Sicko

Most helpful review Sicko

• focuses on what he wants to think too much and how clever he thinks he is...

   

  By squirrelgirl (24 reviews) from Brighton , 21 Oct 2007

  THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Show review anywayHide

  [Highly rated reviewer]

  moore may have an excellent point that in America you either need an excellent healthcare plan through your own payments or through work, or you end up going bankrupt if you get ill and want to get treatment. however he offers nothing new or well investigated and focuses upon comparing America to other countries who do it 'better', and in several ways he illustrates that he does not adhere to the principle of documentary filmmaking (that you follow the truth even if the truth ends up being something you didn’t envision).
  
  The next paragraph contains spoilers: for instance I live in Britain and I and almost everyone I know has the following experience – we are working class and know that if we get sick we either go private and pay or we can stick with the free NHS service, sit on a waiting list for anything from a few months to a couple of years and risk getting very sick before we even get a letter telling us we can see a specialist (or in some cases you don’t get put on a list because your GP decides you aren’t sick with anything serious until you end up in A and E). Moore’s movie however chooses to show a Britain where you get free operations (no focus on waiting lists), get to see a doctor in a few hours and everyone is helpful even though its free. Equally some French friends have advised me that the French healthcare scenes (which incidentally doesn’t even attempt to show a cross section of society) is equally biased, and the beginning of the Cuba scenario when they approach guantanamo bay (Moore taking heroes who helped find survivors at ground zero who now have conditions for healthcare at the prison) is downright disgusting of him. Speaking as an ex Moore fan I say with no exaggeration that he disrespects both the heroes in the boat with him, who he uses as pawns for his screwed up symbolism, and the prisoners of guantanamo bay since many are innocent and would I’m sure happily trade in free healthcare for their right to their freedom. If Moore cannot see that he is toying horribly with the real horrors of actual peoples lives just to juxtapose how the American healthcare system treats free Americans against how much better an American ‘prison’ treats the health of ‘criminals’ and ‘terrorists’ then he is either sociopathic or as stupid as the head of state he claims to revile and stand against.
  
  you can get interesting info about the American system but his willingness to misrepresent many serve only to instil doubt about his ‘facts’ in general. Shortly after deciding I could no longer agree with his methods I saw Manufacturing Dissent. I would recommend that film for anyone who is interested in seeing examples of how Moore may have entirely twisted the facts in some of his previous work and would like more info on why he is criticised.

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