how if you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people

that's a quote from the michael moore movie "sicko", and it's a good way to start my review.


written, directed and produced by michael moore
viewed at the vogue theater, san francisco, ca

now, many of you know that i have a well-deserved reservoir of emnity towards healthcare companies. this movie stoked that. because, like most everything in the world, businesses that make decisions purely based on the bottom line are businesses that make bad decisions. but it's so much worse, so profoundly evil when healthcare companies do that because the product they're skimping on is getting people healthy.

so they are jeopardizing the health of their customers to save some money.

in fact, they actually go out of their way to make you feel worse.

you can't debate that point, whether or not you like michael moore. all you need is one "denial of claim" to realize the horrors of their practices. fucking assholes, all around.

the point of this movie, and most of his movies, is that a country as great as america should be ashamed of her self-imposed and refused-to-be-fixed faults. "roger and me" is about america's addiction to greed and the effects it has on the helpless. "bowling for columbine" is about american government's manipulation of the media to impose fear on its citizens to control them. "fahrenheit 911" is about how the american government's ties are much more important to them than the people they defend.

in this case, it's a disgrace that a country like america has so little concern for the welfare of its citizens. and that's a reflection of the politicians from each party that are indebted to those who put them in power - the healthcare companies.

sicko isn't about the people. it's about the system in place.

and that system sucks - especially when you compare it to other countries.

as usual, moore takes extreme examples to tell that story, and that's really what rankles people. whether it's catching charlton heston on a bad day with fancy editing or surprising the CEO of GM at his front door, his methods and evidence always come across as somewhat loose at worst, circumstantial at best.

but that doesn't mean that his points aren't solid.

they are. they truly are.

and his facts seem to be almost dead-on.

also, although he paints the healthcare systems of other countries as perfect, they are far from that. the point is that their ideals are, although the details might not be. still, to be fair, for an opposing view, here's an interesting article refuting moore's claims. to each their own, and to watch a movie with just the filmmaker's point of view deserves a counterpoint.

but you know where i stand.