Sicko

Release date: June 29, 2007
Directed by: Michael Moore

Every documentary that Michael Moore makes unveils yet another appallingly corrupt aspect of the United States government.

His recent foray into injustice is Sicko, a documentary that focuses on the American health care system and is the director's most successful. There are a number of facets to the topic, but the documentary primarily focuses on the chokehold that health insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations have on American congress.

Through various stories told by those who've been seriously burned by their HMOs, Moore shows us that the companies turn a huge profit by denying people help, often going to great lengths to insure that the companies lose as little money as possible — all at the expense of their clients' lives. The filmmaker visits various countries with universal health care programs. We see him talk to Canadian, French, British and even Cuban citizens, all of whom are shocked and even amused that a country as wealthy as the States doesn't care for its people.

Michael Moore Trying To Blend In
In typical Moore fashion, the director approaches the topic with varying levels of comedy, juxtaposed with truly heartbreaking tragedy. Sicko is far more balanced than the heavy-handed Fahrenheit 9/11, and it manages to hop from the sad to satirical much more fluidly than his previous films.

Sicko also excels over the director's previous films through its easy-to-digest subject matter. Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 were both full of political jargon that, to those without a clear understanding of politics, was difficult to fully grasp. Sicko, on the other hand, is about regular people in situations that most have experienced.

Moore has always exposed injustice and what you witness here is so common and so close to home that certain scenes are hard to watch. One in particular shows a handful of people who volunteered during the 9/11 attacks, (and who have since contracted various chronic ailments), who go to Cuba and receive free medical treatment after being denied it back home. One woman pays a few cents for medicine that costs her hundreds of dollars in the States. Moments like that are what make Sicko effective. What you see is simply not right, and it happens far too often.

People have criticized the director for having an obvious bias in his films, but that argument doesn't feel applicable here. These are people and their stories. Taking his scope to a much more personal level is what makes Sicko Moore's strongest documentary yet.