Sicko Debut for Michael Moore
by Marc Burleigh
Agence France-Presse
May 19, 2007
Michael Moore unveiled his latest attack on America's shortcomings at Cannes today with Sicko, a scathing documentary that exposes the dark side of the US health system and its powerful insurance lobby.
The film played to a packed-out crowd in the film festival's biggest, 2000-seat theatre.
It was also the first of two non-fiction US films shown - A-list star Leonardo DiCaprio was on hand to present his own pet project, the documentary The 11th Hour, about man's impact on the environment.
In Sicko, Moore flays a health system that, he shows, leaves 50 million Americans without access to medical care - and which even cruelly pulls the rug out from under many of those who mistakenly think they are properly covered.
The documentary fires off side shots at US President George W. Bush, the follow-up to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Iraq war - all subjects of predilection for Moore, who won Cannes's Palme d'Or in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.
This time, the filmmaker has landed in hot water for a stunt in Sicko in which he takes a group of ailing September 11 emergency workers to Cuba, where they receive medical treatment.
The US Government has opened a probe into the trip, which potentially breaches its laws restricting US citizens from visiting the communist island.
“I don't know why the Bush administration is taking this action,” Moore told journalists after the screening.
"It's hard to get into their heads about why they do anything... This is an administration that flaunts the law, flaunts the Constitution.
"The point was not to go to Cuba, it was to go to American soil, to Guantanamo Bay and to take 9/11 rescue workers there to receive the same medical care given to the Al-Qaeda detainees."
But the group doesn't enter the Guantanamo US military base, and instead gets good care from Cuban doctors in a hospital.
Moore also heads to other countries - Canada, Britain and France - to show how their national state-run health systems, often derided as “socialist” in the US, offer a far superior level of care than the US one.
The problem in America is that private Health Maintenance Organisations run the system (under legislation brought in by president Richard Nixon) - and they do so by limiting coverage and payments, and by “buying off” politicians, the documentary alleges.
“They are legally required to maximise profits for their shareholders,” Moore noted, adding that he feared any reform that might come in under a new president could simply end up putting “tax dollars in the hands of private companies”.
The real solution, he opined, was to “steal” what worked in other Western countries and apply that to the US.
Asked whether he was prepared for the inevitable backlash from the deep-pocketed US medical insurance companies, Moore admitted “they may be a scarier force than Karl Rove or George Bush” but added: “It is my profound hope that people will listen to this film.”
Moore said he declined to have his film shown in the line up vying for the Palme d'Or this year.
“I already have the Palme d'Or. What do I want? Another Palme d'Or?” asked the filmmaker, who also picked up an Oscar in 2002 for Bowling for Columbine.
Stephen Schaefer, a US critic for the Boston Globe newspaper, hailed the new movie and predicted it might do even bigger US box office business than Fahrenheit 9/11.
While the facts Sicko laid out make him "sad as an American,” Schaefer said it was “a very strong and very honest documentary about a health system that's totally corrupt and that is without any care for its patients”.
Agence France-Presse
May 19, 2007
Michael Moore unveiled his latest attack on America's shortcomings at Cannes today with Sicko, a scathing documentary that exposes the dark side of the US health system and its powerful insurance lobby.
The film played to a packed-out crowd in the film festival's biggest, 2000-seat theatre.
It was also the first of two non-fiction US films shown - A-list star Leonardo DiCaprio was on hand to present his own pet project, the documentary The 11th Hour, about man's impact on the environment.
In Sicko, Moore flays a health system that, he shows, leaves 50 million Americans without access to medical care - and which even cruelly pulls the rug out from under many of those who mistakenly think they are properly covered.
The documentary fires off side shots at US President George W. Bush, the follow-up to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Iraq war - all subjects of predilection for Moore, who won Cannes's Palme d'Or in 2004 for Fahrenheit 9/11.
This time, the filmmaker has landed in hot water for a stunt in Sicko in which he takes a group of ailing September 11 emergency workers to Cuba, where they receive medical treatment.
The US Government has opened a probe into the trip, which potentially breaches its laws restricting US citizens from visiting the communist island.
“I don't know why the Bush administration is taking this action,” Moore told journalists after the screening.
"It's hard to get into their heads about why they do anything... This is an administration that flaunts the law, flaunts the Constitution.
"The point was not to go to Cuba, it was to go to American soil, to Guantanamo Bay and to take 9/11 rescue workers there to receive the same medical care given to the Al-Qaeda detainees."
But the group doesn't enter the Guantanamo US military base, and instead gets good care from Cuban doctors in a hospital.
Moore also heads to other countries - Canada, Britain and France - to show how their national state-run health systems, often derided as “socialist” in the US, offer a far superior level of care than the US one.
The problem in America is that private Health Maintenance Organisations run the system (under legislation brought in by president Richard Nixon) - and they do so by limiting coverage and payments, and by “buying off” politicians, the documentary alleges.
“They are legally required to maximise profits for their shareholders,” Moore noted, adding that he feared any reform that might come in under a new president could simply end up putting “tax dollars in the hands of private companies”.
The real solution, he opined, was to “steal” what worked in other Western countries and apply that to the US.
Asked whether he was prepared for the inevitable backlash from the deep-pocketed US medical insurance companies, Moore admitted “they may be a scarier force than Karl Rove or George Bush” but added: “It is my profound hope that people will listen to this film.”
Moore said he declined to have his film shown in the line up vying for the Palme d'Or this year.
“I already have the Palme d'Or. What do I want? Another Palme d'Or?” asked the filmmaker, who also picked up an Oscar in 2002 for Bowling for Columbine.
Stephen Schaefer, a US critic for the Boston Globe newspaper, hailed the new movie and predicted it might do even bigger US box office business than Fahrenheit 9/11.
While the facts Sicko laid out make him "sad as an American,” Schaefer said it was “a very strong and very honest documentary about a health system that's totally corrupt and that is without any care for its patients”.
Copyright 2007 News Limited
posted by Swallowtail at 08:37
1 Comments:
That comment by Schaefer at the end is ridiculous. This is not an accurate depiction of the US Health Care system. Moore doesn't highlight the fact that 33% of income comes out in Canada just to pay for Insurance, and that it takes 6 months to get a hip replacement surgery. This movie is terrible, I agree prices are too high, and something has to be done, but a Universay Policy would be the worst thing ever for Americans!
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