (see below) was blistering. Then this morning's report
by the Associated Press (also below) -- takes a point-by-point
whack at "Sicko" in a way that puts Moore under a cloud of
suspicion that's unusual from a normally fawning press corps that
in years past -- has accommodated Moore's effort to grab free
publicity w/o having to spend millions on advertising.
** As a U.S. citizen and world traveler who was born in Japan, I
looks at America's "goodness" in a way I think some indigenous
Americans take for granted. I've seen all of Moore's films even
though I consider myself a social liberal and fiscal conservative
who supports the military (esp. given Japan's dependence on the US
for its national defense) -- Bernard Goldberg would describe me as
a JFK "liberal" who leans toward the right. I liked "Bowling for
Columbine" even though I found Moore's ambush of Charlton Heston at
the end upsetting. And I felt "Fahrenheit" was a screed that
doesn't hold up upon second viewing. I've paid full theater
admission to see all of his films.
** But I'm gonna pass on "Sicko" until it comes out on DVD.
Despite his value as an "entertainer," Moore's suspect
"documentarian" methods are upsetting to me an ex-news director,
editor and reporter. Hence I'm glad that Kirby, while recommending
"Sicko" to MoPo's members -- described Michael Moore as a
polemicist -- because in my view, Moore is not a news/documentarian
in the Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow tradition (who were both
liberals, by the way). If Moore's films can be considered
documentaries with balance, than so can Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph
of the Will."
-koose.
================================
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, July 1, 2007; 1:52 AM (ET)
MOORE'S 'SICKO' GIVES ACCUSED LITTLE SAY
By Kevin Freking and Linda A. Johnson
WASHINGTON (AP) - In many respects, Michael Moore's new movie,
"Sicko," is like a trial for those who oversee health care in the
United States.
The industry - doctors, drug makers, hospitals, insurers - is
charged with greed and putting personal interests above patients'.
Moore heard from thousands of people who had maddening and
heartbreaking brushes with this system. As chief prosecutor, Moore
lets them do most of the talking and weaves their stories into the
film with wit, compassion and humor.
But one aspect missing from the film is the defense. Do not expect
to hear anyone speak well of the care they received in the U.S.
On the other hand, patients and doctors from Canada, Britain,
France and Cuba marvel at their health care.
Moore tells viewers there are about 50 million people in the U.S.
without health insurance. Just this past week, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention estimated there are about 43.6
million uninsured people in the country. In March, the Census
Bureau put the number at 44.8 million.
Moore noted that about 18,000 people die each year as a result of
the lack of health insurance. That number comes for a January 2004
report from the Institute of Medicine. The report said the
uninsured do not get the care they need and are more likely to die
prematurely.
Taking on the pharmaceutical industry, Moore says it spent millions
of dollars lobbying Congress for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.
"Of course it was really a bill to hand over $800 billion of our
tax dollars to the drug and health insurance industry," he said.
Moore is citing the projected cost for the Medicare drug benefit's
first 10 years.
Last year, however, Medicare officials told The Associated Press
that the projected cost of the benefit through 2015 stood at about
$729 billion, a substantial drop compared with original estimates.
Moore also noted the some of the elderly in the drug program could
end up paying more for their prescriptions than they did before.
That is true.
But the vast majority do save because of the tens of billions of
dollars in annual government subsidies to help cover the cost of
their medicine. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says
people save about $1,200 a year on average by participating in the
program, called Medicare Part D.
At one point, Moore notes where the U.S. ranks in terms of health
care around the world.
"The United States slipped to No. 37 in health care around the
world, just slightly ahead of Slovenia," he said.
That ranking is based on a 2000 report from the World Health
Organization that some health analysts viewed as misleading. Moore
does not say that one of the countries he highlighted, Cuba, is
ranked 39th, below the U.S.
Among the others, France is ranked No. 1, the United Kingdom ranked
18th and Canada ranked 30th. He does not give those rankings, either.
The report, based on 1997 data, measured not just the quality of
care provided, but how well the countries prevented illness and how
fairly the poor, minorities and other special populations are treated.
Moore's film includes security video showing a disoriented elderly
woman in a hospital gown and slippers wandering in the gutter of a
busy Los Angeles street. Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical
Center near Los Angeles had discharged her and sent her off in a
cab. Eventually, a staff member from the Union Rescue Mission in
the city's crime-ridden Skid Row area comes out to help the woman.
The March 2006 incident was widely documented. This May, Kaiser
Permanente, the country's biggest health maintenance organization,
reached a settlement with Los Angeles prosecutors requiring Kaiser
to make changes to end the dumping of homeless patients on streets.
Los Angeles authorities are investigating allegations that a dozen
area hospitals have dumped more than 50 homeless patients downtown.
On Wednesday, prosecutors filed civil complaints against two other
hospitals and a transportation service accusing them of dumping
homeless patients in Skid Row.
In the movie, Moore correctly states that the chief executives of
health insurance companies make millions of dollars a year. Among
the insurers mentioned are Humana Inc. (HUM), where chief executive
Michael McCallister received about $5.9 million in salary and other
compensation in 2006, and Aetna Inc. (AET), where chief executive
Ronald Williams last year received salary and other compensation
totaling about $30.9 million. Those figures were determined by an
AP analysis of company filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Huge executive salaries are the norm in all of corporate America.
An AP analysis of 386 Fortune 500 companies' executive compensation
reports showed that half the CEOs made more than $8.3 million last
year.
In the film, an insurance company call center employee says her
company has a list of pre-existing conditions that would "wrap
around this house." The conditions, including diabetes, heart
disease and cancer, make applicants ineligible for coverage.
Numerous disorders then scrolls up a black screen in yellow letters
- think of the "Star Wars" movie introductions.
Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive of the trade group
America's Health Insurance Plans, said Moore does not identify the
plan involved but that it is not a typical one. She said about 17
million people in the U.S. are insured under individual plans and
an additional 200 million under group plans.
"If that list were true, none of those people would be getting
health insurance," Ignagni said.
Ignagni said decisions about which treatments are covered by a plan
are made by the sponsor, such as an employer, not by the insurer.
Moore also takes on the notion that universal health coverage leads
to longer waits in hospital emergency rooms and to see doctors. He
visited a crowded emergency room in Canada and asked patients how
long they had to wait. One said 20 minutes; a second said 45
minutes. "I got help right away," a third said.
Yet a recent report from the Commonwealth Fund indicates that wait
times in the U.S. are clearly shorter than they are in Canada.
In all areas measured, the U.S. fared better than Canada. For
example, 24 percent of Canadians waited four hours or longer to be
seen in the emergency room versus 12 percent in the U.S.
The difference was more acute when it came time to see a
specialist. Fifty-seven percent of Canadians waited four weeks or
longer to see a specialist versus 23 percent in the U.S.
The Commonwealth Fund also monitored wait times in Britain, which
has universal health care. The wait times for emergency room care
were comparable to those in the U.S.
There was a big difference when it came time to see a specialist -
60 percent in Britain waited four weeks or longer.
The film concludes with a trip to Cuba where Moore seeks care for a
group of workers who have experienced health problems after
responding to 2001 terrorist attacks. They are greeted with open
arms at a hospital in Havana and given what appears to be top-notch
care that they could not get in the U.S.
The question left for viewers to ponder is whether Cubans are given
such red carpet treatment, too.
---
Linda A. Johnson reported from Trenton, N.J.
================================
July 2, 2007
THE NEW YORKER
The Current Cinema
Do No Harm - Sicko
by David Denby
Michael Moore has teased and bullied his way to some brilliant
highs in his career as a political entertainer, but he scrapes
bottom in his new documentary, Sicko.
The movie is an attack on the American health-care system, and it
starts out strongly, with Moore interviewing families who have been
betrayed or neglected by H.M.O.s and insurance companies.
A man whose life might have been saved by a bone-marrow transplant
died when he was refused experimental treatment. A feverish baby
died when her mother, rather than taking her to a hospital run by
her insurer, Kaiser Permanente, rushed her to the nearest emergency
room, where they were turned away.
Moore then zeroes in on the situation of three volunteer Ground
Zero rescue workers, who have trouble breathing or who suffer from
stress and cant get assistance from the federal government. More
baffled than angry, they soberly report on their conditions, and
Moore comments that even national heroes arent given help by the
nation.
A bit later in the film, however, he presents congressional
testimony suggesting that people the Administration has deemed to
be national enemiesthe detainees at Guantánamo Bayare receiving
good health care free. So Moore loads the Ground Zero volunteers,
plus some other people who have serious health problems, into three
boats in the Miami harbor. Which way to Guantánamo Bay? he calls
out to a Coast Guard vessel, and the little flotilla sets off for
Cuba. When the boats arrive outside the base, they are, of course,
stonily denied entrance.
An absurdist of outrage, Moore has attacked corporations that
destroy cities by closing down local plants (Roger & Me); a gun-
happy culture that makes arms easily available (Bowling for
Columbine); an Administration that begins a war without sufficient
cause (Fahrenheit 9/11). He has stalked corporate officials and
congressmen, planted his bulk before them and asked mock-naïve
questions, and his provocations, at their best, have smoked out
hypocrites and liars.
But this confrontation is different. Hauling off seriously ill
people to a military base where they wont receive treatment is a
dumb prank. And the insensitivity isnt much relieved by the piece
of whimsy that comes next: Moore and the rescue workers (the other
sick voyagers having mysteriously disappeared) wander onto the
streets of Havana and ask some guys playing dominoes if theres a
doctor nearby. They go to a pharmacy and then to a hospital, where
the Americans are admitted and treated.
Few people in Moores audience are likely to be displeased that
they receive help from a Communist system.
But what is the point of Moores fiction of a desperate, wandering
quest for medicine on the streets, as if he hadnt known in advance
that Cuba has free health care? Why not tell us what really
happened on the tripfor instance, what part Cuban officials played
in receiving the American patients?
After the early tales of the systems failure, Sicko becomes
feeble, even inane.
A recent poll shows that a majority of Americans not only favor a
national health service but are willing to pay higher taxes for
it. In that case, wouldnt it have made sense for Moore to find
out what features of universal care in other countries could be
adapted to America?
Instead of sorting through any of this, Moore and his crew go from
place to placeto Canada, England, and France, as well as Cubaand,
at every stop, he pulls the same silly stunt of pretending to be
astonished that health care is free.
How much do people pay here in France? Nothing? Youve got to be
kidding. But isnt everyone taxed to death to pay for health
care? Well, heres a nice, two-income French couple who have a
great apartment and collect sand from the deserts of the world.
Not only havent they been impoverished by taxation; they travel.
And so on.
In each country, Moore interviews doctors who speak proudly of how
well their countrys system works. But the candor of these doctors
is no more impressive than that of the corporate spokesmen Moore
has confronted in the past.
No one mentions the delays or the instances of less than first-rate
care. We find out that a doctor in Great Britain makes a good
income (about two hundred thousand dollars), but not how medical
care in, say, Toronto might differ from that in a distant rural
area, or how shortages may have affected the quality of Cuban
health care.
Moore winds up treating the audience the same way that, he says,
powerful people treat the weak in Americaas dopes easily satisfied
with fairy tales and bland reassurances. And since he doesnt
interview any of the countless Americans who have been mulling over
ways to reform our system, were supposed to come away from Sicko
believing that sane thinking on these issues is unknown here.
In the actual political world, the major Democratic Presidential
candidates have already offered, or will soon offer, plans for
reform. A shift to the left, or, at least, to the center, has
overtaken Michael Moore, yielding an irony more striking than any
he turns up: the changes in political consciousness that Moore
himself has helped produce have rendered his latest film almost
superfluous. ♦
----Original Message Follows----
From: Kirby McDaniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Kirby McDaniel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: RECOMMENDED: SICKO
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 00:29:14 -0500
That wicked polemicist Michael Moore is at it again. The pre-
election hysteria of FAHRENHEIT 911 will not juice up audience
numbers for SICKO, but I think this may be Michael Moore's most
accessible film. Certainly some of the film is over the top, but
once again Moore proves that his considerable heart is in the right
- or should I say LEFT - place as he looks at the U.S. medical care
conundrum: the best doctors and hospitals in the world but don't
count on seeing them if, as Woody Guthrie once said, "you ain't got
the dough-re-mi."
Kirby
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