Michael Moore; Sicko

Thanks David Silva for the photos
Michael Moore was in Sacramento yesterday with his new films Sicko, hosted by California's Registered Nurses. I was lucky enough to attend the film screening and I'm happy to report;Michael Moore hits another one out of the park.

I went into Sicko with high expectations, not only because even conservative outfits like Fox News were giving it the thumbs up, but also because I am a big fan of Moore and as I am a person with a chronic illness the subject matter of Sicko is near and dear to my heart, (or to my colon rather.)

In Sicko Moore traces America's health care problems from the Nixon administration, including audio from "The Tapes" though Hillary's attempt at universal health care (including her eventual sell out) to our present mess.

Sicko contrasts this situation with the health care systems in Canada, England, France and even Cuba. My only complaint with this film is that we don't visit the Muslim slums of France, or the poorer areas of England, though and Englishman who watched the film with me insists that had he visited these place it would've strengthened his argument.

We do of course witness plenty of personal horror stories from both patients (or would be patients) and medical providers on our side of the pond. These stories focus not only on the difficulty of getting treated, even for the insured, but also on the poor quality of treatment we often receive. I had tears in my eyes through much of this and was actually worried I might let out a sob at points. There's no fear of propaganda exaggeration in these scenes as we've all seen enough of this kind of mistreatment in our own communities to know that it's real.

But it isn't all weeping and getting pissed, there are plenty of laugh out loud moments. Moore's montage of Hillary as the savior of the people is a crack up even as it leads to her sell out which was somewhat less amusing. When Moore hears that the webmaster behind www.MooreWatch.com which he calls "the biggest Anti-Michael Moore site out there" is having financial problems due to medical bills he sends him a hardy check, and it's hilarious.

In Sicko there are also many stand up and cheer scenes, scenes where normal folks fight back and win, scenes where you see lives get saved, and scenes where you start to think maybe we really can shut down this F'd up system in this country and start taking better care of our selves and each other.