Sicko thoughts

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After the W hotel chat I ran over to the Sicko premiere screening at the Academy and...man, am I lucky! I was born with tough Anglo-German genes and I hardly ever get sick. God help me if it were otherwise, and God help all of us if the U.S. health care system isn't radically overhauled some day soon, meaning that the corporate slimeballs and politicians who are profiting wildly off the misery of many need to be exposed and tarred and run out of town.

Michael Moore during last night's Sicko after-party -- Tuesday, 6.26.07, 10:25 pm

Harvey Weinstein, Phyllis David

Sicko for the second time is still funny and infuriating and a very full meal. There's no way you'll come out of it complaining that it didn't give you enough to think or get angry about. And it's still quite stirring -- it made me feel all mushy toward the end when I saw it in Cannes, and the same thing happened again last night. The crowd was applauding at this and that observation or quip, but the basic current in the room was one of simple, gentle compassion for people who need it...for people everywhere.

The prosecutorial thrust of Sicko is in the details about the general horridness of the U.S. heath care system. And god, what a sickening and inhumane thing that has been for too many people -- not the uninsured (which the film barely deals with) but middle-class, for-the-most-part-employed, tax-paying Regular Joes.

I also came out of last night's screening feeling all the more enraged at the naysayers and nitpickers who've been trashing Moore for boiling a very complex situation down to a few simplistic strokes. Moore has done that, yes, but documentarians have to find simple truths in the big tangle. And yes, the stories and situations he passes along in the film don't convey the entire story and are, of course, slanted. The U.S. health care system may not be quite as venal as portrayed, and the systems in Canada, England and France are, of course, problematic in this and that way.

But Sicko is flawless as a statement of caring -- help people who need help, show them some love and TLC, and damn to hell any privately managed health-care system that's even one half as heartless and abusive as ours, and double-damn those conservative pricks who've spent all kinds of energy trying to debate and ridicule what Moore is fundamentally saying here.

Getting sick in this country isn't a viable financial option if you aren't insured up the wazoo, and that's a contemptible state of affairs. Health care should be as free as the cops and the firemen and the libraries that every municipality pays for -- end of discussion.

Sicko makes you feel like a human being in the way that Michael Bay or Len Wiseman movies make you feel the other way. Again, Moore's comparisons between the U.S. system and those in Canada, England and France are incomplete, but watch this film and your heart will tell you that what Moore is saying is essentially true.

I don't believe that the people he speaks to in this film are lying or fabricating, and I don't believe they've been scripted. When a fire station captain in Havana, Cuba, tells a group of 9.11 workers that all firefighters from every town and country are family, that's not a lie. I'm basically saying that I believe what Sicko is basically telling me, and there's no way I'll listen to the bullshit from the various right-wing, corporate-funded spokespersons who are trying to trash it.

As Moore said during a Sicko press conference, "The French have the best health-care system in the world, and that's not my opinion. That's how the World Health Organization rates them. None of them is perfect, but it's not my role to make criticisms. It's my role as an American to say, why don't we take the best elements you're doing and blend them together, and call it the American system?"

No system is perfect, but Americans "have to take the profit motive out of health- care," as Moore has said time and again. "It's as simple as that." Are you hearing that, status-quo defenders? If there is a Debating God, your ass will soon be grass.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 27, 2007 at 12:00 PM

comment #1

Jeff says ...

I thought you hadn't seen Live Free or Die Hard yet, and already your talking smack about Len Wiseman.

Posted by Jeff at June 27, 2007 3:31 PM

comment #2

actionman says ...

putting Len Wiseman's name anywhere near Michael Bay's name is moronic. Bay is way more talented than Wiseman...Wiseman could only WISH that he had the action directing chops that Bay has. Wells--just look at the tv spots for Transformers and tell me that you aren't excited, at least on a primitive-male level, to see photo-real looking robots destroying each other in downtown Los Angeles. If you can't find any joy in that, then as a male, you need to check your pants to see if your balls have detached themselves from your body.

But back on topic...Sicko sounds great...I'll definitely be catching it.

Posted by actionman at June 27, 2007 3:32 PM

comment #3

Monument says ...

I must have no balls then, because every time I see that Transformers trailer, I find myself muttering "fuck off" and changing the channel. Michael Bay is the fast food of film. It looks good, tastes ok but you never really feel good about digesting it.

And on a professional level, I don't want to support a true asshole like Bay who treats people, and more specifically his crew, like shit. You haven't lived until you've heard Michael Bay screaming over a walkie talkie "GOD DAMMIT I'M MICHAEL BAY, THIS IS A MICHAEL BAY PICTURE...!!!" Total prick.

Posted by Monument at June 27, 2007 3:43 PM

comment #4

Monument says ...

But back on topic, I can't wait to see Sicko.

Posted by Monument at June 27, 2007 3:46 PM

comment #5

Edward says ...

I can't wait to see SICKO. On the other hand, I'm proud to be a male that could care less about seeing CGI robots trashing LA.

Posted by Edward at June 27, 2007 3:46 PM

comment #6

Craig Kennedy says ...

Couldn't give fuckall about Michael Bay or his toy robots. I do still have balls and I think it was right around the time they grew hair that I stopped being interested Hasbro ads.

The premiere can blow me. I'll be at The Landmark tonight.

Posted by Craig Kennedy at June 27, 2007 4:17 PM

comment #7

Edward says ...

iI it was Spielberg directing killer CGI robots I might be tempted.

Posted by Edward at June 27, 2007 4:18 PM

comment #8

actionman says ...

I guess after working for Bay for a year and never once having a problem with the guy I have a different opinoin. I also like to see big action films with flawless CGI so sue me. I'll see it 5 times for all of you guys!

Posted by actionman at June 27, 2007 4:21 PM

comment #9

Monument says ...

You must be in the .01% minority then, I've never heard anyone say anything good about him.

Posted by Monument at June 27, 2007 4:23 PM

comment #10

nola says ...

Not a fan of Michael Moore's (a friend of mine used to work for him) but I will support this movie. I pay for my own health insurance and the only one I could afford was the kind with the massive deductable.

If I need to go to any kind of checkup it's out of my own pocket. So I basically won't go to the doctor unless something is really wrong. When I worked for a big entertainment company in NYC I had full dental, etc. I miss it.

Preventative medicine is better for the national budget in the long run but not profitable enough for everyone else. Think about it, the fast food companies make a shit load of money. The more people eat unhealthy foods the better it is for them. The more people who get fat because of poor diet, the better it is for the multi-billion dollar diet industry. My family is French. I know the French system is not perfect. However, as a society what are we doing?

Posted by nola at June 27, 2007 4:29 PM

comment #11

cinefan says ...

Who cares how talented Wiseman is? He gets to wake up every morning next to Kate Beckinsale and deserves all men's respect and envy for that alone.

Posted by cinefan at June 27, 2007 4:37 PM

comment #12

actionman says ...

Monument--I saw Bay in action both on set (Bad Boys 2) and in his office and at Bruckheimer's office and the guy was a cool cat. Sure he's got an ego a mile wide, but if I were in his shoes, I'd probably be in love with myself too. Fucking playboy bunnies, driving Ferraris, and blowing shit up beautifully on film would jade anyone. I still remember him holding the door for me when I was carrying 2 cases of copy paper and being like...wow...shit...Michael Bay actually held the door open for me!

Cinefan--I agree with you on that...Wiseman does get to have morning sex with Beckinsale each and every day, and to that end, I give the guy some props.

But he's still a hack action director who will always be remembered (at least to me) for directing a pg-13 die hard movie.

Posted by actionman at June 27, 2007 4:46 PM

comment #13

bmcintire says ...

Not to defend Wiseman, but blame Fox for the PG-13. As the fourth installment in a barely resuscitatable series, they were all about minimizing their losses and maximizing their profits. You can guarantee it was an iron-clad contractual to deliver them a PG-13 cut.

Posted by bmcintire at June 27, 2007 4:54 PM

comment #14

MAGGA says ...

I too loved big action movies when my balls started growing hair, but got over it when I shaved them. Makes you think

Posted by MAGGA at June 27, 2007 5:03 PM

comment #15

actionman says ...

MAGGA---u shave your balls? ewwwwwwww

Posted by actionman at June 27, 2007 5:11 PM

comment #16

actionman says ...

and yes, bmcintire, I know it was a decision made by FOX that the movie had to be a pg-13, but I still hold Wiseman a little reponsible. I mean, can you imagine what Michael Bay's response to Fox would have been had they hired him and told him that the movie had to be a pg-13?! he'd have eaten all the execs for lunch. Sort of like when he and Bruck made Bad Boys 2 for $135 million with a hard-R rating after Sony tried getting them to do a tough pg-13. they told sony to blow them and stay out of their way. And because of that, we got an insanely awesome action flick as a result, quite possibly the LAST big-big-budget hard-R action film from an major studio. I can't think of one other big action film that is getting made along the lines of a Bad Boys 2. Here's hoping they finally shoot Bad Boys 3 and blow up half of the UK and France, as written in the last draft of the script that I read a while back.

Posted by actionman at June 27, 2007 5:16 PM

comment #17

MAGGA says ...

Used to, but ironically the cold in Scandinavia makes the absense of that protective layer a healt hazard and the infections have upped my interests in films about health care. Also, the presence of bodily hair makes me attractive mainly to women who are in to Tarkowsky and the like, which is just as well since my ex was planning to replace her salt-water implants with liquid explosives after the security measures taken as a cause of the attempted bombing of planes over the atlantic, which leads us full circle back to Michale Moores themes. Funny how that works

Posted by MAGGA at June 27, 2007 5:50 PM

comment #18

christian says ...

very nice sentiments jeff. i wish you applied them to tom sizemore.

Posted by christian at June 27, 2007 6:07 PM

comment #19

MPNeeb says ...

"Here's hoping they finally shoot Bad Boys 3 and blow up half of the UK and France, as written in the last draft of the script that I read a while back."

Didn't Team America already do that?

Posted by MPNeeb at June 28, 2007 12:27 AM

comment #20

moorish says ...

LFODH being PG-13 is a travesty. That said, Bad Boys 2 is a mess. Give me a decently written, well acted and suspenseful action flcik over a load of sturm und drang for the sake of it any day. Sadly, it doesn't appear that LFODH has any of those elements either!

Posted by moorish at June 28, 2007 2:02 AM

comment #21

moorish says ...

Posted by moorish at June 28, 2007 2:03 AM

comment #22

Josh Massey says ...

That's no moon...

Posted by Josh Massey at June 28, 2007 5:42 AM

comment #23

Dave Polands Gut says ...

Get sick in europe in these state run systems. You may get a doc appointment in 6 months. These people can barely run gov't which nothing happens and u want them in charge of health care too???

Posted by Dave Polands Gut at June 28, 2007 6:54 AM

comment #24

le corbeau says ...

DPG, don't even bother. When the Left is in the thrall of one of its no-dissent-allowed documentaries, there's no point trying to point out other facts. In six months it'll be full of holes, like An Inconveniently Exaggerated Half-Truth.

Posted by le corbeau at June 28, 2007 7:36 AM

comment #25

bostonlackey says ...

Just because the system is broken doesn't mean you abandon the system. And I don't think Moore is suggesting that but we need to stay as far away from socialized medicine as possible.

And Jeff, you can't take profit out of the scenario because profit and proceeds are what end up funding medical research. I can't say I'm surprised this fact keeps getting glossed over by so-called healthcare reformists. When was the last great medical breakthrough/drug to come out of Cuba or France or Canada? You're living in the country that develops the majority of the cutting-edge procedures, tools and drugs that the rest of the world uses. That R&D is funded by revenue - there's no way around it.

So taking this stance that "No one can convince me otherwise..." is just typical head-in-the-sand bullshit and represents the biggest problem in this country right now: politics.

I'll use small words so you understand, Jeff. Healthcare is not a political problem, it's an economic one and the very people you want to piss all over and "throw out" are the only ones who can solve it. Yes, I find it disgraceful that the wealthiest, most advanced country on earth has such poor healthcare. Yes, it needs to be fixed. But it's not going to be fixed by Hilary, Obama, Rudy or any other myopic, wannabe-hippie, kumbaya fantasy. It's going to be solved when dollars and cents meets solid public policy.

Are there profiteers out there? Yes, of course. Weed them out? Absolutely. But just as Enron doesn't represent the full breadth of corporate America - not even close - our failing healthcare system is the result of cartoonish, moustache-twirling "bad guys". Stop living in the movie world for a minute and wake the fuck up. In fact, listen to Moore's words: take the best of each and make it our system.

Amen. All other overtly politicized, reactionary bullshit is just part of the problem.

Posted by bostonlackey at June 28, 2007 8:35 AM

comment #26

bostonlackey says ...

Sorry, meant to say: "is NOT the result of cartoonish..."

Posted by bostonlackey at June 28, 2007 8:38 AM

comment #27

christian says ...

"But just as Enron doesn't represent the full breadth of corporate America - not even close - "

you know, i think it's an honest representation given the seemingly endless corporate scandals. i videotaped numerous business meetings at uc berkeley and i was always stunned by the economic amorality at work in the lectures and discussions. funny, those bidness folk are big fans of "the art of war"....

"other myopic, wannabe-hippie, kumbaya fantasy."

heavy. as deep as rush limbaugh's mouth.

Posted by christian at June 28, 2007 8:43 AM

comment #28

bostonlackey says ...

Oh, God, here we go. Seriously, Christian, you couldn't have more clearly illustrated my point. No matter what anybody says anymore, there is an immediate rush to begin the politic sniping. Oooh, I'm Rush Limbaugh. Wow, I'm hurt. Really. You went to UC Berkeley? Seriously? I never would have guessed. And what do you know about me? Just because I disagree with Jeff's take, I'm a rabid neo-

When are people going to wake up in this country and realize that the worst "industry" in this country isn't healthcare or investments or used cars but politics? We're bereft of true leaders who will just speak the plain truth.

No surprise you addressed any of my salient points but reduced the argument to one of name-calling. Brilliant. How about getting to the meat of the argument, which is that much of what is actually good about our system is funded by dollars and where will those dollars come from in this fantasyland of "free" healthcare? I believe it will result from a balance of responsible capitalism (gasp!) and social awareness. Lots of products and services that are also very beneficial to general humankind can also be profitable. I know it must be hard to imagine such a scenario in the Joan Baez world, but it's true.

And I'm sorry your classroom experience was so horrid. I went to Babson in Wellesley, MA in the years after Enron and the focus was overwhelming on ethical behavior and corporate compliance.

And in regards to corporate America, what about the billions of dollars given to charities and research and scholarships by corporations? No one ever wants to talk about that. No one ever wants to look at how to adjust or tweak the system to make it better for everyone, they just want to piss and moan and tear it all down.

Lastly, think about Enron for a second. Greedy bastards? You bet. Should be flayed alive. But let's look deeper at the reason why they were able to get away with it. Politics. Yep. Where was the SEC? The IRS? In other words, where were the people whose job it is to stop this shit from happening? Asleep at the wheel.

Which is why I'm never in favor of increasing governmental oversight or control (as would be the case in socialized healthcare). Forget the need for revenue entirely. You think the healthcare system is bad now. Just wait until it falls further under the purview of government, the same group of nitwits and morons who couldn't stop Enron and who couldn't save the people of New Orleans from a storm every meteorologist in the world knew was coming.

No thanks.

Posted by bostonlackey at June 28, 2007 9:09 AM

comment #29

bostonlackey says ...

And I'm sorry your classroom experience was so horrid. I went to Babson in Wellesley, MA in the years after Enron and the focus was overwhelming on ethical behavior and corporate compliance.

No thanks.

Posted by bostonlackey at June 28, 2007 9:10 AM

comment #30

bostonlackey says ...

Eesh, sorry for the double post.

Posted by bostonlackey at June 28, 2007 9:11 AM

comment #31

christian says ...

yeah, uc berkeley that hotbed of liberalism where they develop much of america's weapons technology and where bush's torture czar john woo teaches those hippies that the president can do what the hell he wants when he wants.

i get your points bostonlackey but you're the one who resorts to simplistic arguments with your worn right wing chestnut of "hippes singing kumbaya" -- gosh, never heard that one before! is that the insight you think you're bringing to to the table?

"Where was the SEC?"

in bed with these companies as is their wont. and run by those who think regulation is a free-market stifler. no wonder.

i don't mind people making profit off their hard work and innovations, but our health care system is a travesty. big pharma and others have the real lobbying power -- more than you or i.

Posted by christian at June 28, 2007 10:13 AM

comment #32

bostonlackey says ...

Amazing how blind people become by politics. I'm suggesting we take politics out of the argument. They are part of the problem, not the solution. But you, like most people, are simply unable to do that and resort to the same old crap: you don't agree with me so you're {fill in political tag here}.

Weapons technology? George W. Bush? Torture czar? Sorry, but...what the hell are you talking about? See what I mean? You just assume I'm right wing because I don't agree with you. I think you would be downright shocked by my political beliefs but my contention here is that putting this issue in the political arena is an invitation to disaster. Moore has made the point and I agree with him - study other systems, see what they're doing right and incorporate (uh, oh, that word has corporate in it...shout I take it out? Are the PC police about the knock on my door?) best practices into ours. That right there is the solution and it's not a political one, it's a strategic one.

The SEC in bed with this companies...Sounds scary. Sounds positively TV movie of the week. But let's get back to reality. The SEC is not in bed with anybody. The SEC, like most government bodies, is a gigantic behemoth of red-tape and ineffectual bureaucracy. They're not in bed with anybody because, frankly, frauds like the assholes at the top of Enron DON'T NEED THEM. The only thing cretins like Lay need is for the government to continue to be as inept as they've been for the last 30 years or so.

Come on, are we really going to reduce this to conspiracy theories? This commentary has been seriously side-tracked - like most politicized discussions, which is why my main point all along. The solution rests within the industry, not on governmental interference. More healthcare means more covered individual which means higher utilizaton. Higher utilization means more dollars for the providers. It's a simple equation that needs work, yes, but it's an equation that works and it shouldn't be abandoned as Jeff implied.

Posted by bostonlackey at June 28, 2007 10:33 AM

comment #33

christian says ...

"Come on, are we really going to reduce this to conspiracy theories?"

you tried to insinuate something obvious by mentioning my berkeley past, i brought up the fact that it's not a liberal bastion.

why don't you go take a glance at those declassified cia files?
political assasinations; illegal surveillance; etc. all the things we've been told are "conspiracy theories" to shut people up.

no more.

Posted by christian at June 28, 2007 3:34 PM

comment #34