Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6275 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-01-07
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 118 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Michael Moore’s latest documentary may see him moving his sights away from the purely political arena, yet he loses none of his bite in the process. And with Sicko, a slanted, at-times devastating attack on the American health care system, he’s made one of his best films.

The problem, of course, for a UK audience is that it’s a very American system that Moore is attacking in Sicko. He’s out to highlight the number of people with health insurance who are getting perfectly legitimate claims turned away, as the companies concerned get fat off the profits. But there is a British angle, as Moore presents a surprisingly idyllic take on Britain’s own health service, that does sit in the midst of the film’s flabby middle section.

Yet when Moore points Sicko at the very people the system is letting down, his skills very much come to the fore. He puts forward passionate, partisan arguments with an incendiary style that few working American documentary makes can come close to matching, and it makes Sicko compulsive viewing. Whether you agree with the man’s politics or not, his films are provocative, very well made and hard not to admire. Sicko is no exception. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
America's most incendiary filmmaker, Michael Moore, returned in 2007 with this health-care-industry expose. SICKO tackles material as controversial as the topics explored in Moore's other films, yet does so in a way that places the focus on ordinary Americans affected by the nation's health-care crisis. After providing some historical background on how our nation's medical care system became so ravaged and unfair, Moore interviews a series of individuals and families who have had their lives all but destroyed by the denial of care in the service of profit. While there are two sides to the gun-control debate and even a legitimate discourse for how to best wage the war on terror, it's simply impossible to justify how a baby girl can wind up dead because her mother's health insurance wasn't accepted at a nearby hospital. Moore smartly allows this and other stories to be told with little or no interference, conjuring strong feelings of empathy, rage, and deep sadness.


Of course, SICKO isn't a PBS documentary, it's a Michael Moore movie, and his fingerprints are all over it. Moore visits countries that have universal health care--spectacularly so when he takes several World Trade Centre workers to Guantanamo Bay (and then to Cuba) to receive health care that they were denied in the United States--and presents a compelling argument for adopting a similar system in the States. Moore's ultimate purpose here is to compel Americans to care for one another, and it's a simple request that shockingly must be made via a major motion picture, making SICKO essential viewing.

Customer Reviews

Interesting Doc
Well, you certainly learn new things in this documentary about the state of American Health Care. I had a vague notion that they paid for their treatments, but I had no idea it was so mercenary. And at times, utterly merciless.

Of course the facts do get kinda paraded before us with the usual Michael Moore selective-in-yer-face spin. The stunt with the 9/11 rescue workers smacked of blatant sensationalism, but I am glad they at least got treatment for their efforts. Michael's portrayal of a wonderful free NHS doling out money for travel expenses made me giggle. Yes, we have a good health care system but the way Moore was banging on about it, you'd think the bed pans were plated with gold. I would have preferred a more balanced view. Instead of Doctor I-Have-An-Audi, he should have talked to a nurse and anyone on the waiting list for an operation. The same goes for his portrayal of the French system. All pros and no cons. Oh, and a governmental laundry service too! Wheee!

Still, majorly biased viewpoints aside, this is quite an eye opening documentary featuring the plight of US citizens at the mercy of powerful Health Insurance companies and corrupt politicians. It is truly deeply shocking how these people can so easily weigh the cost of a human life against a loss of some profit.

One to watch and wonder about long after it's finished.

The best advert the NHS has ever had!!
Having been a fan of Moore for many years I approached this with a little caution.Mainly because it has been proved that like all filmakers Moore won't allow the truth to get in the way of a good story especially with very clever editing and changing timeframes within a story.
In all honesty this film is really aimed more at his fellow Americans than his other films have been.Here he exposes the "truth" behind Health Care Insurance.He does it with the usual clever use of archive Public Information Films and adverts and interviews with industry employees and "victims" of the Health Care Companies.
Where the film falls down is in the 2nd half where we are treated to a fairly skewed vision of our own much maligned NHS.Don't get me wriong I would much rather have the NHS rather than the nightmare of the US but we all know about bed shortages,waiting lists,some vital drugs not being made available to those in real need etc.Also the doctor that is featured clearly works in a Hospital where there is no shortage of nurses or equipment.Even if he is on £85k a year I am not so sure I would like the mortgage he would have on his £500k house!!The point that Moore seems to make here is that the house is worth one million dollars,clearly an attempt to get that materialistic American audience of his hot under the collar.As for the French section that really appears to be all a bit too good to be true.Interestingly he gets Americans living in Paris to comment on what they experience with Health Care rather than Parisians.We get one French family who appear pretty healthy anyway!Again clever film making especially when you consider that the French pay much higher taxes than we do,something that Moore ignores in the search for the story.
The 9/11 rescue workers exercise using Cuba to make a point also felt a little incongruous and left me feeling cold and I felt that he has already beaten that drum elsewhere to better effect.Also I felt that he makes the point at Cuba's expense.A sort of "no matter how bad they might be those Cubans sure know how to look after their own".Unlike the US.
Possibly the most chilling part of the film is at the beginning when he shows people who don't have medical insurance which makes a better case for an NHS model than anything else.Perhaps that's the direction in which he should have taken the film?

Because he has to be...
In the reviews here, MM gets criticism for being one sided. This is a tactic that he has to employ. If he didn't, the subject matters wouldn't get the publicity, and the audiences wouldn't be motivated to ask the questions. In this field of film making, you have to be polemic, otherwise you produce yet another program for TV that will only enjoy a small audience.
And yes, in Britain, we might grumble, but never, oh never, give up the NHS and the BBC. For when people who are dictated by profit control your health and information, you are in a very, very sorry state. Or the U.S.